Blue River Video

FYI, there is basically NO paddling in this video because it was pretty much scrapy scrapy down the rio. Super low flow so it wouldn't be that exciting for anyone to watch...but nevertheless...this should atleast entertain you over a cup of coffee :) This is what winter boating is like in Oregon! As I say, West is best :) Enjoy!




-Christina

Early Winter Creeking...er...Hiking....

Blue River-LOW water run
January 2, 2008

First off I want to say that this trip report sadly doesn't involve much kayaking....it's more like hiking. Reason being that the river gauge on Blue River was frozen. Of course we didn't know this at the time but only found out after we were on the water....er...scraping through the water. If you are easily entertained and want to see what winter boating in Oregonano is like, check it out :) he he he I even put together a little video of our snow hiking.....

(Above) The Beast :P

Photo by: Kim Russell

Before we left, I decided that I wanted to have fun with the video camera and I duct taped it to the bow of my Chico...In retrospect, it would have been way better had I mounted it on the stern...anyways, you'll see in the video...a grand view of my drysuited bum ha ha.
Moving on...we started hiking around 12:30 and unanimously decided that we would hike until didn't want to hike anymore- this was mostly dependent on how much daylight we had remaining. In the gorges, it's too dark to paddle by 4 pm. It was an overcast day with light snow so our daylight was reduced even more. We hiked for about two and a half hours through lots and lots of snow. luckily a truck or something had come up the road and made some ditches for us to hike in. Without out them, it would have taken FOREVER to get to the put-in.

(Above) Josh and I
Photo by: Kim Russell

Here we are about a half mile from the car. We crossed the first bridge and then realized just how long of a hike this was going to be....

(Above) Kim pointin' us in the right direction
Photo by: Christina Russell

(Above) Still hiking
Photo by: Christina Russell

(Above) The tired crew- Kim Russell and Josh M.
Photo by: Christina Russell

(Above) Our "put-in"
Photo by: Josh Mckeown

After 2.5 hours of hiking uphill through snow, we decided we had had enough and wanted to get wet. The river was super super low and the thought crossed our minds that we were on the wrong creek. Lookout Creek is pretty darn close to Blue River so it was a possibility. In the end, we recognized a couple of the drops, even at low flow. Definitely Blue River.

(Above) checkin out a bony drop...yep...not enough water
Photo by: Josh Mckeown

I wish I had more pics of the river but it was SO cold. We put on the water around 3:15 and the sun was goin' down ...so was the temp. Next time next time....

I don't recommend doing what we did if you are looking for an easily accesible run with LOTS of water. ha ha ha yeah this barely had enough water in places to float! At this time of year, it is pretty low. However, if a nice long hike and a mellow day sounds good, this might be something for you :) We sure enjoyed it. It was a run that reminded all three of us how much fun we can have on super mellow stuff!

I hope everyone is enjoying winter and woo hooo it's puking snow out here! YEAH! Two feet of snow fell just ten miles south of Bend and I got about 7 inches....8 inches forcasted for today :D

Happy Winter Paddling,
Christina :)