Alder Creek Kayak & Canoe — Attraction in Tualatin

Not impressed with this location. Used their Ridgefield center for a nice paddle before and the Tualatin location was subpar. Rented four kayaks for two adults and 12&13 yo. First, the system asks for a tip at the online checkout to reserve the kayaks. I provided a tip based on prior experience, although I am not a fan of this type of approach. Because of the experience after check out. We had already filled out the liability release forms so all that needed to be done was give us life jackets. Arrived and the young men asked us to carry the Kayaks down to the water instead of them. We ended up helping since only one of the guys was helping. They suggested we paddle West, which is the direction of the I-5 bridge and a couple other road bridges so it was very noisy. We paddled some East and it was quiet. We returned and no one offered to help us get out, one of the young men was standing on the dock but only made a comment about where we should remove and stack the kayaks on the dock. Then, he asked us to carry the Kayaks back up to their building from the dock. We offered to help carry a couple. Kayaks were also run down, not a safety concern but there were pads hanging partially connected being useless. My wife's back rest had a knot tied to the adjusting strap so she couldn't get it adjusted to support her. The strap could have had the simple plastic securing thingy(?) replaced and it would be functional. So, we tipped them and helped them do their work. Unfortunately, we won't return to...

Location: Easy to find. It's right in Brown's Ferry Park.

The Tualatin River is close to the highways here, so be ready for some traffic noise.

Staff: Very nice, but be ready to carry the kayak or canoe around the building and down the ramp to the dock. And to be able to get into and out of the water from the dock on your own (the staff will help you if you ask them to get down to the water). And then be ready to carry it back up to the building to return it.

Boats: My boat was wet when I was given it. I rolled it to get the liquid out, which I thought was just water. Also, they don't have a rudder, so they don't stay straight without paddling. Need to be cleaned and inspected before they go out.

Experience: Getting into the kayak wasn't too bad, but once I sat in it I noticed it smelled faintly of beer so I thought maybe it would fade as we went upstream thinking the liquid I had dumped out of it must have been where the smell was coming from. Nope, it got worse and then I realized the wetness in the boat was a mixture of urine and beer and it was soaked into the seat I was sitting on. It was pretty disgusting. At this point I was already soaked...so the smell was already on me and would have carried into the next kayak.  We tried to make the most of our kayaking experience and I thought I could tough it out, but after half an hour we turned around and returned the boats.

The staff was nice enough to return the fee for my half of the...

I really wish we had a better experience. They gave us the wrong location in the email and we arrived at a gym down the road, we had to call and have someone tell us how to get there, and even when we arrived there weren't any signs telling us how to get there from the parking lot, so we had to just hope we found it by walking around the park. When we found it I walked up and let them know the type of rental I had, my name, for what time, etc; they weren't rude at all or anything, it's just that they pointed at my kayak and said "that one's yours", gave me two life jackets and literally said nothing else, not even how to get to the water or if I've ever kayaked before or if I needed a dry bag. It was very awkward when I had to get answers out of them the whole time instead of them just making conversation or at least giving me a summary of how to get to the water, advice on how to get in and out of a kayak, how to paddle, etc. The website said $10 dry bags were available for sale so we asked for one and he said they are $15 and we said okay, that's fine. He looked over at a case and said "wait, actually we don't have any, sorry" which left us really confused and with no way of keeping our phones and keys safe and dry. It's a beautiful location to have a chill kayak day, and our kayak and life-jackets were in great shape, but the customer service was...