Clatskanie River’s Culvert to the Westport Slough

March 18, 2023

I’ve been wanting to further check this area for a long time. On a map it appears there is a route parallel to the Columbia River from Westport to the mouth of the Clatskanie River, almost. I’ve read feed back from other people who are curious too. There are two gaps labeled on this map.

On the left end is the entrance to Westport Slough where there is an excellent ADA kayak launch at Westport, Oregon. The blue marks the Columbia River, the red marks the Westport Slough and part of the Clatskanie River system inland up to the Quincy Mayger Road bridge. I documented a portage through the gap on the left. The bank entering the slough was steep but I was fortunate that it was a slide down and not a pull up through the brush with my heavy boat. I wrote it up here.

If doable, the second gap to the east offered the possibility of sheltered waters paralleling over seven miles of the Columbia. I found an entry regarding this gap in the excellent 2004 book by Keith G. Hay: The Lewis & Clark Columbia River Water Trail available here.

Regarding passage, Mr. Hay offered a paddle through the gap if the tide was low with the possibility of a portage if a person didn’t want the thrill of a culvert:

Today I planned to launch here and observe at what tides the culvert works. When I arrived, the tide was rising at +6.7′ feet and about to turn. I planned to paddle east around Anunde Island, then north around Point Adams onto a sheltered bit of the Columbia. 3.5 miles into trip I would portage back onto Westport Slough and down the steep bank where I would rejoin the main path of Westport Slough four miles into trip. The loop would total about seven miles. When I returned, the tide would have fallen to a bit over +2 feet to show another extreme of the culvert.

Off I drove to find out.

This must be the place. This sign credits the many who made this culvert possible and encourages research to find out more. A quick search revealed from NOAA Fisheries that they “Removed dirt plug between river and slough, replaced with arch culvert to allow fish access to 8 trubitaries (sic) and water flushing of Westport Slough. Should reduce sediment load in slough.”

Looking west, here is the slough from Westport. My original plan was to loop back here in four hours after heading in the other direction. In the nineteen years since the book was written the banks have grown thick with Himalayan Blackberry.

There was one short path in the area and it went east to the Clatskanie River. It offered no view of the culvert but pulling aside some blackberries elsewhere I was able to photograph it. There was a small current westward as the tide was turning at +6.9 feet (as measured in nearby Wauna).

Being March, the blackberries are bound to further fill in the launch path during the summer.

Off I went to get a water’s view of the culvert. The divider was a deal breaker to me.

A local stopped to chat. He lives nearby on the northeast shore and paddles with his grandkids. He recommended that I return before the tide dropped to three feet. He can see the culvert from his dock but has not been tempted to paddle through because the Westport Slough is shallow at this end. I gave him a copy of the Launch Guide book I publish as he was unfamiliar with some of my favorite trips nearby. We both agreed that nearby Jones Beach on the Columbia River can be rough and exposed. Then he told me to watch for a waterway a farmer dug in the 1930s. It would take me through the fields and rejoin the Clatskanie River upstream. After he verified I knew what time to be back to avoid becoming stuck in the mud, I paddled off to find this uncharted route.

This looks like a narrow entrance to something worth exploring.

I had found the passage. It is more shallow than the Clatskanie but plenty wide.

Later research gave it a name: The Kinnunen Gut. That called for a directory which explained that “a ‘gut’ is a relatively small coastal waterway connecting larger bodies of water or waterways.” It is shown as a dead end on my large NOAA chart #18523 and on GoogleMaps where it is labeled the Kinnunen Cut. Calling it a gut will raise an eyebrow.

It was not a dead end as I later paddled into the Clatskanie River on a falling +5.8 foot tide.

It was a mile and a quarter paddle downstream to the Columbia River overlapping a trip I have previously written about here. On that trip, I was trying to figure out a large mysterious concrete structure that looks so out of place on a satellite view. The local land owner I had met didn’t know about it, and it still remains a mystery.

On their return trip the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped further down down the Columbia River near Aldrich Point on March 24, 1806. On March 25, they camped here at Point Adams. What is also here is this interesting fishing industry relic.

Gear is still stored on the precarious looking upper story of this building above the many old docks.

I spotted an otter or a nutria ahead and paddled to where I though it might emerge.

The critter didn’t appear as maybe it was fishing.

Owners of the vehicles parked nearby were out fishing too.

And there were those who have always fished here.

A bulky camera that had been slowing me down all day got some use.

I circled around to admire this boatbuilder’s style, particularly the compound curves on the bow.

Soon I headed back up the Clatskanie and into the loop with the culvert.

Here is the culvert again at a falling +3.3 foot tide. Water was flowing towards me vigorously turning my bow away, not that I wanted to enter anyway. The entrance path is to the right, now with a soft mud beach.

Here’s a minute plus of video demonstrating the decision not to paddle through.

The book was right. From the blackberry launch it is only a mile to the Columbia, which is closer than the 2.75 mile paddle from the Beaver Boat Ramp in Clatskanie.

A Red-winged Blackbird entertained me as I loaded for home.

Did I find an island? According to the Inventory of the Julia Buttler Hansen Refuge, Appendix F, under Islands: …the “Kinnunen Cut is not being considered because it is a human-made cut, which was previously part of the Oregon Mainland.” Apparently digging a trench does not create a new island. Here is a map from Anyplace America that provides the best satellite view of today’s trip. The tracking information from my phone’s MapMy Tracks app.

I recently read an excellent book of kayaking (and towing his kayak with his bicycle) across the the United States titled The Misadventures of a Cross-America Kayaker released late in 2022. He described headwinds, fog, rough water and silent freighters sneaking up from behind as he paddled upriver on the Oregon side of Puget Island and around the nearby Wallace Island. He could have entered the Westport Slough and exited near the upstream end of Wallace as he was also using Mr. Hay’s book as a guide. I wrote to him regarding his thoughts of the Westport Slough and he replied…

“…In retrospect I wish I had taken it. I suspect I did not for the same reason you cited; uncertainty about the culvert (and running aground in the slough at low water). The Columbia River Water Trail Guide was a little light on the details and didn’t provide a photo. Oh, well, there is always next time.”

I have more trips planned in the area too.

As I left, I stopped at the first bend to take a parting picture westward of the Westport Slough. The +2.6 tide would leave a paddler feeling poorly in this gut.

Here are the numbers that don’t quite agree with each other from MapMy Walk and Garmin.

Let’s keep: 6 miles traveled in 2 hours 20 minutes (according to the Garmin that measured stopped time) with a maximum speed of 5.3 mph averaging 2.4 mph.

Jones Beach from Westport; Paddling With the Tide

3 February 2022

Today would be a trip of discovery. First, I’ve never launched off Jones Beach. I had never even considered it a place to launch from. Last fall, it was added it to my updates site supporting my book of local launch sites because it belongs. Second, I wanted to see if a portage onto the Westport Slough was possible. And finally, Westport had just put in a brand new ADA kayak dock that had opened three days ago.

All of this would begin after a one hour drive from the Port of Ilwaco.

Below is a map of the Columbia River between Westport and Clatskanie, Oregon. Westport is on the left, marked by the dotted line of the ferry route. Jones Beach is on the Columbia across from the eastern tip of the island. Clatskanie is in the lower left corner. The Westport Slough exits left after snaking across the map.

Today I’m not launching from Jones Beach to visit Westport because the tide would be against me all day. The TideGraph app shows an incoming tide until it turns at 4PM.

Today’s trip started 11:30 (the cross hairs) and ended at 6:15.

After pulling into Westport County Park, I was stalled taking it all in. Off the picture to the left is a new double ramp and dock for everyone, but this set up was built exclusively for canoes and kayaks.

I liked the long straight ramp that allowed me to cart my long heavy boat. The rails are deliberately flat on top if you wish to slide your boat down sideways as their crew demonstrates. The Westport County Park site has more details.

The cradles hold the boat absolutely stable as you step in. I have the ADA seat deployed.

The shoreline ahead is still rough from old lumber.

I saw a photo on their site from 1929 with a 112 foot keel that had just been milled.

The view out of Westport Slough as I paddled towards the Columbia River:

The ferry from Cathlamet by Puget Island was just arriving. Here is their schedule if you want to enjoy a $6 ferry trip. In the background is the Wauna paper mill. It produces pulp, paper, chips and steamy clouds. We’re not headed downstream, but I once paddled up to one of their barges in this blog entry.

Here is another image of the mill’s cloud-making as seen from Cathlamet.

Heading up the Columbia I had to swing out to clear a series of weirs that help control the current and erosion.

They extend out to around 500 feet. No cheating allowed by following the shore instead.

Here is a 35 second video watching the swirling off the end of a weir during an incoming tide flowing at 1.9′ per hour. Interestingly, the tide is overpowered by the river’s current as I drift downstream instead of upstream.

A gull visiting a channel marker when the Ospreys weren’t home, one of several two story Osprey nests I saw:

A local Bald Eagle (upper left) preferred a more vase-like design.

I didn’t see another small boat out all day.

Soon the quiet turned into a faint rumble. I later found out that the bulk carrier ‘W Original’ was due in Vancouver at 11:30 according to marinetraffic.com.

Next time I’ll pull in further or stay in deep water and paddle through the wake as recommended on Skamokawa’s Columbia River Kayaking’s Resource’s page. The wake washed over the boat and added to the wet of the rain.

Here is Jones Beach. The first three pictures are from August 2021 when I drove in and then drove out because it was too windy. Instead I went to the more sheltered Beaver Boat Ramp that day to reach the giant mysterious artifact I was seeking that trip. The bottom two images are from today, showing the beach and the tire tracks of those who chose to drive off the asphalt parking lot. It’s 200 feet from the asphalt to the beach to launch.

Half a mile from from the paved lot at the southern end of Jones Beach is a water access for those who have no fear of getting stuck in soft sand.

A better day to launch from here to paddle downstream to Westport would start with an outgoing tide. Today there was one visitor here watching the river. Sometimes I feel more comfortable leaving the van parked where it is more busy. Here and now, the tide is cresting at 7.1 feet with all the incoming flow gone. Now it would be outgoing at up to 1.4′ per hour.

Back into into the Columbia I paddled upstream, not to Clatskanie or to look at the islands but to find if a portage exists. It looked worrisome as the shoreline was fenced until an informal launch appeared.

There are tracks of a vehicle backing down to the water.

Like a catfish flopping between lakes in Florida, I headed for the road.

There I encountered a sign and a poor frog that had both suffered from traffic.

The Westport Slough. No other boats and positively no cargo ships.

It was this deep near the shore as I sat and slid into the water and made a wake.

A twenty minute portage wasn’t slow, but I had 2 hours until sunset to paddle 6 (really 7) miles down the slough to Westport. At 3 mph it should only take a couple of hours, right?

Soon a seal popped up its head not more than five feet away. It stared at me, snorted and submerged as I scrambled for a my camera. Every few minutes I could hear a splash and a snort behind me. Could be worse, could be giant tentacles.

The morning fog was returning down the hills. It reminded me of art we have purchased from Betty Lu Krause, one of our favorite local artists.

Prints of ‘Foggy Morning’ are available from her site; long sleeve T-shirts are here.

title: Foggy Morning

Soon I saw the Watach Drive bridge that marked the turn around for a previous summer paddle from Westport three years ago. The distinctive but abandoned Myong’s Seoul Food restaurant’s red roof just west of Clatskanie can be seen on the left.

Soon I would see the idyllic floating cabins I had photographed last year.

Instead I was surprised by someone’s tragedy from the recent heavy rains and flooding.

The second building was gone altogether.

As the sun was getting lower the cars on the highway turned on their lights and the ambient noise of traffic increased. I won’t share my video of traffic noise on a smooth woodland slough. Instead, here is a one minute video from a few miles back of birds. We have been watching the BBC show Winterwatch where expert photographers capture daily wildlife with excellent microphones, tripods, and long lens cameras. My microphone was wet and packed away, my paddling may seem loud, but here is today’s effort.

The Kerry West Marina is always worth a look.

Finally, over an hour after sunset, Westport appeared.

It was time to text home, change into fresh dry shoes, and load up using the park’s new lamps. Four vehicles pulled in before I left. A couple got out to admire the view and new park. I like to think one of them might have been an officer checking on my van.

From the phone’s Map My Walk app, is today’s route in black.

If I hadn’t stopped for sightseeing for 1.4 hours, and had the route been 12 miles like I first estimated, I should have made it back to dock before dark. It was a wonderful trip after finishing up some big winter projects during the past five months.

14.3 miles traveled in 5 hours and 3 minutes with a maximum speed of 5.4 mph averaging 2.8 mph.