Presidents Corner
Club River Trips and Safety Training for 2023
By Scott Harvey
Greetings fellow club members,
The OWA club has several club events that includes river trips and training sessions already in the works for 2023. Matt Saucy will be leading a President’s weekend trip down the Rogue River for 3 days launching Saturday, Feb 18th and taking out on Monday, Feb 20th. When I last checked there were still a couple spots open for the interested individuals.
The BoatSmith Whitewater Festival will also be happening during the same weekend. This is not an OWA sponsored or supported river trip, but merely a boating community whitewater event where numerous whitewater enthusiasts from Southern Oregon and Northern California gather for a long weekend of boating and socializing on the Smith River. The location is at Patrick Creek Campground near Gasquet, California.
The annual OWA pool session at the North Clackamas Aquatic Center in Milwaukie will be the clubs March meeting location for Wednesday, March 8th, from 7pm to 9pm. This is a great opportunity to bring the family on down for everyone to practice their water safety skill proficiency, such as boat flipping, safety throw rope tossing and rope safety knot tying. This is a great winter location for practicing water safety and the pool is heated as well.
Scott Ogren will be leading the spring break Lower Deschutes River trip from Buck Hollow to Heritage Landing for 3 days launching on Saturday morning, March 25th and taking out on Monday, March 27th. This is a great trip for families and older kids to be introduced off-season boating and camping.
River Safety Training will be back this year at Dodge Park along the Sandy River. This safety training is tentatively scheduled for the weekend for April, 15th and 16th. Further details and signup will become available once details are finalized.
Matt Saucy and Will Brezinski are tentatively planning for a boating 101 club trip along the North Santiam River on the weekend of May 6th and 7th. This is a great opportunity for those club members with developing boating skills to practice on a class 2 to 3 river. Further trip details will become available once details are finalized.
The Grande Ronde Spring River Trip is on again this year launching Friday, May 12th and taking out Sunday, May 14th. Eric Ball will once again lead this great, 90 mile, early season float from Minam Bar to Heller Bar on the Snake River. This trip will be capped at roughly 6 boats. High flows make it possible to cover on average 30 miles per day on the river.
Efforts are being made to bring back the popular Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival this year for the weekend of May 20th and 21st. Stay tuned for further details and volunteer efforts in place to make this happen.
The OWA and NWRA co-led North Umpqua River Trip and Dutch Oven Cook-off is on this year from Thursday, June 1st to Sunday, June 4th. Camping location is at Horseshoe Bend Campground in the Deer Creek Group site. This is a great opportunity to boat some class 3 and 4 rapids with fellow club members and enjoy some great Dutch Oven cooking from other club members. Brenda Bunce along with Walt Bammann will be leading this trip.
Other river trips and training sessions already planned or in the early planning stages are the Klickitat River for early June, The McKenzie River week long trip in August at Horse Creek Campground from August 13th thru the 20th. Down the River Clean Up on the Lower Clackamas River in mid September. Wilderness First Aid Training during later September and the North Santiam River Fall Colors float on Saturday, October 7th.
You can keep tabs on all the river trips, club meetings and training sessions by visiting the Club Calendar on the OWA website at: www.oregonwhitewater.org
Be safe and enjoy the winter boating season!
Cheers,
Scott Harvey