Willamette River Eugene to Portland Aug 1995
For Months our group had been preparing for this canoe trip. This meant many trips to the pools to upgrade every participant to swimming or lifesaving. Every participant had to ear his canoeing MB and show river proficiency in rapids. Everyone had to know rescue techniques. We watched videos and paddled in dry docks at church until everyone was ready. At last we were ready
Boys: Matt Marler, Frank Marler, Branden Brown, Brenden Palmer Kevin Fuller, Kevin Witt, Jared Marquis, Kevin Tame
Older Boys: Steve Marquis, Kevin Tame, Glen Sypher, and Dale Palmer
The week prior to departure was hectic as usual as we prepared food and gear. All food was created from scratch, so we had dehydrators and food lines as folks portioned out hot chocolate mix, pancake powder etc jerky – the list is a long one. Jared and I set up an assembly line with a dozen autonomous worker bees with shopping lists per meal; it all comes together rather neatly, By Friday night the Marquis front yard was full of canoes and buckets. We all worked way into the night.
Saturday:
We left Fall City about 9am. In Oregon we stopped and purchased a few last items like a missing life preserver and continued on to Eugene. We finally unloaded and got the cars shuttled 50 miles down river and back. When we finally had all the canoes packed and everyone with paddles in hand it was only an hour from dark! We held a prayer and set out in hopes of making landfall 5 miles downriver. Jared and I led out. It was immediately different that we had practiced and to our great chagrin, Jared and I immediately got stuck on an obvious pillow rock. In the middle of the river I had to get out of the canoe to stand on the rock and push off – hopping in as the heavily laden craft dislodged. The river wound and wound and I struggled to keep track of our location and progress. The light waned and no matching terrain was in sight. Finally with almost no light left, for safety sake I ordered landfall. It seemed we had to be very close to our intended spot, but we had no way to tell. Jared and most of the boys slept out in the open in makeshift shelters as part of Glen Sypher’s wilderness Survival. A few of us set up tents. We had a decent meal followed by a pleasant campfire. All is well.
Sunday:
We woke up to a great day. Blue skies that would follow us the rest of the trip. We had managed to land within 100yds of the intended landing on a nearby island. It was a better spot than we could have hoped for in out plan. We had our 1st flag raising and I hummed a comb kazoo for our trumpet. After breakfast, we held priesthood. We had a blind-man’s walk where the “Prophet” led the boys though the woods with “Satan” vs “Angels” trying to influence them. After a while we sat on a log and talked about influences. Afterwards we had merit badge and scripture times. We had a simple lunch and as the day heated up allowed the boys to take a bath on the end of a nice rope swing. Ok it was a bit of a stretch on the bath part but it was a pleasant time. Some of the boys got into a moss war. It was funnier than heck as the boys were covered head to toe like the creature from the Black Lagoon. After about an hour we called in the somewhat reluctant troops for merit badge time and a bit later Sacrament Mtg. At the edge of the river we knelt and blessed Christ’s emblems several gave spirit filled talks. After dinner, we gathered about a campfire and held a testimony meeting.
Monday:
After our flag raising, prayer and breakfast, we broke camp and reloaded our canoes. The plan was to make more miles in the beginning were the river was narrower and running swifter, so each day had its challenges. Lunch was had “trail-side” and we pressed on again for one our higher mileage days.
We were heading for an identified campsite that was supposed to have a few tables and even a Biffy for those who preferred it, but to our surprise another troop beat us out to camp. We camped instead on a low beach area on the other side. A farmer lady on a 4 wheeler came down to see who was camped out on their land and welcomed us.
That night we got our 1st Dutch oven treats. We only have one oven and 3 patrols so each night we traded off. Food was always good and plentiful. We had dehydrated lots of hamburger and it got used in Stroganoff, spaghetti etc. All dinners had desserts like puddings, Jellos and good variety. Each night we had a fun campfire with song and stories and missionary stories traded by the old guys.
Tuesday:
Brother Sypher was teaching 1st aid and I taught fire starting without matches. I wasn’t terribly successful and eventually I used wet then dried match heads as a material to ignite by the heat – that actually worked. Jared and I made a good team ,but I soon developed some shoulder pains that began to plague me. Even as young as Jared was he was a very strong “mule” and helped out pulling far more than his share as we hit slower water and a bit of headwind. We wanted to outpace that other troop so we would get the best pick of the sites. We never did see that troop again.
I had seen in the Canoeing Merit badge book a description of how to sail a canoe. That seemed like a possible answer. We lashed 3 canoes together after breakfast and used a blue tarp for the square-rigged sail. We used paddles for rudders and keels and even though we had a head wind it did almost tack into it, but it did so poorly that the paddlers steadily outpaced us so after a ˝ mile or so we cut the poles loose and paddled catch-up. It was another slow water day with hard paddling even with the rivers flow helping. We came to a place were the river split around an island. I led the group to the left. As the water joined on the down riverside, we discovered a wonderfully hot swamp. Many of us jumped out of the canoes and waded in the warm water. The island seamed to be a great place to camp and we walked our canoes back up river a bit on the right side of the river. We had a large cooler filled in the beginning with a number of meats and of course ice. To keep it as cool as possible we tented the cooler and kept the tent wet. Each of the patrols made separate camps farther away than usual to kind of be by themselves. Dale Palmer really enjoys fishing but does not care to eat them. Several of us thought he was the best kind of fisherman for us who enjoyed the spoils. At one point someone came up with the Idea of body floating the river – Probably Mark or Dale. Soon everyone joined the body float – it was real fun.
There was a nice little whoop-de-do rapid near the bottom of the island and as heavy as we were loaded I really wasn’t sure how everyone would fair. There was a decent easy route, but I did not want to pass up a chance at some fun either. Dale and I were competent canoeist so we shot them 1st – it was great. I remember eddying out and returning to be available to rescue as each pair shot them in turn. Everyone shot them just fine. Jared and most of the other boys were trying to get their fishing merit badge so he hung his line out as we floated. On many places the river was wide and easy and we rafted up, wrote journals, observed wildlife and taught merit badges. Several boys took on electricity and atomic energy in my raff. Others learned citizenships and environmental science. Nothing like floating past a big cut in the riverbank to show strata in the soils or a lazy section to contemplate the Plutonium cycle.
For all our efforts, some of the meat was looking rather slimy (the bacon) In retrospect, it was probably just fine, but the decision was to toss the meat at a dock garbage can we were going to pass. I really had a hard time with that. Friday night was supposed to be our “Steak-n-beans” night where the boys were rewarded with steak rather than beans for their enthusiastic efforts with the merit badges. I had really hyped this and I struggled with this failure. I threw it all out and was walking away when I said to myself, “I just can’t throw it out,” and retrieved the pork chops and put them back in the cooler. A few hours later I told the other leaders my decision. I reasoned that since the meat didn’t smell tainted, any bacterial contamination should be able to be cooked out. It seamed reasonable to the group and so that night we prepared our feast – and what a feast it was. Mark Howard and Kevin Tame and Dale made a fantastic meal. Pork chop gravy and mashed potatoes, Corn on the cob, peas, chocolate pudding jello – mmmmm
Each day we raised our lashed flagpole and this day many of the boys applied themselves to learning splicing and rope leverage schemes for the pioneering merit badge. It was my favorite and I enjoyed teaching it. Jared was my right hand man teaching many of the knots and was helpful with the many boys trying to learn,
As the day passed to night we finished with another great campfire. As had been the case every day few bugs annoyed us – so few in fact that it was eerie.
We didn’t have too many miles to Friday’s destination and made landing around lunchtime. I challenged every one to a “clean orderly campsite” contest. Boy, did everybody do a great job. It looked like a military site. We were camping a bit above the high water area in a stubble field. We were all set up when a slightly testy farmer showed up. He let us know that this particular section was in fact leased to him and the available camping spot was lower. I apologized, but he thought our camp looked so good that he let us stay – was that inspiration? I certainly thought it a blessing.
There was a muddy section of bank next to an eddy at the bottom of the hill were the landing was. Almost all the boys engaged in mud wrestling before sliding into the river. Jared and several other boys played gunnel wars – standing on the canoe and rocking to pitch their opponent into the drink. This was also the time that Dale showed us the Palmer shuffle. He would stand on the gunnels of his canoe and rock and shuffle. The canoe would create a bow wake and the canoe would begin to ride it forward at a surprisingly fast rate.
For the few youth who wanted to try the white-water merit badge, Kevin Fuller, Jared and 1 or 2 other boys, they would go out withy me to work on advancing their skills.
This was our last campfire and we really had a great testimony time and the boys led out for the 1st time singing hymns and sharing their hearts. It was a wonderful day and a great spirit filled night.
Saturday morning we had simple breakfasts, packed up and shot the last few miles to our takeout spot. It was a nice park and while a few of the adults got the cars, the rest of us hung out at the dock or worked on whitewater merit badges. When the cars got back, we packed quickly and everybody chipped in and helped. We had a heartfelt prayer and headed off into the sunset after snarfing juicy hamburgers. We’ll do this river again!
Scoutmaster Steve