Cascade Currents

This newsletter is a place for LCCC members to share trip reports, hear about planned events, and get a feel for what is going on. There's always something.

Please contribute! Trip reports are always welcome. We also invite tidbits of information, announcements, links, gossip, cartoons, videos, and anything to do with our sport or our people. Please send fun stuff to the Newsletter Editor and improve your River Karma! Items received by the 10th of the month will be included in that month's newsletter.

Above: Photo by TG, paddlers Audrey Bergsma and Bill Jordens on the Devil's Lake Fork of the Wilson (in the coastal range) in November 2014. You'll notice the low light of winter in all my November photos.

The Lower Columbia Canoe Club (LCCC) was founded in the late 1960s by a small group of flatwater canoeists from the Portland, Oregon area. Mike Keating was already a member when Murray Johnson migrated from the southeast in the early 1970s, and I’ve had the good luck to know those guys. When Murray joined he was an ACA-certified Whitewater Canoe Instructor Trainer or “IT”. Two other members, Bill Corwin and Dennis Deck, had whitewater experience and wanted more. Together these three “ruined the club” for flatwater paddlers by getting everyone hooked on whitewater. We have been mostly a whitewater paddling club since that time, though we do sometimes glide on gentler waters, and we definitely use all kinds of boats. We also paddle year round because we are blessed with a mild climate and water in every season. Below: longtime member Mark Taratoot in his light, sleek Wenonah.

Our brand new channel contains a plethora of great material about river running and safety, HERE. There are two playlists, one for the Takeout Talks and one for the Safety Series.

Now that they're so easy to find, I'm going to watch the ones I missed! Thank you Deborah Kane for uploading all those videos.

• We started doing meetings and paddler education on zoom because of the pandemic. The talks turned out so great that we're continuing them.
• Links for this winter's talks will go out by email to club members. You are welcome to share them with your friends.
• Takeout Talks are meetings with river dignitaries from around the world who speak on topics interesting to river runners.
  
• The Safety Series explores how to thrive (not just survive) on the river.
• Previous Talks can be accessed on our YouTube Channel!
• Below is a screenshot of folks in our meeting January 2021.
  

This year the LCCC Conservation Donation goes to the Crag Law Center. Here is their mission:

"Through a unique model of “legal aid for the environment,” we provide free and low-cost legal services to people who are working on the front lines to protect our environment, climate and communities. We build the capacity of dedicated individuals and organizations striving to create positive change. Many of these groups face challenges against well-funded corporations that can afford to hire teams of attorneys. Some have never had the benefit of a lawyer on their side. We advocate for those who might not otherwise have a voice in decisions that directly affect their frontline communities. We work for our clients to balance the scales of justice, ensure the integrity of our government’s process, and help our clients achieve their own missions."

Crag Law Center provided legal help to Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild, and Willamette Riverkeepers in their successful effort to stop the Willamette National Forest from extensive salvage logging following the 2020 Labor Day fires. The Forest Service had started logging without a NEPA review under a categorical exclusion provision, which was ultimately overturned. It was successfully argued that logging greatly and specifically exacerbates soil damage and erosion as well as the general, sensitive recovery ecosystem.

We hope to obtain a Crag Law Center speaker for a mid-winter club pot luck. Stay tuned.

While LCCC members paddle all manner of boats, we recognize that having "canoe" in the name attracts people who love the canoe. Some may call it the Church of the Single Blade. While we are not all Canoe Centric, most of us share an appreciation for the history and versatility of the craft. This area of the newsletter is reserved for canoe-related topics and opinions. If you are already a believer and are halfway literate anyhow, please consider writing an opinion or joke about canoeing for this space.

CANOE SKILLS COURSE 2023

In keeping with our effort to increase our clinic offerings, we expect to have at least one basic solo canoe skills clinic next summer. Stay tuned!

CANOE INSTRUCTOR COURSE POSSIBILITY

We have the opportunity to offer a future ACA Canoe Instructor Certification course. At this time we are gauging interest. If you are possibly interested in an instructor certification course, please tell me so here.

By Will Gehr

Are you a kayaker who wants to try canoeing? Or a flat water canoeist who wants to try white water--but not in your flat water boat? Do you have a friend in town who would join you for a Dodge to Oxbow run if they had a boat? Or perhaps you were thinking (as I was) of paddling slalom at the recent Cedar River event but didn't have anything resembling a slalom canoe?

During the last few months we have accumulated 6 canoes that are on the verge of becoming the LCCC Loaner Canoe Fleet. The last addition is a Millbrook Hooter, a 13'2" kevlar boat that works especially well for slalom. This was originally purchased by former club member Carl Poston and which has since stayed in the area thanks to Murray Johnson and more recently Oscar Meyer, who is giving it to the club. Two other boats were donated by Chuck Wilkinson, another two by the estate of former member Pete Gayeska, and the 6th one by a friend of a friend, Evan Durland who liquidated his possessions before moving to Scandinavia. THANK YOU FOR THE BOATS!!

The details of storing, maintaining, and managing an LCCC canoe fleet are still being worked out. The most logical scenario would be, as Mark Scantlebury has suggested, for the club to acquire a riverside clubhouse with a large boat barn! Unfortunately, as you can guess, this is a tiny bit beyond the club's budget and may be possible only if the Board buys a lucky lottery ticket.

Seriously though, one of the best reasons for the club to have a fleet of whitewater boats is to set people up for canoeing clinics. We can help existing and new members learn whitewater canoeing. This is an important part of sustaining the "romance of the canoe" in an increasingly kayak-centric culture, and is part of what makes the LCCC unique.

By Teresa Gryder

In all fairness perhaps we should have a kayak-oriented section to this newsletter. The LCCC has more active kayakers than canoeists. Please email K-1 relevant items to the newsletter editor (me, for now) and we'll share it here, on the blog, or on the facebook page.

As for all the other kinds of craft: don't be left out! Send us your flatwater tales, SUP stunts, or epic inner tube descents too.

More Clinics to Come:

We expect to have clinics for kayakers, hopefully another Ducky Day, and a clinic for SUP paddlers during summer 2023.

Photos by TG. Above, Denny Egner shreds on the Clackamas in October 2017. Below, a hoard of kayakers flying in formation toward the Wilson drainage.

We're coming up on the end of the year when you will be asked to report how many days you paddled this year. Do you keep a log? How will you ever remember if you don't? The older I get the more grateful I am to my younger self for keeping track of such things.

One LCCC tradition is to track our runs for the calendar year and compare at the end. One year when the January newsletter listed member totals for the year, they were paltry. I wondered--is this really a paddling club? The guy with the most runs claimed only a dozen days. I had paddled way more than that, and I wasn't the only one. I started keeping track and reporting my actual numbers and any observations about the year, and so did others! It has been fun.

Dee Brodigan (gleeful on a rainy day in the photo below) often gets over 100 water days per year. Beat that! (I can't). There are lots of people in the club who spend time on the water. How many do you get? What kind of water do you like best? Did you go any new places in 2022? I'll be asking for your report next month! -TG

Most trip reports are posted on the LCCC blog. Here are reports on a few of our recent adventures, which are on the increase because Rainy Season has begun! We are grateful for the rain and the snow.

June Creek Season Opener 10/22 by Will Gehr

The water was low, but it was good to check out the new wood arrangement.

https://www.lowercolumbiacanoeclub.org/riverrunnerblog/junecreekseasonopener22

Clackamas Milk Run 10/29 by Teresa Gryder

We saw a coyote by the river.

https://www.lowercolumbiacanoeclub.org/riverrunnerblog/clackmilkrunoct22

WKC Cedar River Slalom 11/5-6 by Jennie Goldberg

A good turnout didn't stop Jennie from being the fastest woman.

www.lowercolumbiacanoeclub.org/riverrunnerblog/cedarriverslalom22

Rumor has it that Kendall has decided to move back from New Mexico now that the reimbursement rate for drivers on club trips has increased to 40 cents per mile.

They’re on the Google Group! You can get club emails delivered however you like. The email address to reach all of us is Lower-Columbia-Canoe-Club@googlegroups.com. Only current members have access to this group. If you are a current member and don’t get club emails, go to your Google Groups and check the settings. You can set it to deliver “each email”, a “digest”, “abridged”, or “no email”. You can change these settings any time you like, but if you set it to “no email” then you will not hear about trips and events that we put together. And ironically, you won’t get this newsletter, because it goes out to the Google Group. Also, if you are a current member and can't even get into the google group, request access.

The LCCC is famous for having lunch on the river. This may have something to do with the fact that most canoeists need periodic knee breaks. The kayakers are usually willing to go along. Below: the crew taking shelter under a Clackamas bridge for a break.

(names listed in order of photos below)

President: Deborah Kane

Safety: Teresa Gryder

Conservation: Will Gehr

Secretary: Audrey Bergsma

Whitewater: Denny Egner

Vice President:: Sami Faile

Liason: Emily Hooker

Treasurer: Dan Jursnick

We have Four Key Goals

1. Promote river safety

2. Help members improve paddling skills

3. Protect and preserve NW rivers

4. Foster a strong paddling community within the Club and in league with other paddling organizations

The LCCC’s emphasis on skills, safety and conservation is our foundation. Going forward, as we honor our history and early commitment to fostering a strong paddling community, expect the Lower Columbia Canoe Club to write a new chapter of even greater inclusivity.

1. PFDs (Personal Flotation Devices—“Life Jackets”) are to be worn and fastened at all times while on the water.

2. ALCOHOL is not allowed before or during trips, but afterwards, beverages are fine. ALCOHOL is not supplied by the LCCC or host at any club function.

3. WAIVERS of liability are to be signed by all members and those non- members who paddle on club-sponsored trips.

4. The MINIMUM NUMBER OF BOATS required for a trip is three.

5. The LCCC strongly recommends wearing helmets when running Class II rapids. Helmets are required when running Class III and above.

NOTE: Many of the sections we run are written up in books (the Soggy Sneakers Guide to Oregon Rivers or Canoe Routes: Northwest Oregon are good) and on the American Whitewater website. Read them for more information. LCCC trip coordinators are not certified coordinators, they're just members who are willing to share what they know about local runs.

Email: lowercoumbiacanoeclub@gmail.com
Website: https://www.lowercolumbiacanoeclub.org/
Location: Portland, OR, USA
Phone: 1111111111
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pdx.paddle
Twitter: @weRnotONtwitterYET