Boater 101 on the Lower Clack, Part 1 

Submitted by Jared Linkhart

In years past, the OWA has had a very fun camping weekend on the North Santiam River known as boating 101. It is a great mix of experienced boaters and new members/ boaters floating the river, followed by fellowship back at camp.  

As we adapt to the world around us, boating 101 has morphed into two separate day trips with the same great mix of people. Today was our first trip, and the weather couldn’t have been better. We met at the upper ramp of Milo McIver state park on the beautiful Clackamas river to learn, and have fun.  

Matt Saucy, Scott Harvey, and Troy Norman all contributed to our skill building sessions of safety talks, knot tying, and mechanical advantage systems, also know as Z-drags. We launched soon after, and headed for our first stop at the rapid just leaving the park. This spot was a great place to have some work on their throw bagging to live swimmers in fast moving current, and some of us to practice our swimming in rapids.  

Photos: Jared's son Jacob on the oars, stop for some safety training.  

We then moved down to a great place to practice flipping our different crafts. We flipped some rafts, cataracts, and even a dory! That was a first for me, and I didn’t think it would happen on the Clackamas. Thank your letting us practice on your boat, Brian!  

Troy and Matt got another mechanical advantage scene going, so the group could observe how it all worked, and we discussed different ideas and techniques. We also used this as our lunch spot, and it was just a beautiful , sunny experience.  

After we completed our goals, we finished up our trip at Barton park. The group was friendly and efficient, and we all seemed to be in our comfort levels of distancing and precautions. Thank you Scott and Matt for setting this up, and thank you to all who participated. Jacob and I had a great day on the water, and you are all a part of it!  

All photos by Jared Linkhart.