Whitewater Rafting the White Salmon - Columbia River Gorge -- May/June 2025

Wet Planet Whitewater Rafting - June 2, 2025 

We found a bald eagle in the tree with the mountain. 

Today, we had a booking Wet Planet whitewater rafting for the White Salmon half day trip, meeting at 9am. We booked on Viator because it has a more flexible cancellation and later payment. Wet Planet called before for my email address, so that we could do the waiver signing beforehand since Viator did not collect this for them. We all completed this, so everyone received the detailed email before the trip. I was reading Owen's email; we were supposed to arrive 15 minutes before. 

We headed the east, longer way, with no toll road again. They had parking, two buildings, and dressing rooms. We were early. We had to pack up camp today (hotel for the next two nights, woohoo!), so we got up early again today. The check-in desk had a sign that said that they would start check-in 30 minutes before. We went to the cafe and gift shop. Travis and Joel each got a mate drink (like from South America) that was very hot, so they drank slowly. The coffee machine broke the day before. There was a restroom here that we visited, and we looked around the shop. At check-in, we were marked here and given info about leaving everything in the car and leaving the keys with them. I had the waterproof pouch for my phone to take pictures; they discouraged this as an active tour that you would not be able to stop paddling to take pictures. There were calm areas for pictures, but I guess it is riskier if rowers are distracted with their phones. We did not have anyone fall in. They also sold pictures that they took -- $30 for 1 and $60 for all or more than 1.

At the start time, we were first given a talk and then wetsuit, boots, and jacket. Our guide also said that we could have extra layers if we would be cold, but hard to know what was going to give one a comfortable temperature. We did get cold. We got into these clothes in the dressing rooms. In the pre-information, we knew that we needed a bathing suit. Owen and I wore ours in the car and had dry clothes to change into after. Travis and Joel changed there. With everyone one in this layer, they handed out lifejackets (called PFD -- personal flotation device, which I did not know, they used the acronym, and later we saw fliers and pubic service announcements to wear your PFD -- lots of public service announcements in the Northwest) and oars. It was us four, two gentleman, the guide on the back of the raft, and an additional guide in a kayak on our trip. 

Next, we hopped into the van, which was pulling a trailer with the raft and kayak in the back -- all oars in the second row -- for a short ride to the put-in place. Though we were supposed to have gone to restroom before the wetsuit -- Joel went here at the put-in location; that seemed annoying. It had a parking lot with restrooms. Here we got the scary talk; it was a lot and scary. Our water was not rough enough that anyone fell out. We then carried the raft down to this cool slide that the put-in had. It was two raised rails that the raft could be slid on most of the way to the water. The guide used an oar under the front to help it slide better. 

We carefully boarded the raft. Getting in and out is the hardest for me. Our guide was in the back and acted as the rudder. In the long talk, he trained us on how he would give use instructions like 2 forward, 2 back for a forward or backwards paddle; he showed us how to do both in the talk. There was also a left side only do 2 forward; this one was only used once after getting back in after the waterfall. They sometimes run the waterfall, but we were not today. We went through several rapids and had some calm areas. Our guide pointed out birds and other areas along the river. We got out to go around the waterfall; our guide with a rope lead the raft down the waterfall. Then we got out for the jump into the river from a bridge. This sounded scary, but I had to try it. Everyone did it. I was the worst because I landed on my back. I told Travis later that I was scared so closed my eyes. He said that I needed to have looked and aimed feet into the water. It was scary, and I was sore and shaky for the swim back to shore, climb on shore, and then back into boat. Oh, well, I tried. Other than my jump, we did well as a rafting a team. At the end, we rode back in the van, changed and dried off, and were done.

After leaving, we drove south back to WA-14, and this time headed west on the Washington side. On the drive, I was unsuccessfully looking for lunch. Not finding any options, we had snacks in the car and planned a stop at Popeyes in Vancouver, WA, the first city that we were coming to. I wanted us to stop at the Bonneville Dam on the WA side; you cannot get to this visitor center from the OR side. Another truck check, and we were in. The door said not backpacks, so Travis ran his back to the car. We were told on the OR side that more fish run through the WA side. We indeed found this to be true and without a school field trip in progress. The ladder where we could see fish:  

 

The viewing area; we saw a lamprey eel here too that Owen got a good picture of. Then Travis and I as eel mouths.   

We did not scope Vancouver out as a future retirement area very much. We were on the east side only; however, it was a very nice area -- I could live there based on what I saw. Popeyes hit the spot; we got a family meal deal that they had advertised on the window. 

Then we headed toward the hotel, discovering the WA to Portland city traffic. Traffic had been good up to this point. Our hotel was Extended Stay America Premier Suites Portland - North. It was available to book on booking.com, but looked shady because it was not on google maps or was rather another hotel then. It seems like it had new owners who just refreshed it and opened. It was nice and in good shape, while still affordable. The lady at check-in said that she wanted to give us one of the bigger rooms since we were four people with five bags. The staff was all very nice. The hotel is called suites, so probably all rooms have a kitchenette. The kitchenette had a burner plate, sink, microwave, and full size refrigerator/freezer. I forgot pictures of the hotel (and in our wetsuits earlier), grrr. The hotel was in the northeast part of Portland. It had a big parking lot and was quiet (did not hear people banging doors or running down the hall in the middle of the night). There was a small grab and go breakfast available. Depending on when you went down and what they had just put out, things like granola bars and mini-muffins, with coffee. The only shady part of the hotel was that there was a smoking area by the front entrance where there were always people lingering around.  

For dinner, the guys walked to a convenient store near our hotel to look for some microwaveable meals for dinner. They found Nissin Asian ramen and some Velveeta bacon mac and cheese. The Nissin was the best. They also found some brand name Oreos in this partial sleeve; we were not sure that was an Oreo enforced way to sell them. 

Next up...Exploring Portland

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