S3.1 Buena Vista to Independence

 Our third season began earlier that our first two. The weather has been so nice in May that we managed to get out on the Willamette before June!


One difference in this float was now we have a small trailer to haul our kayaks in. No more lifting these heavy Hobies onto the truck racks. We got it used, and although it's a bit rusty, and one of the lights doesn't work very well, it does the job. I can even get it in the garage when we are not using them.

The Buena Vista boat ramp was supposed to be redone last year, but they stopped for some reason. I hear it may be closed again this summer for construction, so it was nice to use it before that happened. The ramp itself is fine right now.
The float was amazing. We only saw 2 other kayakers, and a few jet skiers for a bit. Otherwise, it was just the 2 of us on the river. Quiet, with great weather. Not a ton of wildlife, but we did see 1 small family of ducks, some osprey, and a bald eagle.

There was a lot of pollen, mostly cottonwood seed flying around during our float. At one point, I felt like I was in a Star Wars screensaver, there were so many white fluffy pods flying at me.
The thing I had not noticed on our runs last year was the large number of trees that look like they are about to drop into the river. I'm sure there was a lot of erosion this winter, but seriously, these trees look like cartoons, where they just haven't noticed that they don't have any ground under them.
This float took just under 3 hours. The ramp at Independence is easy to use, and there are a lot of restaurants around if you are hungry after kayaking.


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