This weekend was beautiful.

The temperatures in the valley peaked Saturday close to 100. This is considered surprisingly hot for the Portland area. It is even more surprising when you consider that less then a moth ago it was still threatening to snow.

The long winter and quick warm up has caused the rivers to swell due to the rapidly melting snow in the cascades.

Friday

On Friday, I took the motorcycle out and road along the Clackamas river. At Barton, I stopped to watch several groups launch rubber rafts into the river. Floating the Clackamas is a fun during the summer. Yet, with waters at 40 degrees and levels nearing flood stage - I just hope that everyone knows what they are getting into. The waters are fairly calm near the launch point, but can get very rough in the miles that follow.

Saturday

On Saturday, Samantha and I decided to do some swimming. Rather then settle for the brown Calcakamas, we headed to a spot I knew about on the Washougal River in Washington. This particular spot has a deep pool and an overhanging cliff allowing for a 25-30ft plunge into the cold blue waters. To get there, take a right at Dougan falls and continue a few more miles on the dirt road. It is approximately here

Remember to point your feet

A big weekend.

On Saturday, we went urban-lumberjacking again. On Monday, Fish flew out to his new home in Land-o’-lakes Florida. Between those two, I found some time to do a little paddling.

Jamie and I went to the Elk Rock Island dock that is about 5 minutes south of my house.

When you launch here you have two good options.

• Head south, toward Willamette falls the clear waters of the Clackamas river (7 miles).
• Turn north, toward OMSI, the bridges and the brown waters of downtown Portland (7 miles).

Instead (for some strange reason) we choose to paddle up the tiny flow that is Johnson Creek.

This trickle flows through SE Portland and is notorious for yearly flooding. Near my home, it joins up with the Crystal Springs and becomes an actual stream.

At the mouth it is about 20ft wide, but as we found, it quickly narrows and could easily be jumped in places.

It is also very shallow at many of the “rapids”. However, this increase the fun as we tried to crawl up them. My only regret is that I banged up my carbon-fiber paddle when pushing myself up river.

On the way down, we surprised some teenagers that were trying to sneak a beer on the bank. They quickly tossed the cans as we approached. “Hey”, I yelled… “Don’t Litter!”