#6 - Ermie Walters - Alsea River

 

We went camping at Beachside, just south of Waldport. Our intent was to try the Alsea water trail, which starts at the mouth of the Alsea, heads upriver, and into Drift Creek. Leanna's sister was with us, and so we called around to rent a kayak for her to join us. The advice of the renter was to skip the water trail due to wind and waves, and head upriver about 19 miles to the Ermie Walters Boat Ramp. So we did.

Ermie Walters is a nice boat ramp with decent parking lot for this far upriver. No bathrooms. There were 2 other cars in the parking lot. One waiting to rent kayaks, like us, and another belonging to a couple who had set up shop at the bottom of the boat ramp, and were cooking up some crawfish they had caught.

Once our other kayak arrived, we put in. I got all the way in, unintentionally, as I was trying to get in my kayak. The water level was pretty low, and I had to pull my kayak into a deeper channel from the ramp. Just slipped on slippery rocks. Good news is the water was pretty warm. 

The scenery was nice, but this stretch of the river was just not very long, due to low water. We tried to portage around a small rapids, but the next section was very small and rocky as well. We ended up just going down and back. There was a nice breeze and some eddies that helped push us back upstream. Oh, and I found a Hydro Flask.

So this trip was a bit disappointing because we had such a small section we were able to explore. If you like getting out and pulling your kayak upstream, or catching and eating crawfish, then this is the place for you.



Comments

  1. MeliaJuly 27, 2021 at 10:01 PM

    I would love to cook and eat some crawdads. And you got a hydroflask out of it! Score.

    ReplyDelete

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