Althea’s Kayaking Blog

So over that last few months i have not gotten out as much as i would have liked due to logistical problems and people who seem to always have a large amount of homework. I am interested in paddling with anyone in the eugene area. If you would like to paddle or know someone who would be interested in paddling with me please send me an email at  altheasull at hotmail.com. Thank you and i hope to see some new faces on the river.

Recently it has been raining in the eugene area, thank the river gods, since for a while i was winter and rivers were still at summer flows which led to a lack of good boating. But the other day i went and ran lake creek at high water it was over 18ft and it was a very quick run. For anyone who knows lake creek the ledges had turned into a few big holes but mosly fun waves and ones below i caught the eddy above the horn but from the horn to below bus stop there where no other eddys just one fast roller coaster ride. Where grassy usually is there where a few large catch on the fly waves but nothin with eddy service. Mill wave contrary to popular belief was quite good at this level with only one problem, no eddy serive and no real way to walk back up. Red hill was just a rather nasty hole with a surfable shoulder and from there to the take out there were a few more waves to surf but nothing with eddy serivice. 

Overall it was a great day on the water and i ran the section 3 times. The one downside was all of the wood in the river, it was not log jams but rather trees that would chase u downriver making surfing a little nerve racking but still very fun! I hope to post a video from this soon but until then this is what i have.

Today was the first south eugene whitewater club trip of the year. We had a very experienced group, and sadly no new members but on the bright side it meant that we could run a more challenging section of river. Due to the low flows we opted to run the damn released N Santiam. The section has a nice big water feel to it and is well worth running. The two main rapids, The Narrows and Niagara, were not as big as i had anticipated. According to Soggy Sneakers  ” experts advise portaging this rapid” referring to The Narrows, the rapid is not that bad at all, it is about class 4 and i had no difficulties with it. Niagara is also said to be much more intense when in reality if you are comfortable with swirly water it is quite easy. The run has numerous other rapids that are fun and vary in difficulty from class 2-3. All in all it was another great day on the river. Picture is of all our boats on one car, we were being environmentally friendly even if it meant sacrificing some leg room.

In my time waiting for the water levels to rise i found some old footage and put it into a short video. Its not the best footage or the most interesting so i am hoping to get some new footage into a film but this is it for now. Enjoy!! click on the link to view > kayaking

This is my first post in a while, i have not been paddling that much lately due to the low water levels. It has not started raining here yet which means that nothing except some of the summer runs are in. I am waiting for it to rain and as soon as it does i will get out and paddle some stuff worth writing about.

During this wait for rain i have been volunteering at a city program that offers kayaking classes to people of all ages and skill levels. These past few weeks we have been teaching inside at a pool, we have been teaching people to roll. It is a great feeling to watch someone go from learning to wet exit to T rescues and to the roll.

This last weekend me and two of my kayaking buddies went to look at a creek that we believe has never been run before. The creek seems like it will be a good run and when the water level rises we plan to run it, stay posted for more info on it i will reveal the name and location after we have run it. Today i went to a playspot on the mckenzie river called redsides it was at a fantastic level and i had a great deal of fun there. I was very close to sticking some loops…but sadly they ended up not coming through.

Yesterday i went to the N Santiam, it was around 3000 cfs. The run itself was not that interesting but there was a decent wave where spencers hole usually is, i got one good surf on it but did not walk back up for more because it was getting late. The run was nice but the whitewater was not all that exciting. Today i went to the coast in search of some good playboating, sadly the waves were not very big, despite that i surfed there for a couple hours. I was happy with it thought because i managed to get some blunts, blunting is something that has eluded me for some time now so i was supper happy that i was able to throw them. Picture is from below mill city falls.

Today i went to a small playspot called 24/7 it is just a small pore over hole that is great for throwing some ends and trying to loop. i was close to looping a few times but had more success with cartwheeling and then throwing some old school pirouettes.

This sunday i went to a small playspot in the Willamette river in eugene called cotton candy. It was at a decent level and i was able to get some spins and maybe a roundhouse or two. Last week i spent time volunteering for the riverhouse for its kayak program. We took the kids down the upper Mckenzie, the N Santiam and the Deschutes. It was enjoyable to help the kids improve their paddling abilities and to help them experience some of the great whitewater in Oregon.

Today i went up to the middle santiam to run the class 4 section…thats only 2 miles long, but well worth being paddled. The one down side with this section is the put-in which is a long walk down a road and then through some blackberries that are rather vicious. The rapids are very fun though and the best is the last which is called concussion. The rapid starts out with some hole dodging and ends in a chaotic array of holes and waves. Overall it was a very fun day, and when i returned to eugene i went to a play spot called cotton candy and had some more fun!