Going to climb Mt Hood and Shasta next year, a bunch of us are considering doing some paddling next year. Mostly touring, like saltwater, looking for suggestions and perhaps outfitters where we would be able to rent boats, gear, and transportation.
Any good ideas, like the sea, but also don't mind large lakes, anything that is scenic, somewhat peaceful, perhaps off the beaten path. We're also considering doing a multiday trip so touring options would be nice too.
Started to look at Crater Lake but then realized it's offlimits to boaters.
Oh, we're all generally more flatwater sea kayakers, not looking at whitewater..
Columbia I would recommend the lower Columbia from Hood River to the Ocean. Its awesome. I paddled the lewis and clark trail from st. louis to the pacific last year and enjoyed the last week on the lower columbia. Lots of bird life, scenary and history too. A great time!
Thanks, more info… Sounds interesting, I assume since the Columbia empties into the ocean that it is tidal. Is there good camping on the route and do you know of any outfitters that will pick us up, drop us off, etc. etc.? I’m not really interested in a guide, but we would obviously need to rent yaks and paddles at the least.
Lake Shasta Looks they require registration and also allow PWC, motors, water skiers… I’m looking for something more backcountry and quiet. But I’ll keep that in mind, looks like a pretty large lake with lots of various docking places…
sauvie’s island nice to see some people around portland in here ! the paddle around the mouth of the columbia and the willamette through the multnohma chanlle around sauvies island is a great 2 day trip 10 miles from downtown portland .was there last week did a small part of it in one day …
Portland Thanks for the trip. I don’t know how many days we’ll have, the schedule right now is to fly into Portland and then go drive and climb to Mt Shasta and then go do Hood. Perferrably, I’d like to do the climbs first and then relax on a paddle but scheduling might put the paddling first or so, since Shasta is an open hike, whereas Hood is a self-permit system and we’re limited to 12 climbers.
I’m not from Portland, OR, just in case you are mistaken but I’m from NJ, however, next year’s climbing trip is to Hood/Shasta. This year’s climbing trip was doing Rainier via the standard DC route. Some friends are trying to go do Whitney via the Mountaineer’s route but that is a helluva drive from Portland, OR.!
oregon how far off the beaten path? are you planning to camp and paddle? there’s an outfitter in s.oregon coast at bandon but it is touristy. i would suggest bays and rivers such as the umpqua, siltcoos, etc. or the number of coastal lakes such as tahkenitch lake. or mt lakes such as waldo lake, summit lake east of eugene [not the one by portland/salem]…beautiful and not overly used. the south coast bays and rivers are pretty much vacant when it comes to canoers/kayakers. remember wind is challanging especially in summer afternoons out here.
Yes-heres some rental and info The Skamockawa Paddling Center rents kayaks and Im sure does shuttles but you could easily paddle a week or more without needing a shuttle by taking advantage of the tide currents etc. As long as you not in the main channel you can easily travel against the current. Last year-the last day of my big trip I had to paddle upstream against a big tide and managed to do just fine and I was in the main channel getting around some islands. There is pleanty of sandbars and islands to camp secluded on. I would head towards St. Helens Washington and then back down the opposite side, it would be totally different too. It would take a month or two of paddling the area before the newness wore off.
Heres there web site contact them for more detail.