Monday, 5 October 2015
Seaside, Oregon & the Necanicum River
Floating your boat in Oregon, if it’s 9′ or over, requires a $7 annual ‘Invasive Species’ permit (for plants-not us tourists) available at Fred Meyers. Apparently I was an outlaw when I visited Cullaby Lake last July.
The map shows the Necanicum River on the left flowing through downtown Seaside. The Neawanna Creek on the right side flows under the 101 bridge and behind the malls. The building is the Seaside Convention Center.
At Quatat Park next to the Seaside Convention Center there is a boat ramp (sometimes locked) and a public dock.
A +3 foot rising tide left a steep ramp and muddy beaches.
Visitors from the convention center enjoying lunch and watching a tourist figure out how to launch his boat.
Wheel Fun Rentals is visible downstream from the Broadway bridge. It wasn’t open today, but they can rent you a boat for $20 per hour and up.
Colorful plastic water toys.
They have catamaran hull kayaks and they have a stack of Stand Up Paddleboards (SUPs) that can also double as a kayak.
Besides being subtle, this two-seater could travel right up a beach or over a sandbar.
I headed south under Seaside’s bridges.
A heron making use of an old dock.
I stayed far away to allow this bird to continue its fishing.
It wanted more solitude and flew away.
Mallard ducks were cruising the shore.
The everpresent gulls fished the middle
There were barnacles too as this is salt water.
I paddled just past an island south of the gas station where the depth ran out.
The Chevron station from the trench
And now I made a run back towards the ocean
Doesn’t this place with its shed over the water and the sun porch look much better from the river than the street?
On 9th St. there is the Seaside Lodge & International Hostel. They have canoe & kayak rentals available to the public. Their current rental rate offered two cups of espresso (or tea) and four hours of rental time for $25.
A young’n getting ready to fish.
Under the 12th St. bridge I met a wall of crab pot ropes.
They had left a gap on either side. The water was too deep to see the pots.
Near the shore as one of the fishermen pointed out a crab he’d spotted from the bridge. (Did he want me to grab it, with my fingers?)
A red rock crab avoiding the crab pots next to the bridge. Later I saw a crab surface for something tasty but it didn’t hang around for a picture.
Later I drove over the bridge to check out the crabbers.
This is what the river’s mouth looks like with a 3 foot rising tide. There is a crabber walking the water in the background, just shy of the Gearheart Ocean State Park .
Maybe he was looking for clams as there were lots of small holes in the sand.
A heron watching me and the couple walking the beach
Multi-tasking as she catches up on the phone, dog time and a walk.
A final view south to Tillamook head before heading back.
I could hear the ocean but this bay is protected from the surf.
The Neawanna Creek that dumps onto this bay has two launch sites. One launch, behind the theaters heads north to the bay. The second heads south from Broadway Park to Ave. S.
A motorcyclist staying dry while checking out the river behind the high school.
A fisherman and crab pot lines as I made my way back under the 12th St. bridge.
A door on a storm sewer line reminded me of a show we recently saw of a bunch of baby ducks rescued from beneath a street, and how they likely got there.
A small house holding out against a large hotel with a buffering tree.
A final view of the three downtown bridges, like Venice, a little.
No great speed or distance today, just a lot of sitting and looking.
A final look at one of Seaside’s many gardens, this one by the dock, maintained by Pam Fleming and crew.
A fisherman with a simple boat launched from the ramp. I had all my lunch as he drifted downriver setting up his electric motor and fishing gear.
If I had fishing gear to set up too, I’d have to get up even earlier to make the time fit.
It was getting hot so off I went to get some groceries and head for home. But first I went to the west side of the 12th St. bridge for some sights.
A rosemary wall.
All the bouquets were gone but this is a serious flower stand.
Back across the Columbia River and heading home to Ilwaco.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 
I am glad that you avoided the crab lines. There seemed a lot of them.
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I might have been pelted with crab bait or worse, and, I had to return later. It’s in the etiquette rules to avoid fishing lines but I hadn’t encountered a wall of them before.
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