Nestucca River in Oregon

Trip Overview

Kathy and I are new to kayaking. We used the book Canoe and Kayak routes of the Northwest, by Philip N. Jones to look at places to go. We are in Salem so we chose the Nestucca. We had planned to launch in Pacific City, however there was a salmon fishing derby of some sort. It appeared we could have upset some folks that were trying to catch that elusive salmon...and given that it was pouring rain, decided to head upstream. We found a launch in Cloverdale, behind the public works facilities. There was a boat ramp that we could easily launch into the river. It appears that Cloverdale could be the uppermost reach of the tidal influence...we were pretty much at high tide. We launched and decided to try to head upstream. It was mighty fun, except that we ran into two upstream riffles we barely made it through...It was a wonderful way to practice some maneuvering...but then went downstream for 2 hours past the launch and enjoyed a few hours with our new kayaks and each other...wonderful float, although not many places to exit and the every present Bessey the cow viewing our every move. We headed back towards Cloverdale, and to our surprise cause the tide had gone out...we had a bit of a riffle to get back to the launch site.

As a beginner I would recommend this to anyone. I would suggest trying to start at the bridge in Pacific City, and go upstream with the tide coming in...and then come back down...depending on fishing activity.

A nice day at the coast with a microbrew at the Pelican Pub in Pacific city.

Fees:

None

Directions:

Find Pacific City...you are there.

Resources:

The Second Edition of Canoe and Kayak, Routes of the Northwest by Philip N. Jones