Multi-day paddle & camp on the Willamette River, Oregon
Last weekend, I joined the Willamette Riverkeepers (an incredible Oregon 501(c)3 nonprofit) and about 70 other paddlers on a two-day, almost-30-mile journey on the Willamette River.
This annual event, called the Pinot Paddle, drew folks in from across the country. Read on to hear about our camping and kayaking Oregon experience, experience the visual journey with our photos and videos, learn tips for multi-day kayaking (including some of my favorite gear items), an overview of the hardshell single kayak I rented, and some key safety measures that truly kept our crew safe for the journey.
All photo credits: 2024 Flatwater Kayak Club
About Willamette Riverkeepers
For nearly three decades, 501(c)3 Oregon nonprofit Willamette Riverkeeper has proudly served as the eyes, ears, and voice of the Willamette River. Their mission is to advocate, educate, and investigate to hold the line for river health.
2024 marks a change in leadership for the Riverkeepers – Bob Salinger, the new Executive Director, took on the role just a few weeks ago. He has a storied and successful history leading the Portland Audubon Society (now called the Bird Alliance of Oregon). On this particular paddle, I really enjoyed learning about birds from him – especially on the success story of bringing back Oregon’s wild peregrine falcons.
Various leaders with the Willamette Riverkeepers and affiliated groups led safety, conservation, and educational talks throughout the 2024 paddling trip.
“We believe that a river with excellent water quality, abundant natural habitat, safe for fishing and recreation is a basic public right. ”
About the Pinot Paddle event
This popular annual event navigates through Oregon’s largest wine region, the Willamette Valley, where pinot grapes thrive in our perfect balance of temperature, humidity, soil, and water. It’s a fun, friendly, and popular two-day event, hosted by nonprofit Willamette Riverkeepers.
The celebrated Willamette River Trail is a beautiful stretch of nature that I’ve kayaked countless times. This unique kayaking event offers amazing river recreation, great company, and the opportunity to enjoy world-class pinot noir wines… as well as explore some wild and remote-feeling stretches of the river.
Many spots along the Willamette River are only accessible by paddle or plane and feel very wild and remote. Motor boats were not allowed on most of the route we traveled in summer, 2024.
2024 event highlights
This year marked the 5th Annual Pinot Paddle event. Some highlights included:
Two days of scenic paddling and gear transport,
Wine tasting from local vineyards featuring Pinots and other varieties,
A conversation with the wine makers,
Delicious catered meals from McMinnville local caterer, Biscuit & Pickles, paired with locally-produced wines from throughout the Willamette Valley,
Spacious camping along a quiet back channel (on an island!),
Education about the State of the River and how to support the work Willamette Riverkeeper is doing to improve the river's health.
Location
The kayaking launch point was at Marine Wallace Park in Salem. The paddling route followed the Willamette River Trail downstream and ended in the very charming (and Rodeo-famous) town of St Paul, Oregon. Our camp-out was on a little island about halfway between the two destinations.
“While not remote in the traditional sense... the Willamette contains a range of natural areas and relatively quiet spots that offer seclusion.”
Paddling distance
In total, we paddled 28 river miles over the two-day event. The distance was about evenly split over the two days.
Recommended paddling skill level
The event came with a safety disclaimer, including how fluctuating volume, upwellings, strong eddies, and strainers can create challenging navigation issues. It was strongly recommended that participants understand basic paddling skills and some experience traveling on moving water.
After participating in this event – and witnessing two water craft flip over – I can’t agree with this more. I’d even add the following: intermediate kayaking experience at a minimum, strong swimming ability, the smart sense to wear a properly-fitted life jacket, awareness of cold shock symptoms, comfort and skill to navigate moving water. The Willamette stretch we paddled did not have whitewater rapids, but it was by no means flat the whole time.
It’s also helpful to note that not everyone on the trip used a kayak… there were canoes and paddle boards as well.
“There is really no good reason for any river traveler not to wear a PFD.”
Event cost
Each event ticket cost $479. This seemed a little pricey to me at the time of reservation, but wow, this event requires a great deal of people, planning, resources, and organization. Plus – you support an incredible nonprofit that is really working hard to conserve and protect our beautiful Willamette River. It was worth every penny.
The fee included wine tasting fees, full-pour dinner wines, a catered dinner Saturday, catered Sunday breakfast and lunch to go, ACA event insurance, water trail river guide, safety boaters, live music, and the camping gear + shuttle transport. The transport was so helpful. (And, for what it’s worth, this is the full amount I paid to join as well. I did not attend on a press badge).
2024 wine event partners
Yamhill Valley Vineyards, Lingua Franca, Gonzales Wine Company, Cramoisi Vineyard, Illahe, Winter’s Hill.
More things to know about the Pinot Paddle
Kayak rentals: A limited number of rentals were available, so if you do this, rent your canoe at check-out. Personally, I rented my single Delta kayak from Portland Kayak Company for the weekend (separate from my event ticket) and coordinated the transport myself. More on my thoughts/review on this kayak soon.
You camp overnight. You bring the gear, the event planning team shuttles it to the campsite. View the recommended packing list here. This packing list was super helpful – I followed it completely. You need to know how to set up your own tent, but we had plenty of time to do so before sun-down. It was very relaxing and felt very safe. And the coordinated transport effort by the event planning staff was awesome.
The event is held rain or shine. But July is historically the most ideal time to paddle this beautiful area. We experienced beautiful, sunny weather during the 2024 event. Peak afternoon time did hit around 90 degrees, so it was hot, but there was a breeze and the multiple swimming stops really helped cool you off. At night I didn’t use my tent fly and was perfectly comfortable in terms of temperature.
NOTE: Flatwater Kayak Club had no affiliation with this event (it’s planned and operated by Willamette Riverkeeper), but I attended as a paying guest who loves kayaking the Willamette River, camping experiences, likes meeting people, and enjoys a nice glass (or two) of Pinot Noir!
Just a heads-up, this post contains affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.
Our Willamette River Valley multi-day paddle & camp experience
As the founder of Flatwater Kayak Club, I was so excited to join the Willamette Riverkeepers for a multi-day paddling trip on the Willamette. Snapped this photo right before we launched on day 1 from Salem, Oregon.
Willamette River Map
At the start of our journey in Salem (the put-in), we were all given a copy of the Willamette River Water Trail Guidebook & Map. This is a waterproof, spiral-bound, in-depth guide and map that is updated every year. It’s an invaluable resource! I highly recommend that anyone paddling the Willamette River – and looking to venture into new areas – purchase a copy of the guide online.
In addition to detailed maps, the guide also provides insight into the first peoples of the area, wildlife, invasive plant species, river safety, and more important information for anyone looking to enjoy and protect our beautiful Willamette river.
“The Willamette is the traditional home of the Kalapuya people.”
Our paddling route began in the city of Salem, Oregon, at mile marker 84.5 on the river – Wallace Marine Park (although we didn’t park there overnight, and I don’t recommend it, due to recent vehicle break-ins). I won’t publicly share where we did park.
This put-in had a wide stretch of rocky beach, so it was very easy for us to group together, sign all our forms, listen to our leadership and safety crew, and launch in our boats together downstream.
From Salem, we journeyed through some incredible wild and remote-feeling river, passing Willamette Greenway sites that are managed by different counties, parks, and owners. Our final destination on day two was San Salvador Park, at mile marker 57 on the river map.
While much of our journey was what I’d consider flat water paddling, there are many points with swift-moving current, upwellings, and strong eddies – in addition to woody debris in the water, which can pose incredible danger to paddlers. I highly advise being a strong swimmer, an intermediate paddler in skill level, and traveling in groups (ideally with folks who have some safety training, such as Red Cross CPR/First Aid certification and water rescue knowledge).
My Delta kayak
For this multi-day paddle and camping trip in Oregon, I rented a 14’ Delta kayak from Portland Kayak Company (Mike, the owner, is awesome and helped me secure the kayak on my SUV roof rack easily and safely too). I also renewed my Oregon kayak permit.
I’ll share more about my thoughts on this single Delta kayak next week, but overall highlights: I felt super safe, it’s a drier ride, and my legs were really comfortable throughout the weekend paddling journey. I also appreciated the roomy hatches.
While we didn’t have to transport our camping equipment for this event, I think it would’ve been possible for me with the huge stern (back) compartment. But I had plenty of space to carry food, extra water, my dry bag, towel, spare clothes, extra hat, boat sponge, and other key paddling items.
Willamette River Trail wildlife observations
You can see so many amazing Pacific Northwest birds on this stretch of river. We observed at least a dozen bald eagles on this trip, including several juvenile birds.
Did you know that a juvenile bald eagle has black feathers? They don’t have a head of white-plumes until about a year of age. (Check out our tips for spotting a wild bald eagle). Here are two videos I captured of several Oregon bald eagles from my kayak boat:
One key highlights was witnessing an osprey swoop down alongside us and catch a fish in its claws. It was an incredible moment of raw nature at play. As the osprey started to soar high above, it dropped the fish in the water.
On this multi-day kayak trip, I also saw peregrine falcon, great blue heron, egret, swallows, turkey vulture, and killdeer (a type of bird that has quite dramatic predatory-distraction methods, such as pretending to have an injured wing, to keep their nest and eggs safe). The only large mammal I saw was a White-tailed deer mom and baby running along the banks of the river.
But keep your eyes and ears open: many other common wildlife species live along the Willamette River, including several kinds of owls (great horned owl, Western screech owl, barn owl), red-tailed hawk, nighthawks, bobcat, coyote, fox, raccoon, opossum, rabbits, and wild turkey.
We saw many osprey on our adventure, including this osprey nest.
Event culinary, wine, music, and camping experience
After a long first day of paddling the Willamette River (about 14 miles, with several Greenway stops along the way for swimming, eating lunch, and listening to conservation workshops), it was wonderful to stop, relax, set up camp, and have a catered dinner for us (complete with tables & chairs – a camping luxury as well!).
Food
Catered dinner at our campsite.
Biscuits & Pickles, a local catering business in McMinnville, Oregon, made our delicious meals of salmon, chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans with Oregon hazelnuts, and various salads and desserts. Biscuits & Pickles also made breakfast for us the next morning and boxed up lunches for our day 2 paddle.
(It’s worth noting that there were food options for vegetarians and vegans as well, and that at event registration time, you’re able to enter in your dietary needs/restrictions).
Wine
I bought a bottle of Cramois Vineyard Pinot Noir to bring home. The owners are lovely folks!
This event is the Pinot Paddle after all, and it didn’t disappoint in this category! We enjoyed tastings from Willamette Valley vineyards throughout the evening, and full pours of our favorites at dinner.
There was a variety of wine options for wine aficionados to enjoy, including rose, Chardonnay, and several Pinot noirs. These felt like very “boutique wines” – several owners themselves were there, so it was fun to really hear about the wine business and their agricultural commitment to the river. (You could also buy wine and it was shuttled to the end point the next day, you didn’t need to worry about transporting it yourself in your boat).
Also worth noting, for those who pass on alcohol: there was sparkling water, regular ice-cold water, and some other drinks available at all times in coolers on-site. It felt like a real luxury to fill up your water bottle and hydrate with cold water.
Music
During dinner, we also enjoyed the fabulous music of a local alternative folk band, Bootleg Rose. They were so good, and the perfect backdrop to fun evening conversation with new paddling friends around the dinner table.
Camping
Our take-out was on Wheatland Bar, which has an array of natural habitat and feels wild, rugged, and remote. The camping zone was flat and plenty large enough to accommodate all of us. And because I know great minds want to know – they supplied port-a-pottys for our group as well.
I was glad the evenings cooled off a bit, and I had a cozy tent, bug spray, and a light long-sleeve shirt. I was very comfortable and slept well under the stars with a nice breeze.
I loved the sound of the bull frogs at night, and waking to musical songs of so many bird varieties. Download the Cornell Merlin bird ID app – what a great resource to identify birds by sound. The morning doves were especially lovely to listen to while I gently woke up in my tent.
Important river safety advisories
Paddling any waterway comes with inherent dangers (and to take part in an guided, sponsored experience like this, you’ll have to sign at least one waiver). On the Willamette, there are many places with obstructions in the water (such as large, woody, fallen logs). There’s even whitewater and rapids (although we didn’t paddle along those milestones on the river).
“Obstructions in the water are the number one hazard on the Willamette and other rivers!”
Last weekend, I personally witnessed two canoes capsize. I can tell you that these events came to a great surprise to the folks involved. What was crucial in those situations – which ended with all humans being safe – is that all parties were wearing properly-fitted PFD, had a whistle attached to their life jacket to alert safety teams for help, and they were strong swimmers who knew what to do in an unplanned moment of water crisis.
I know I preach about the importance of wearing a life jacket while kayaking all the time, but truly, after witnessing events like this, and recent Pacific Northwest water recreation news, please wear your PFD every time you paddle. It can be literally the difference between life and death.
Event recap conclusion
This event marked my first time exploring more of the Willamette River over a two-day, overnight paddle. It was a glorious, profound experience. I was so inspired being out on the water for extended periods of time, learning about the current challenges and priorities for river conservation, and meeting some amazing people from around the USA. I loved it, and can’t wait to do more with Willamette Riverkeepers. Maybe I’ll see you at Pinot Paddle in 2025?
One of our many refreshing swim breaks on the Willamette River, summer, 2024.
About Flatwater Kayak Club
Flatwater Kayak Club is a leading digital platform dedicated to supporting beginner and intermediate kayakers in the Pacific Northwest. Our company founder, a former writer for The National Geographic Channel and current ACA member, guides our mission with her passion for kayaking, nature, and storytelling.