18 March: North River boating

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

Allan goes boating on the North River

The North River is at the top of Willapa Bay, a little over an hour away from Ilwaco. Further upstream it also crosses Highway 101 near Artic. A local told me today that he once boated 35 miles from Artic down to Willapa Bay. Well, sorry, we’re just going upriver three and a quarter miles, but this isn’t just an ordinary woodsy river.

Lower North River at low tide. Launch is at lower right.

See those white dots in the river above the ‘105’ sign? I found out from poking around the internet that those are floating cabins. There are no access roads, nor do any cabins seem to be for sale as far as my searches can determine. Zillow.com doesn’t place a value on these cabins either but if you want a 500 square foot cabin in Seattle, $275,000 will get you one next to  Gas Works Park. http://seattlehouseboatrentals.com/sales.htm

The tide was a plus eight feet and falling but I had previously seen the ramp without mud at a one foot tide. The incoming tide could have helped me upstream if I had arrived earlier. I was sure of a quick trip back. Turned out my speed upstream was about 2-3 mph but I later got a 6.9 mph top speed reading downstream for a 2.9 mph moving average overall.

Smith Creek launch at 8 foot tide.

Let’s check out the cabins.

Under the first bridge & leaving Smith Creek.

Smith Creek and the rest of the North River are going to have to be another trip. The other boats I saw today had motors and probably could explore a lot more quickly but not quietly.

Pilings to the left and the North River bridge ahead.

Rounding the point and heading upstream.

Cabins ahead

The first neighborhood of cabins

There is a nice artistic sequence of a landing goose on the first cabin. Their next cabin has a couple of geese strung up by their little necks. This is the land where fresh food delivers itself.

A home with a boat garage…

…and a glassed in porch and covered wood pile / work area.

Here is a place ready for fishing off the back porch.

 Out of respect for their privacy, I tried to stay mid river or on the other side. I imagine people don’t set up cabins out in nowheresville to have boaters gawk at them all day.

Enclosed porches often had the workshops combined with storage rooms to leave the rest of the cabin less cluttered.

More cabins upstream

These places must have been built elsewhere and towed in.

I was on the opposite shore to give this guy his privacy and got a wave anyway. On the way back a couple of boats had docked, the deck was full of friends on chairs and the smell of barbecue drifted over.

Sound of an outboard coming downstream

Power boats aren’t sneaky but usually good for a wave.

A tunnel under the branches

Another lone cabin

Protected by pilings

This boat slowed down until I put out a thumbs up sign. I also noticed that when I came back with the tide pretty low, a pair of vehicles with their boats already trailered waited until I beached before they drove off. I like to think people watch out for each other out here.

‘google earth’ doesn’t show any access roads – the river is their highway (low tide view).

This fork in the river might have been an island, maybe not. Given a choice of a wide empty river or a narrow branch with cabins, of course I took the cabin route. The woods and muddy banks on the main channel  can wait. On the Chinook River trip I heard from another kayaker that it’s sometimes hard to remember features of the individual rivers. I’m being a little heavy on the pictures so I can relive these trips later. I discovered later that the wider branch was the one to Artic and beyond. Yah sure, maybe if I was going downstream but not today, upstream, and against the tide.

An ‘on the water’ view of the string of cabins shown previously

Up cabin row. The pilings are high enough for a flood and a log boom helps prevent bumps in the night.

Huzzah, a canoe on Riverside Drive.

Lewis and Clark are pointing to where you can find their trail about fifty miles south.

Fresh water system

A water collection system with no garden.

That little duck above the end of the log is a female hooded merganser I think,  hanging with a male mallard. She had lovely light brown feathers done up in a mohawk that let the sun filter through. They were the best looking couple on the river and posed for a couple of movies.  They did fancy footwork swim-bys, log-hops and aerial feats for me that I couldn’t do.  First here’s a generic picture of her from the web:

A female hooded merganser

And here is a 45 second video of this couple’s performance:     North River ducks video 

A very old cattle chute?

A gate

This floating log was hooked between two fallen trees. Just a little push to the left would have freed it and let it float away but I  couldn’t slide it sideways.  I was able to push it upstream and paddle through, and then, it closed behind me.

An interesting island a hundred feet ahead but the waterway was blocked on both sides. I was not going to join up with the main channel or go upstream any further.

A boat garage.

I parked in the garage, got out some food, turned around and went to undo the gate again.

Now, all I have to do is grab the left side of the log, and pull it open against the current. Just like pushing but backwards.  It really wasn’t the same at all.

up & over

Instead, it was a push down on the shallow end of the log and pulling myself over.

Now it’s back down the other side of the cabins and home.

Greetings from Chinook!

As I approached the bridge I used up the last of the camera battery stalking a seal that had splashed off a dock. Didn’t get a picture but above is a cute picture of a seal I took up the Columbia River.

‘MapMyWalk’ took me straight overland at the end when the battery totally died while looking for the seal.

The rod is supposed to be straight

It must have been fun as I had to unbend both flipper rods on the foot drive when I got home. It seemed to have run OK and I wasn’t trying to jump the log either. The shallow side channels did grind me to a halt a few times as I looked for relics of the timber industry that used to be here but I’m not sure what I hit.

Next time maybe it will be less cabin shopping and more upriver paddling for the easy float back, I’m not done with this river yet.