Willamette Riverkeeper Executive Director Travis Williams outlines the approachable, family-friendly attributes of western Oregon's 187-mile Willamette Water Trail from the floor of the 2019 Canoecopia paddlesports expo.
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00:00Willamette River Keeper is here at Canoecopia 2019 to promote the Willamette River Water Trail.
00:06The general area is in western Oregon so it's a wonderful temperate climate throughout much of the year
00:12and as a consequence of that you could paddle year-round.
00:15The Willamette Water Trail is an assemblage of public lands all up and down the Willamette
00:20from Eugene to Portland.
00:22We have a bunch of opportunities for day trips or multi-day trips on the Willamette.
00:27The main stem of the river is about 187 miles long.
00:31There are multiple tributaries that feed into it which are great for canoeing and kayaking.
00:37I think the approachable aspect of the Willamette is pretty cool
00:41because paddlers with not a lot of experience can go out.
00:44As long as they understand basic river reading, all the water is just flat or moving water.
00:49And then on top of that, throughout that 180 mile extent you have multiple greenway properties.
00:55These are public parks where you can pull up and camp.
00:59No reservations required.
01:01A lot of them are really good for kids because if you catch a big parcel on an inside bend of the river
01:06there's no strong current.
01:08There's a gradual gravel bar going out getting to greater depths pretty slowly.
01:13So whether you have little kids or older kids, that type of thing can really resonate
01:17and set up good conditions for multi-day tripping.
01:20It's really about just getting people on the water.
01:23Like a lot of other areas with water trails, we have a good online mapping system at willamettewatertrail.org.
01:32Because we are in western Oregon, you can paddle the Willamette year round.
01:36There are times of the year in the winter and early spring where we can get some very high flows.
01:40The optimal time to go I would say is from April through October.
01:46Bird life is fantastic.
01:48In the springtime and the summer we have a tremendous amount of bald eagles.
01:52The occasional golden eagle.
01:53Lots of osprey.
01:55All the migratory songbirds you can think of.
01:57Bobcat, coyote, lots of deer.
02:00So there's definitely a lot of wildlife along the river.
02:07The Willamette River has a great fishery from Eugene down to Corvallis for cutthroat trout.
02:11There's also rainbow trout.
02:13And then in the spring and early summer you can get spring chinook.
02:16That's a salmon species that utilizes the river.
02:19It's a good opportunity if people like to fish and combine that with their canoe or kayak camping.
02:24Willamette Riverkeeper has two trips that we do and outfit folks for a one night trip which is focused on Willamette Valley wines.
02:33It's called the Pinot Paddle and that happens in June.
02:36And then we have Paddle Oregon which we've been doing for 19 years.
02:39Which is a five day, four night trip that's fully catered.
02:43Has a lot of educational information along the way for people.
02:47We have music and camp at night.
02:49We have wine tastings.
02:50We have speakers that talk about the river.
02:52So it's really a fun time.
02:54We've been doing it for 19 years and some of the participants coined the trip as the adult summer camp.
02:59It's kind of unique.
03:00There's some other large trips around the U.S.
03:02And we think this one has been around long enough to really kind of establish itself as something pretty darn unique.
03:09It happens on the Willamette every August.
03:11And if you're interested in that it's paddleoregon.org.
03:14If you're planning a trip to Oregon and you want to paddle the Willamette you can fly into Portland.
03:19You can fly into Eugene.
03:21You can even fly into Bend and drive over the mountains.
03:24The Willamette is interesting in Oregon because it's one of the most approachable big rivers you can find really anywhere in the west.
03:31Whether you're fairly new to paddling or you're an old hand at it who does multi-day trips on a regular basis.
03:37The Willamette can facilitate both of those pretty easily.