Howdy all.  After spending 8 years on the coast of Oregon surfing every day that I could, we found it necessary to load up the family and move to the Willamette Valley.  I had to find something to fill the void, and a canoe is part of the remedy.

I have run a few rivers, most in a Perception Dancer, and a few on self-bailing rafts and catarafts.  I’ll never be a class V boater by any stretch… but I do like to get out and explore.  Here in the central valley there are a lot of tributaries to the Willamette River that get almost no use whatsoever by boaters.  There a easily a dozen rivers that are class II or less, and have nothing to offer the whitewater crowd.  These rivers meander through all sorts of forest and farmlands, and are subject to seasonal flooding and erosion.  Subsequently, the weekend flatwater crowd doesn’t want to risk the inevitable sweepers, strainers, and logjams they are sure to encounter.  There is almost no info available on most of them either… nothing in guide books and nothing on the ‘net.  Too mellow for the hardcore and too hardcore for the mellow, these odd duck rivers are perfect for somebody with a canoe and some time.