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Black River

Trip

Flatwater Packraft - Black River

Exploratory run through a low-flow wildlife habitat

Contacts

Alex Bond
Alex Bond
Primary Leader
  • flatwater, Class I River
  • Moderate
  • Mileage: 12.0 mi
  • 4 (6 capacity)
  • FULL (2 capacity)
  • Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
  • Fri, Nov 14, 2025 at 5:00 PM
  • Cancellation & Refund Policy
  • iCal Google

This is a trip to paddle the wild stretch of the Black River. The river goes through dense riparian vegetation and swamps, so it should feel quite remote despite being near the road. It is one of the largest wetlands in Western Washington and is an important habitat for many birds (150 species of birds, I’m told), fish, amphibians, and water mammals. 

The river flows extremely slowly and is purely flatwater, so we’ll need to do nearly all the work to get us down the 10 miles ourselves. I expect this to be a relatively strenuous trip - we won’t go fast, but it will be fairly continuous paddling and take hours, so please be prepared. I expect there will be some hazards like wood in the water, but since it’s flowing so slow the technical challenges should be minimal, it should be relatively easy for us to navigate around anything. 
Let’s meet at the takeout at the Oakville Boat Launch at 9 am and from there we’ll shuttle to the put-in at the Black River Boat Launch. 
Route/Place

Black River

Roster
Required Equipment

Required Equipment

Minimum equipment for each participant

To reduce pack weight, minimum requirements are:

  • Packraft
  • Paddle
  • Life jacket, PFD Class III or better
  • Boat repair kit

Equipment may be shared, provided that everyone has required equipment when they are on the water.

Recommended Equipment

Where weight limits permit and as more time is spent on the water, parties may consider bringing:

  • Knife attached to PFD
  • Drysuit or wetsuit
  • Neoprene socks or thick wool socks
  • Oversize, closed-toe, sticky soled, river shoes or boots
  • Neoprene gloves
  • Throw bag with floating safety color rope
  • Spare paddle
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