Trip Report: North Santiam River
Next Adventure staffer Eli recently took a rip down the North Santiam River with an organization called Adventures without Limits! Eli is a master navigator of waterways and found a few spots, Carnivore in particular, to be a little too shallow.
--When, Where, Conditions--
When: Saturday, June 6th
Location: N. Santiam River
Conditions: Warm, Sunny day, heat early and all day. Sunscreen and sunglass eyewear necessary!
Duration: 3-4 hours, including lunch (30 min)
--Helpful Info--
Difficulty: Easy - relatively slow water and relatively easy to intermediate rapids. Some options for more challenging courses exist as well.
Kid Friendly? Yes
Pet Friendly? If you usually bring dogs rafting
Useful Links POV view of Spencer's hole and Carnivore
Adventures without Limits
The Report: We put in at Packsaddle State Park, about 6 miles due East of Mill City, Oregon, and proceeded to float in a few IKs down towards Mill City. The total float took about 3.5 hours while also stopping for some lunch. While we did hit Spencer's, we decided Carnivore seemed a little too rocky so we went around this one (going to the left of the island will take you through Carnivore, and going to the right will lead around and avoid it). As far as Spencer's this time of year, there was a lot more rock showing than we've been used to so we decided to pull out on the right hand bank and look it over before going down. (Using some information from this YouTube video is a good way to compare heavy flows from the current levels).
This is the museum across the street from the take out in Mill City. This is a good place to park to leave vehicles to shuttle back. The park along the river and parking area can be located easily by going down the road behind the circle K that leads to Mill City. Then shuttle to PackSaddle.
What a great organization to go on such a fun trip with! Adventures without Limits promotes the mission of making adventures all inclusives, no matter your ability level. Giving kids and adults opportunities to explore that they may not have had otherwise.