The Willamette was once the lifeblood of Oregon's interior. Tiny little towns that don't even have stop signs used to boast half mile long docks for paddle wheelers to come in and pick up shipments of grain. Even now, 80 percent of Oregon's population lives within 20 miles of it's banks. On our entire trip, we saw only one other group of paddlers - they had started in Albany two days before and were overnighting below Dayton. They were going to pull out at Newberg, our halfway point.