#12 - Willamette River - Bowman Park, Albany

 

We chose this park because our daughter, Melia, wanted to join us, but since she was on her way south, needed something close to I5. Bowman Park is close to I5, has plenty of parking, bathrooms, picnic area, and a nice boat ramp and dock.

We got there before Melia, and when we put in, it was obvious that the current here is stronger that we were expecting, and Melia has a paddle board. We had not planned to shuttle, and our kayaks were already in the river. So, partially due to smoky conditions, Melia continued on her way south, and we headed upstream.



The river here is pretty. Lots of foliage on both banks. Luckly, we had our pedal kayaks, so we just started powering upstream, very slowly, against the current. The water looked low, but there were few places that we had to avoid. 




After a time of continuous pedaling, we stopped to rest and cool down. While we didn't exactly swim, we did get in far enough to dip all the way in. We enjoyed the view and a small duck that came near us looking for a handout. There was also a train that slowly crossed the bridge while we waded.

We decided to try to make it to Takena Landing Boat Ramp, which is between the 2 highway bridges crossing the river.



So we did. The current slacked off a bit on the north side, so we made better time, and we were closer than we thought. The best part was turning around and floating back downstream with the current. Only 20 minutes to float from Takena to Bowman.



Ideally, the best way to experience this would have been to put in farther upstream, maybe Hyak County Park down to Bowman. We've gotten used to not having the shuttle option, so we didn't plan ahead.

We did have a good lunch at  Calapooia Brewing nearby, so that was good. 





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