11 September 2006- Monday
Having previously surveyed many boaters along the waves, not many have cruised above the falls. Somehow people are intimidated by locks. I do have lock experience from cruising with Pat on her Danish sailboat, Skua II. We cruised across Florida using the lock system around Lake Okeechobee and I have been through the Ballard Locks in Seattle to get into Lake Union, so I do feel confident about this adventure. I did find one large cruiser who had made the upper Willamette River cruise the year before and had taken notes from his story. These are the oldest working locks in the USA and can be a little leaky, I’m told. We have to go through 4 locks to gain the 50 feet in river height. I also have preprinted locking instructions from the internet. Care and I review them and have our strategy coordinated.
We arrive at the locks at 0845 and I am unable to raise the lockmaster on my VHF, but get him on my cell phone. We wait a while and listen to the bag pipes playing to honor the 5th anniversary of 911 on the overhead bridge going into Oregon City. Finally he opens the gates and flashes th
e green light for us to enter the lock. The locks are situated between a paper producing company on the port side and the mainland. The locks are carved out of solid granite walls with ancient timber sidings. The lock master throws down 2 lines and in this case, you do not tie them to your boat. Someone on the bow holds a line and someone on the stern takes the stern line. Care is the bow person with a boat hook and I remain in the cockpit with the stern line and a boat hook. As the locks fill, water is swirling everywhere and it is a bit tricky to keep the boat off the walls and keep the excess line from swirling in the water catching on a prop. The locking takes about 45 minutes. I look up to see a low lying road in front of me as I am about to exit the last lock. I yell to Care to put the VHF antenna down thinking we have to travel under this road. Then it is pulled back from the paper factory to the mainland so that we can exit. My heart beat slows knowing we have made it through the locks and the sun is shining on our faces. A pay close attention as we leave noticing markers, what the entryway looks like so when we return in a few days I can find the entry to the locks and not head over the falls.
Just above the locks we notice a lovely State park with a dock named Bernert Landing
And I tell Care this would be a great place to overnight on the way down river so we could be in the locks
at morning time. We agree that we will stay here. The Upper Willamette River is a combination of rural areas with rocky outcroppings and islands and there are lots of very expensive homes. The docks have huge pilings on them which indicates that this river can reach enormous heights during their rainy and runoff seasons. It reminded me of the Sacramento River docks. We arrive at another state park and dock at 1140.It is named Hebb State Park. We tie up and fix lunch and w
alk around afterwards. We give way to a cable ferry along the way. At 1330 we arrive at Boone Ferry Marina and meet BJ who owns the store. We take on ice, there is a pump out and enjoy an ice cream cone. We watch all the trout feeding on fish food BJ throws in. It looks like paranas in the amazon river. Just about every boat in the marina is a wake boarder, which means during the summer this would be one crazy place. Glad we are here after Labor Day. They do have gas here but no diesel. Up river we see gravel barges being filled. At 1500 we dock Shatoosh at Champoeg State Park. It is just downriver from Newburgh, Oregon.
Days run 19.4 nm
Total run47.2 nm
Having previously surveyed many boaters along the waves, not many have cruised above the falls. Somehow people are intimidated by locks. I do have lock experience from cruising with Pat on her Danish sailboat, Skua II. We cruised across Florida using the lock system around Lake Okeechobee and I have been through the Ballard Locks in Seattle to get into Lake Union, so I do feel confident about this adventure. I did find one large cruiser who had made the upper Willamette River cruise the year before and had taken notes from his story. These are the oldest working locks in the USA and can be a little leaky, I’m told. We have to go through 4 locks to gain the 50 feet in river height. I also have preprinted locking instructions from the internet. Care and I review them and have our strategy coordinated.
We arrive at the locks at 0845 and I am unable to raise the lockmaster on my VHF, but get him on my cell phone. We wait a while and listen to the bag pipes playing to honor the 5th anniversary of 911 on the overhead bridge going into Oregon City. Finally he opens the gates and flashes th
e green light for us to enter the lock. The locks are situated between a paper producing company on the port side and the mainland. The locks are carved out of solid granite walls with ancient timber sidings. The lock master throws down 2 lines and in this case, you do not tie them to your boat. Someone on the bow holds a line and someone on the stern takes the stern line. Care is the bow person with a boat hook and I remain in the cockpit with the stern line and a boat hook. As the locks fill, water is swirling everywhere and it is a bit tricky to keep the boat off the walls and keep the excess line from swirling in the water catching on a prop. The locking takes about 45 minutes. I look up to see a low lying road in front of me as I am about to exit the last lock. I yell to Care to put the VHF antenna down thinking we have to travel under this road. Then it is pulled back from the paper factory to the mainland so that we can exit. My heart beat slows knowing we have made it through the locks and the sun is shining on our faces. A pay close attention as we leave noticing markers, what the entryway looks like so when we return in a few days I can find the entry to the locks and not head over the falls.Just above the locks we notice a lovely State park with a dock named Bernert Landing
And I tell Care this would be a great place to overnight on the way down river so we could be in the locks
at morning time. We agree that we will stay here. The Upper Willamette River is a combination of rural areas with rocky outcroppings and islands and there are lots of very expensive homes. The docks have huge pilings on them which indicates that this river can reach enormous heights during their rainy and runoff seasons. It reminded me of the Sacramento River docks. We arrive at another state park and dock at 1140.It is named Hebb State Park. We tie up and fix lunch and w
alk around afterwards. We give way to a cable ferry along the way. At 1330 we arrive at Boone Ferry Marina and meet BJ who owns the store. We take on ice, there is a pump out and enjoy an ice cream cone. We watch all the trout feeding on fish food BJ throws in. It looks like paranas in the amazon river. Just about every boat in the marina is a wake boarder, which means during the summer this would be one crazy place. Glad we are here after Labor Day. They do have gas here but no diesel. Up river we see gravel barges being filled. At 1500 we dock Shatoosh at Champoeg State Park. It is just downriver from Newburgh, Oregon.Days run 19.4 nm
