Cruising Clifton and Prairie Channels

K

Knotty C

New member
Hi All,

Has anyone cruised the Clifton and Prairie Channels on the way to or from Astoria? We are planning a two or three day cruise to Astoria or Ilwaco with a stop at Cathlamet. The Boating Guide for the lower Columbia River indicates it can be done if one is careful, but we're wondering if anyone here has had any experience and/or advice if we decide to do this?

Thanks,

Don and Dee
 
Knotty C":27st5vfy said:
Hi All,

Has anyone cruised the Clifton and Prairie Channels on the way to or from Astoria?
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I paddle that part of the Columbia pretty often, and see quite a bit of skiff traffic ... mostly locals headed out to duck shacks and so forth. A few larger boats, mostly gillnetters, but hardly ever anything else over 20 feet.

None of that channel is maintained by dredging, so I imagine you'd have to pick your way, and that high water would be advised for your first shot. AFAIK, there are no rocks, so that sinkers and old piling heads are the main hazards, aside from the muddy shoal here and there.

I'd want to follow someone with local knowledge through the first time, but once you've done it, should be straightforward. There are a couple bailout spots where you can reach deeper water if it starts to get thin: One at the lower end of Marsh Island, and another, marked route (buoys; no lights) at Settlers Point. The latter leads to the main shipping channel, below Miller Sands. Otherwise, stick with it to Tongue Point.

It is a beautiful, eerie route, and a slice of the Lower Columbia few in larger power boats have experienced. Hope you do it!
 
Larry,

I hug the Oregon side; I don't go north of any islands. The trip should be done at high tide and pay special attention to the 'devil's elbow'. My plan is to do it with whomever wants to go with me April 16, returning on the main channel. Like Dave said beautiful and eerie with plenty of history. The round trip is probably 60-65 miles and the portion thru those channels should be taken slowly as there are alot of deadheads and snags.

Chuck
 
Okay, I give, where in heck is the devil's elbow? I can't find it on my chart. (and don't tell me it's just below his shoulder and above his wrist.) :smileo
 
Thanks for the information. I'll have to look at the tide tables and the chart to see if it's something we want to tackle this trip or not. We might wait and take you up on the cruise in April. If we do go on our own, we'll let you know how the cruise went.
 
Chuckpacific":11rohndk said:
Larry,
I hug the Oregon side; I don't go north of any islands. The trip should be done at high tide and pay special attention to the 'devil's elbow'.
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Also, watch it as you exit the channel separating Marsh and Karlson and make a left, heading for Svensen Island. IIRC, it is shoaly on the port side, but better on the starboard side ... closer to Russian Island. This choice would go on the "north" of Karlson, so it would not be on Chuckpacific's route.
 
That's the course I was looking at. Would we get into trouble if we took the slough to the south Karlson? According to the chart either route would be deep enough, however, it looks much narrower. I do see that you need to hug the starboard side if you go on the north side of Karlson and stay in Prairie Channel. Also, once you get to the end of the channel, do you use the north channel or the south channel just before Tongue Point? On the chart it looks like you can do either.
 
Knotty C":2m8kc7uh said:
That's the course I was looking at. Would we get into trouble if we took the slough to the south of Karlson?

No.

According to the chart either route would be deep enough, however, [the route S of Karlson] looks much narrower. I do see that you need to hug the starboard side if you go on the north side of Karlson and stay in Prairie Channel.

Also, once you get to the end of the channel, do you use the north channel or the south channel just before Tongue Point? On the chart it looks like you can do either.
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If you hug the OR shore, and go past the opening to the John Day River, that would be the charted "South Channel." Gets thin in there, but definitely doable at high water, and with detailed knowledge, midwater to low water, also. The trickiest stretch looks to be getting into the South Channel, near Settlers Point.

The charted "North Channel" was historically used by upbound tugs towing log rafts, to escape the bull ebb current in the main channel, and is more reliable and deeper, but much less scenic.

Not sure how new your chart is. They took out several markers, and were planning to decommission some of the lighted navaids, converting them to day markers. There is essentially zero commercial traffic in the Clifton Channel/Prairie Channel system, these days. Used to be a forest of log booms, and lots of tug traffic, spiced up with hot rodding gill net boats. Now it's mainly guys in C-Dories, "lost." :wink:
 
iggy":2estatpb said:
Go past the opening of 'what' river . . . ?
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Yeah, I know. Not much of a river, and confusingly named the same as the real one in eastern Oregon. On my chart the "R." is obscured some by the opening for the boat ramp. The JDR passes under a railroad swing bridge and hits the Columbia just west of the S end of Lois Island. There is no longer any significant flow, it being diked and tide gated to a nonce. The "river" (really, a slough) runs maybe 2-3 miles up to a dike and a tide gate. Above the tide gate is a swamp. Lotta elk up there.

The boat ramp gets heavy use during sturgeon season. Pretty good ramp -- $3.00 fee to the County -- and great access to the sturgeon grounds.
 
I just want to emphasize that the Woody Island Channel and the North Channel share the distinction of not having benefitted from any dredging over the last 60-80 years. On numerous occasions I have tried to use these but so much depends on the tide and currents. More than once my best power source has been my Tevas and a rope. But this kind of travel and exploration is exactly what I wanted when I bought my CD-22. There are few places on the planet that have as interesting of an intertidal area as this part of the Columbia.

By the way I mispoke when I said I would be doing this trip on the 16th....it will be the 15th, Saturday. Wineman and I will be leaving the 16th to head back to Tomahawk.
 
Chuckpacific":2emgz5s1 said:
By the way I mispoke when I said I would be doing this trip on the 16th....it will be the 15th, Saturday. Wineman and I will be leaving the 16th to head back to Tomahawk.
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There is a minus 0.6 ft low at 10:30 am (Harrington Point) on the 15th, rising to a + 6.2 ft high about 4:30 pm. I'd guess you could run the Clifton Channel down to about the upper end of Quinn at low tide, but it gets thin right there; in any case, I know I'd want more water to do parts of the rest of it!

Hope you guys have a great trip. Let us all know how lovely it was! :D
 
We're going to pick up the two charts that cover this area and make the trip over a weekend. Leave Thursday, stay one night in Cathlamet, then Friday a.m. to Astoria via the Clifton and Prairie Channels. I'm assuming (hoping) that the depths on the charts make it possible for a CD 25 at high tide to make the trip.

We've been wanting to visit the Maritime Museum and this will be a great opportunity to do that, too. Sounds like a great spring break adventure.

Thanks so much for all your advice. We'll let you know how it goes. Shouldn't be any mosquitos this time of year.

Don and Dee
 
Well, we made the trip last week and it was an adventure! We left late on Thursday and decided that we would spend the first night in St. Helens and then get going early Friday morning to make the trip to Astoria. After much debate about what to do with the Dogs, we decided to see how it would be cruising with both of them, so I sent Don in search of life jackets for them both.

Okay, so what that they are both labs and that they should both feel very comfortable around water. So what that Troy is 135 pounds and Belle is over 50. We don't have experience with dogs on boats and wanted to make sure they were safe with us so we spent a fortune to get the best we could get and they were looking good as we set off.

Anyway, so we get to St. Helens and get tied up to the dock just before dark. We decide that whenever the dogs are in the cockpit or on the dock they should be wearing their life jackets. Okay, they are our kids! We take them for a walk around the park, then the town, then back to the boat. Before getting back on the boat we walk to the end of the dock where Troy, remember 135 lbs, doesn't notice the end and walks right off into nothing. Splash!! Donnnnn! Oh, man how do we get him out now?

Thank God for the handles on the back of the life jacket and the very sturdy straps. Don is able to haul him back up on the dock leaving one stunned wet lab wondering what happened.

Next day we head out and see Helen O fishing in the Clifton Channel. We slowed to say hi, then went on our way. We were later than we wanted to be and afraid we'd get to the South Channel too close to low tide.

The trip on the channels was a very nice trip. We did okay with the charts and only got into really shallow (3 ft) once or twice. The Devils Elbow was tricky and you sure want to hug the starboard side going through it.

We decided to go through Knappa Slough and found a pleasant surprise when we came face to face with the Corps of Discovery reenactment in the canoe. They waved and gave us a little show as they paddled by. That was fun and unexpected.

We decided to take the South Channel leaving Prairie Channel and that was a little tricky as we were closer to low tide than we had intended, but we made it just fine. All in all we were proud of ourselves for making it through. Then we got to Tongue Point. And for some reason, neither one of us had any idea what we were in for.

Don't know if it was because of the tides or just the wind, but we found ourselves out in the river with five to six foot waves and an occasional six + foot wave spaced about 30 feet apart batting us around and coming up over the top of the boat. Well, that scared the dogs pretty bad and I was hanging on for dear life and Don was working hard keeping the boat going towards the marina and we discovered our hatch leaks pretty bad. Our choice was to turn back but we were both afraid to do that so keep going we did and finally made it into the marina. I swear within half an hour of docking the boat everything changed and it calmed right down. We found out after some research that the river was at maximum ebb and an opposing strong wind, thus the five and six + waves. Other than the hatch leak the boat took it well.

The next morning we decided to leave while it was smooth as glass and on our way out we cruised over to the Maritime Museum to see where we could dock next time we came to town. After we looked around, I turned the boat around and powered it up to get on our way and about 100 yards out I looked back and asked, "Don, where's Belle?" He looked around in the cockpit and said, "She's not out here, she must be in there." Nope, not inside either. That could only mean one thing, yep, there she was about 100 yards back paddling for all her might towards shore and thank God we could see her because of her life jacket.

We got back to her as quickly as we could with me driving and Don calling her to reassure her we were coming. Our crab pot pulling experience came in handy as I guided the boat right next to her so Don could pick her up like a suitcase and get her back into the boat. Poor baby, she shivered for over an hour from the 45 degree water and also the fear.

On the way back, we saw Helen O fishing in the Columbia River, cruised through Cathlamet but didn't stop. We saw a blue 22, Dancing Feather, anchored right by the Trojan tower.

Boy were we happy to be home. What did we learn from the experience? Check the weather and tide reports before getting out into the river and ALWAYS wear your life jackets. That means everyone, dogs included.
 
What a great trip! Thanks for the story - I enjoyed reading it.

That stretch of river past Tongue Point, where the two channels meet and the wind likes to blow can be a real eye opener. The nastiest water I have ever been over was right there - and that includes the CR bar. Our dog got sick from the ride.
 
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