Re: [Paddlewise] Paddle Oregon

From: Dave Kruger <dkruger_at_pacifier.com>
Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 09:54:49 -0700
Mary Z" <mzuschlag_at_attbi.com> wrote:

> For those of you in the Northwest this is a fun event.  It would be fun to
> meet some P'wise folks.   http://www.paddleoregon.org/

This event is a benefit for a very worthwhile cause, one I support.  I copied
some text off that site:

> "I was struck by the feeling of remoteness…a very rare and relished sensation," remarked Harold Hutchinson, another 2001 participant.
> 
> All you need is your canoe or sea kayak, and a thirst for fun and adventure. Space is limited to the first 135 people, so contact us for a registration packet today. Willamette Riverkeeper 503-223-6418.

Seems like quite a crowd for the Willamette.  Not my thing, but the Willamette
is quite beautiful, and a lovely place for a serene paddle.  I know I'm an old
curmudgeon, but I'm wondering how one has a "... feeling of remoteness ..."
while in the company of a passel of folks not to exceed 135 paddlers ... 

A little context for my curmudgeonly attitude:  many years ago, the city
fathers in Yakima, WA had an annual 4th of July weekend mass climb of Mt.
Adams, a 12,000 ft plus glaciated volcano about 100 miles NE of Portland, OR. 
Unfortunately, Mt. Adams was in a Wilderness Area, and the mass climb (5000
people one year, requiring: portapotties, shepherds to keep the hordes on
track, helos to ferry out the sick or exhausted, etc.) was deemed a destroyer
of the wilderness experience for non-mass-climbers.  The USFS banned the effort
somewhere back in the early '70's.

Paddle Oregon will not be an event on that scale, and the Willamette is
certainly not a wilderness area, though casual paddlers looking for solitude
will be well-advised to avoid the Willamette the days of the event.  I hope the
event is a success, because I support the cause it benefits.  I only wonder at
its appropriateness for a "save the river" organization.  If Paddle Oregon
comes to my neck of the woods en masse, that will be a day I will be certain to
be somewhere else.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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Received on Mon May 13 2002 - 09:55:09 PDT

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