Presidents Corner
March 2024 Presidents Corner
By Scott Harvey
Greetings fellow club members,
The seasonal transition of Winter to Spring is probably without a doubt, everyone’s favorite seasonal change of the year. Saying good riddance to the icy, cold, dark and gloomy winter conditions of the past several months to the vibrant rebirth of spring. As our long time club member Kevin Buck would put it, we’ve stepped out of the four months of dark and now entering into the eight months of light!!
Busy spring season of club events is coming our way in the next four months. We have the Safety Pool Session coming up on Wednesday, March 20th 2024 this year at the North Clackamas Aquatic Park and their address is 7300 SE Harmony Rd, Milwaukie, OR 97222. Approximately ¾ to 1 mile west of Clackamas Town Center. Unfortunately the 2nd Wednesday in March was already reserved by another group, so we had to go with the 3rd Wednesday this year! Attention all newer club members and beginner to immediate skilled boaters, this training session is a key aspect in learning and practicing self-rescue and rescuing other boaters. Skills learned are getting back on a flipped boat and re-flipping techniques, throw rope tossing, and critical rope knot tying all in the comfort of a heated pool environment. Also our River Safety Training (RST) class will be taking place on April 13th and 14th at Dodge Park along the Sandy River. This is our gold standard of river safety training and is now live for signups on the OWA webpage under the Upcoming OWA Events Calendar.
River Trips coming in the spring of 2024, include the River Rat Sunday on the Upper Clackamas River lead by Jared Linkhart on March 17th. The overnight, Deschutes River spring-break trip that is being lead by Scott Ogren on March 23rd through the 25th. Grande Ronde overnight wilderness river trip that is lead by Eric Ball on May 3rd thru 5th. The McKenzie River half-week at Horse Creek Group Camp is being lead by Brenda Bunce on May 8th thru the 12th. The Rogue River Lodge trip that is Already Filled Up on May 18th thru the 20th and lead by Van McKay. Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival at Carter Bridge will be kicking off on May 18th and 19th this year. The North Umpqua River trip co-lead by Brenda Bunce (OWA) and Walt Bammann (NWRA) will be taking place on May 30th thru June 2nd. Please check the OWA webpage’s club events calendar for additional details and other last minute trips being added to the river trip schedule.
Snow Pack Information: Snow pack levels across the Western States are extremely varied as of early March 2024. Most of Washington State, Northern Idaho and Montana are reporting below average snow-pack levels for this time of year. Each river drainage is different, but most of the snow pack levels for these Northern States are reporting anywhere between 60% to 85% snow pack percentage from a 20 year average. The Good news is, most of the state of Oregon (West and Eastern sides) are reporting substantial amount of snow accumulation. With roughly 100% to 110% along the Cascades, with the Owyhee River drainage reporting in with a whopping 158% of average snow pack. Other states doing well include Northern California and Sierras, Southern Idaho, Utah and Colorado.
Note: We are always in need for newsletter material, such as river trip write-up’s, river and camping gear reviews, safety topics, recipe of the month and river photos to be included in our monthly Newsletter. Photos submitted can comprise of a mixture of river trips, whitewater action shots, river scenery shots, river history and wildlife alongside the rivers or even goofy campsite photos of club members. Please send write-up’s for the newsletter to Vice President Newsletter, Jason Davis at .
Remember: All published material will automatically be entered into the end of the year drawing, during our annual Christmas party in December. Prizes include $75 gift cards for newsletter write-ups and $25 gift cards for photo’s submitted and published in the newsletter.
Cheers and Safe Boating,
Scott Harvey, OWA President
Cheers,
Scott Harvey