My family really enjoyed our vacations in Central Oregon this summer, spending plenty of time outdoors hiking, swimming and playing the putting course at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond. I think my favorite activity, though, came on the last full day of our second week in the area. That afternoon my daughter Sarah, her two boys and I enjoyed a fun couple of hours kayaking on the Deschutes River.

We arrived at Seventh Mountain Resort, located halfway between the town of Bend and the Mount Bachelor ski resort, shortly before our appointed departure time. Sarah had booked our trip on the outfitter’s website earlier in the week. Seventh Mtn Rafting offers both whitewater rafting excursions and flatwater kayaking and paddle board trips and operates out of their shop on the grounds of the resort. The resort, a WorldMark by Wyndham property, offers year-round appeal, with an on-site golf course, biking trails, and access to snowshoeing and cross-country and downhill skiing in the winter.

We decided the kayaking trip would be the best fit for our crew. The outfitters accept paddlers as young as 6 as long as they have some swimming skills. James, at 7, met those requirements, and Sean at 10 was eager to show us he could handle a kayak on his own. We met our guide, Geoffrey, who then escorted us to the van, hauling our craft on a trailer hitched behind, and got us settled. He would be escorting just us four, and we enjoyed chatting and getting to know him as we drove over some pretty rough Forest Service roads to get to our put-in spot on the Deschutes River.

We helped Geoffrey hoist the kayaks off the trailer and got fitted with our life jackets and grabbed our paddles. The guide gave us some instructions, helped us get into the kayaks (Sarah and James shared a two-seater, while Sean and I each paddled our own craft), and then pushed us off into the water to practice our technique while he went to park the van and trailer. He soon joined us on the water in his own kayak and led us down the river, sharing information about the geology, flora and fauna we might see along the way.

The stretch of the river we were on was quite smooth, with a current that didn’t seem to move too quickly. We would have about two hours on the water and would cover a little over 2 miles of the river, so we had plenty of time to look around. Geoffrey directed us through a narrow passage on one bank of the river, nearly invisible with a cloak of tall grass and cattails, to a quiet pond inhabited by beavers and river otters . . . who unfortunately chose to not make an appearance. Geoffrey shared more information about efforts being made to restore some of the river habitats such as this backwater, and pointed out areas where the water plants growing in a tangle beneath us suddenly gave way to deep, dark water. He told us we were floating over submerged lava tubes which tunnel all over this volcanic landscape, some dumping water into the river along its course. (We’d see evidence of this farther down the river.)

Once we headed back out to the main stream, Geoffrey left us to paddle on without him as he returned upstream to retrieve the van and travel down to our haul-out point. Entrusting me with a walkie-talkie in case we ran into difficulties and needed to contact him, he headed off, and we proceeded to enjoy a leisurely paddle downriver. It was a very peaceful, relaxing excursion, and only the thickening storm clouds that were building over the mountains to the west of us gave us a little cause for concern. (Luckily, the threatening rain didn’t materialize until we were driving back to our resort.) There were other kayakers and paddle boarders on the river, but there was plenty of space for us all.

Sean proved himself a natural in the kayak, and we only had to worry that he’d get too far ahead of the rest of us. We made sure he knew when and where we had to pull out, as not far below our haul-out point the river would change from a tranquil waterway to raging whitewater rapids. We all arrived at the designated spot and queued up with all the other paddlers departing the river. Geoffrey arrived at just the right time to help us untangle ourselves from the kayaks and get them hauled up on shore. We helped load our kayaks and gear back onto the trailer and piled back into the van, but our adventure wasn’t quite over yet.

Geoffrey parked our vehicle a short drive away and handed each of us a snack bag, complete with fruit, baby carrots, chips and a sweet, along with another bottle of water. Then he led us to the river bank, where the water now roared and frothed as it made its way steeply down through a narrow canyon. Here we could see on the far bank where streams of water were spilling out from the rocky sides into the river, evidence of those lava tubes hidden beneath the surface. We strolled a bit further, amazed to see how quickly the nature of the river had changed over just a short distance. It was a bit dizzying to look down from a high perch into the roiling waters below. Geoffrey obliged us by snapping shots of our group   before we reluctantly returned to the van for the trip back to the Seventh Mountain Resort. I don’t think it was until we got back into our own car for the half-hour ride back to our condo that we realized how tired we were from our “relaxing” little paddle on the Deschutes! It really had been a fun afternoon, and I would gladly do it again on our next trip to Central Oregon.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor