Portland OR Give me the low down please

[JFresh]

Just moved up to Portland, OR with my 2008 x45. Can anyone tell me where the best spots are to get out on the water? I am looking for the best after work spot, best day trip spot and best weekend get-a-way locations. Thanks for the help.

[JFresh]

Bump!

[FancySauceRules]

Hey, welcome to the NW!

As always, it depends on what you like to do. We live on the upper Willamette and really enjoy it. Pretty much a great after work spot, and like most, best before noon on the weekends. After 1pm on the weekends, we just tie tubes to the dock and watch the mess. There is a ban on wake enhancing devices, but no one is going to give you issues over using your stock ballast for wakeboarding. Surfing is a different story. Using ballast or not, you most likely would get stopped for at least a safety check. Overloading one side of the boat is considered wake enhancing. We only wakeboard and mostly before noon or after 6pm, so we don't care. Also the lack of surfing helps maintain our dock. Also the elevation is regulated between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which nice for all recreation.

The lower Willamette is a little different. More commercial water way. I haven't used the lower in years so someone else should have a better idea of what is going on there.

The Columbia is your other very local choice. We moored our boat there for a couple years. Its one of the largest rivers in the US, and not terribly friendly to water sports. Great spot for wide open surfing, but wakeboarding is limited to choice days before noon or when the wind dies down in Sept or Oct.

For day trips there are a few local lakes but nothing that I have found to be really worth the trip.

For weekend or full week trips, Lake Billy Chinook is nice, but the lake patrols can be overbearing. We prefer the Eastern Washington lakes for extended trips. The lakes have much more developed communities with many of the rentals having lake front property with boat lifts. Also they tend to exercise better judgement in harassing people on the lake. If you aren't putting people in danger, they leave you alone.

[FancySauceRules]

Also, try posting on www.pdxwake.com. Lots of people there with good info. Activity on the board usually picks up as the weather gets better.

[JFresh]

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to hitting the water.

[jeverett]

Welcome JFresh. I grew up in PDX but since moved to Washington, Way more boater friendly; although the pinheads were trying to shut down our local ramp this week to install a zebra muscle inspection station. Not to many lakes in Oregon that are public where you can own a house on the lake but WA is a different story all together. FancySauceRules is right upper Willamette is best and Billy Chinook in C.O. is great for longer weekends it is about 3 hours from PDX depending on were you live. If you hit the Columbia with an inboard watch for sand bars! and shallow spots. If you know how to read the channel your good! they are deep, but once you get out of the channel watch out the bottom can come up fast. Detroit lake out of Salem on Hwy 20 is O.K. but can be rough in the afternoon so it is a Dawn patrol to noon at best for skiing and wakeboarding, type of lake.

[gerbzguy]

Jfresh-

I live in Bend and we hit Billy Chinook just about every weekend. There's alot of room to stretch out and you can pretty much always find calm water somewhere out there. If you can't, party cove is always entertaining! The only time I was approached by the law enforcement was right before I put my letters and tags on. Other than that, they seem to be pretty friendly. From the portland area it's about a 2 hour drive. Hit me up if you make it out this way, I can always use some MC backup in the Malibu infested waters!!!


John

[BrooksfamX2]

Welcome from Oregon also. We live about 60 miles due south of Portland. Spent many weekends at Billy Chinook and Detroit Lake. We have a group of about 10 families from Oregon and Washington that got to Shasta Lake in Nothern California every year. Better and warmer water than anything in Oregon. In fact, we spent 3 weeks there last year and did not put our boat in Oregon water at all........

[JFresh]

gerbzguy we will make it out your way this summer for sure. I dont know about two hours towing the 45 with my f-150. Time for a full size diesel again. Add it to the list...

BrooksfamX2 just drove by Shasta on Monday it looked amazing. It was about 95 the water was already warm and everyone was out enjoying it. I would have dropped the boat in the water except we were full of stuff still left CA from the move. It looks like there might be some great beach camping would like to take the travel trailer and the boat.

[BrooksfamX2]

Originally Posted by JFresh

..................

BrooksfamX2 just drove by Shasta on Monday it looked amazing. It was about 95 the water was already warm and everyone was out enjoying it. I would have dropped the boat in the water except we were full of stuff still left CA from the move. It looks like there might be some great beach camping would like to take the travel trailer and the boat.

We stay at Antlers RV. I am soooo ready to get there..........the lake has been full the last few years also......