S2.9 - Nestucca River - Cloverdale to Wood County Boatramp (not planned)

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from  Cloverdale Boat Launch, Aboard our tiny ships!

First of all, finding the boat ramp. Cloverdale has a post office. Just south of the post office, by a crosswalk with flashing lights, is a Tillamook County Public Works building. You have to turn into the driveway between these 2 buildings. Then you will see some signs that direct you to the boat ramp. There is a fee for day use. The boat ramp itself is decent, paved, and wide enough to back down. There are no restrooms here.

We had our sister (in-law) Dody with us, so we were planning to shuttle to the Little Nestucca Boat Launch. More on that later.

We put in right at high tide, hoping to have more water under us, and a nice gentle current to the bay. The river at Cloverdale is narrow, but plenty of room for 3 kayaks to comfortably travel side by side.

Lots of birds, including several heron and ducks, which flew away on our approach. Insects were not much of a problem, although there were a lot of little gnats flying around.

Blackberries were starting to ripen, and I found a few along the riverbank. Most of the west bank is covered in blackberry bushes for the first part. 

The river is very quiet. A few times we could hear cows from the nearby farms, and then we could usually smell cows, from the nearby farms, but just enough to remind us where we were. 

A few irrigation pipes were running, but again, not a big deal.

We did not see any other boat ramps along the way.

Since we didn't have the current we thought we would have, Leanna offered to tow Dody's kayak, so she could rest. Our pedal powered kayaks are an advantage here. 

This is where things got interesting.

If you look closely, you'll see Dody's kayak, the Drippy Plum, is a little low in the stern (that's the back of the boat). After this picture I got closer, and could see she was taking on water. Shortly after that, she had to abandon ship, because it was sinking under her. 

Forgive me for not having more pictures after this. We were fortunate that when this happened, we just happened to be next to someone's private dock. Now there are no houses along the bank here. Just a floating wood dock parallel to the shore. Dody was able to get there easily, because she had her PFD on, and used her paddle for help. I was nearby to help if needed. Once we got on the dock, another fortunate thing happened. Someone stopped to help.

At first I was worried that the dock owner was there to chastise us for using his dock marked No Trespassing. However, he turned out to be a Good Samaritan. He had seen us floating, saw Dody go in, and stopped to see if we were okay. He then stayed to make sure we knew where we were, and where we were going. Which was very important. 

Turns out, our hero, Jess, is a former water search and rescue, with much experience on the river. We told him that we had parked our truck at the Little Nestucca Boat Launch, and he took the time to make sure he understood us, and then let us know how far away that was. Like 5 more hours of paddling. Across the bay. Against the tide. 

And it was already 5:30pm. 

Not only did he offer to take one of us to get the truck, he had to go get the key to the private dock (there was a locked gate) so I could get out to go with him. Luckily he knew the owners, and got the key. He drove me to our truck, along the route we had planned, so I could see how much more we would have had to paddle. It was the nicest lecture about river safety I've ever heard. And I take it to heart. 

There was a boat ramp about 1/2 mile from where he picked me up. Leanna and Dody took the kayaks to the boat ramp at Woods. This is also hard to find. It's a county ramp, but it's next to Raines Resort in Woods, and right up against the bridge crossing the river. There's not really any parking if you plan to leave a car here for a shuttle. The ramp is fine, although a bit slippery with moss/algae when we were there.

Jess stopped by as we were loading to check on us again. What a nice guy!

After getting Dody's car back at Cloverdale, we headed to Pacific City for a well deserved meal. But that's another story for another time.