President's Corner

April Snow Showers Brings May Boating

By Scott Harvey

Scott Harvey.jpg

Greetings fellow club members,

The American Whitewater calendar on my wall say’s it’s April, but you could fool me! For when I step outside it feels more like mid February with our relatively long wet, gloomy and below normal temperatures we’ve been experiencing. Normally by now, we’ve had a couple of sunny and pleasant 70 plus degree days. This is also the longest I’ve gone without firing up my lawnmower! The upside to all this late winter-like conditions is the snow pack is superb for much of the Western States for a change. Water tables will be re-filling, the wildfire season will be drastically reduced, and our spring runoff in our local rivers and throughout the West will be over the top!  

Not sure if most of you are aware of the Western States SNOTEL current snow, water equivalent website that is presented and updated daily by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service - National Water and Climate Center. It’s an excellent tool for planning your upcoming river trips that you are planning for day boating or extended overnight trips. The SNOTEL is broken down into major river basins. The snow water equivalent percent of normal represents the current snow water equivalent found at selected SNOTEL sites in or near the basin compared to the average value for those sites on the day. Also, the data is based on the first reading of the day.  

Here is one of the website links: www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/wcc/home/  

This year’s safety auction was a success. We reached and slightly exceeded our goal for this year. I’d like to thank those individuals who purchased items in this year’s auction and a big thanks to those vendors who donated towards our safety auction. Please keep those vendors who supported our club’s safety auction in consideration when it comes to hiring a shuttle company for your next overnight river trip or purchasing items and/or service for your next outing. Also, tell them thank you for supporting OWA!  

These are the following vendors who helped support our club’s safety auction: 

River Shuttle Vendors: Hells Canyon Shuttles, All Rivers Shuttles, Blackadar Middle Fork Shuttles, Central Idaho River Shuttles, Henry’s Deschutes River Shuttles and Linda’s Deschutes River Shuttles.  

General Vendors: Andy and Bax, Northwest Rafting Company, RECRETEC Manufacturing, Sawyer Oars, Sotar Inflatable Boats, Goodwater Boat Works, Clackamas River Outfitters, eNRG Kayaking, Cascade River Gear, All Inflatable Repair and AAA of Oregon.   

The OWA has an extensive Wilderness First Aid Kit and an AED that goes on all club trips and is available for club members to take on private trips as well. I encourage you all to take both with you on your next overnight private trip. You can check them out by sending an email to firstaid(at)oregonwhitewater.org.  

Enjoy the this year’s spring boating season and be safe out there! 

 

Cheers and Safe Boating,

Scott Harvey