Situated about 95 miles west of Portland, Oregon, the town of Nehalem and surrounding areas offer some of the Oregon coast’s most diverse paddling venues.

The town sits right on the Nehalem River. You can do a car shuttle paddle from 6-10 miles upstream into town. Paddling in Nehalem Bay offers tidal conditions protected from the ocean by Nehalem Bay State Park. There’s also ocean kayaking and surfing.

The last week in May, I joined Sam as we guided Bob and Pam, two friends from Boise on a three-hour float on Nehalem Bay. They had been paddling with Sam several days that week, and this was their last outing. We also had two others along – Max, our intern, and Barney – a digital videographer from Portland.

We loaded up the boats and cars early in the morning at Northwest River Guides’ headquarters. We managed to arrive exactly at the pre-arranged spot at 11:00 a.m. in the town of Wheeler, also on the Nehalem River. Bob and Pam seemed to be in high spirits as the day’s weather looked perfect.

As the tide was dead low and coming in, the idea was to launch out at Nehalem Bay State Park boat launch, out in the bay, and ride the incoming tide into the river and end back in Nehalem. After an initial briefing on the bay, safety considerations and boat orientation, we headed off. Looking out into the bay, one could see buoys tilted toward Nehalem, away from the bay – indicating an incoming current. The speed of the current was evident by floating objects moving with it. The tide was still very low, exposing much of the mud. We explored the north side, checking out the mud islands and the narrow rivers of tide running between, filling up the gaps. Before long, tiny wave trains of tidal rush sprang up. Fauna included crabs, hundreds of clams, fish, ospreys, bald eagles, and great blue herons. While there is a herd of Roosevelt Elk on the north side of the bay, we didn’t see them. As we neared the town of Wheeler, we took a side inlet which cut off our route from the main river. We hoped the rising tide would lift us enough for passage around one of the islands.

Exploring the inlet was great fun. It did in fact lead to a way out to the main river at the end, and since it was below the headland, it was protected from the ever increasing sea breeze. It was warm and relaxing in this area. You can’t witness this natural setting in a motorized boat – it’s just too shallow. Once in the main river, we could see we weren’t far from our take out.

We had a great paddle with Bob and Pam at Nehalem Bay!