UnCruise Adventures uses the tagline, “UnRushed, UnCrowded, UnBelievable.” During a recent cruise through the Columbia River Gorge, staff did an impressive job keeping passengers UnConcerned. It was a week of intense natural disasters. Some passengers had lost homes in Hurricane Harvey, others were staring down Irma, and everybody was trying hard to breathe as wildfire smoke filled the gorge. Despite these setbacks, we had a good time with UnCruise Adventures.
The SS Legacy at Cascade Locks. Photo courtesy UnCruise Adventures
Cruising with UnCruise Adventures
The seven-day cruise aboard the 88-passenger SS Legacy began and finished in Portland, Oregon. After a short journey on the Willamette River, we reached Columbia, where we spent most of our voyage. We cruised east to the Snake River, which runs through Washington and Idaho, then west to Astoria, Oregon, where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean.
Unlike most of UnCruise’s offerings, this trip focused on history rather than outdoor activities as we traced part of Lewis and Clark’s water journey. Shore excursions were primarily educational, including museum visits, the Bonneville Dam, and Multnomah Falls.
Multnomah Falls. Photo courtesy of UnCruise Adventures
UnCruise Activities
The Legacy is a beautiful 192-foot ship modeled after an 1898 coastal Gold Rush steamer. While it has all the modern conveniences, the décor is faux Victorian, all dark wood moldings, and old-fashioned brass fixtures. I felt very much at home on the ship since it resembled the living room of my 1913 house.
Captain Lyman Louis steers with an old-fashioned ship’s wheel. Photo by Teresa Bergen
As a small ship on a history mission, the Legacy didn’t offer glitzy entertainment or a casino. Instead, the three onboard heritage guides invited guests to nightly presentations. Jenny Wolf, David Diaz, and Taylor Wilson-Prim were a key ingredient on the trip, tirelessly offering insights into area geology, history, and culture. Topics of their talks included Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail, Nez Perce history, and wine appreciation.
During a nearly 48-hour cruising stretch, the staff offered extra entertainment, such as teaching us a Nez Perce gambling game or playing poker with the captain in the Pesky Barnacle Saloon, a self-service whisky bar.
Watching the scenery go by was a top activity. Photo by Teresa Bergen
Highlights of the Cruising Adventures
I asked many of my fellow passengers what their favorite parts of the cruise were, and most agreed that our visit to Hells Canyon was the best day. The smoke followed us to Idaho, but that didn’t keep the wildlife from showing themselves.
Cruising through Hells Canyon on a smoky day. Photo by Teresa Bergen
In Clarkston, Washington, we left the Legacy for smaller jet boats and ventured into Hells Canyon. The geology was impressive—some of the world’s best examples of columnar basalt, according to our guides—and the animal sightings even better. We saw many Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, mule deer, wild turkeys, and herons, and even a bald eagle catching a fish.
We saw dozens of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in Hells Canyon. Photo by Teresa Bergen
Another highlight was the morning J.R. Spencer, aka White Bull, boarded our ship in full Nez Perce regalia. “Our people approach things in a childlike manner,” he said, then told us jokes until we relaxed into a similar state and could absorb his stories.
Nez Perce knowledge is all contained in stories full of animal characters, especially the tricky Coyote. These tales are told to children from the time they’re tiny. When they get older, they tell them to their children. “No matter how often you heard or told the stories, you learned something new,” he said. His songs and stories had us riveted.
J.R. Spencer, Nez Perce storyteller. Photo by Teresa Bergen
Amenities Onboard The Legacy
In addition to heritage guides, the Legacy employs two full-time wellness personnel. Shela McAnally and Julia Moore took turns teaching gentle yoga every morning at 6:45 and giving each passenger a 20-minute massage sometime during the trip. I especially liked the novelty of doing yoga on a ship. Most of our classes occurred on the top deck, giving me my first experience of doing yoga while going through a lock. But a couple of mornings, it was too smoky, so we did yoga inside the Pesky Barnacle—my first time doing yoga in a whisky saloon.
I also appreciated the small selection of exercise equipment—five cardio machines and a few free weights—aboard, as it’s hard to stay fit as a cruise ship passenger. Some of us also walked laps on the third deck, but the boat was comically small for that purpose. Sixteen times around equals one mile.
The lounge had an excellent library full of books on Columbia Gorge geology, Lewis and Clark, Hanford, Native Americans, and Oregon lore.
A selection from the shipboard library. Photo by Teresa Bergen
Dining on the Cruise
Sit-down shipboard meals happened three times daily, at approximately 7:30 am, 12:30, and 6:30 pm, depending on the itinerary. As somebody with a limited ability to chat with strangers that early, I was happy UnCruise offered a continental breakfast in the lounge as an alternative. Those who’d rather sit and read the paper or look out the window showed up anytime between 6:15 and 8:15 am for oatmeal, pastries, fruit, toast, and granola bars. There was even a self-serve espresso machine.
A beautifully plated dinner, courtesy of Chef Ian Charles. Photo by Teresa Bergen
As chief steward, Julio Valle Puerto told me, any given cruise includes an assortment of food allergies and special diets. As a vegan, I was the problem child on our cruise. But the staff never made me feel that way. UnCruise offers vegetarian options at every meal, and Chef Ian Charles was an expert at veganizing these by excluding bits of egg or dairy. The portions were filling without being overwhelming, and the plating was extra pretty. They even made me creative vegan desserts, like chocolate/avocado mousse and little pastries surrounded by coconut yogurt.
I could get used to chocolate avocado mousse. Photo by Teresa Bergen
Future Cruises
UnCruise has been offering this history-focused cruise for a few years. But next year, they’re changing things up by making the cruise a one-way voyage from Portland to Lewiston and incorporating more adventure options. The Legacy will be outfitted to launch kayaks and will also carry stand-up paddleboards. Captain Lyman Louis assured me there would still be plenty of history, even if he had to interpret it himself.
The new itinerary will probably change the passenger mix. Most of the passengers on my trip were seniors and retirees. After all, the Legacy is the fleet’s only ship with an elevator. Hotel manager Kirsty Blackburn said they’ll offer excursions for various abilities. For example, those who don’t want to balance on a SUP can explore in a Zodiac.
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Keep Calm and Cruise On
Looking back on my recent cruise, I’m incredibly impressed by the crew. While we were on the Snake River, the Eagle Creek Fire jumped the Columbia so that both sides were burning. Authorities closed a 20-mile stretch of the Columbia River between us and Portland. How would we get back? The crew calmly assured us to carry on and not worry about it. They were scrambling for Plans B and C of how the heck to get us off the river. But their calm was contagious. Nobody freaked out. And sure enough, the captain managed to talk the Coast Guard into letting us pass through the dangerous stretch of river. He promised all passengers would be confined to inside spaces for about 90 minutes during the passage.
The fiery stretch coincided with the ship’s trivia night in the lounge. Our three young UnCruise Adventures heritage guides emceed the event and created the clues. I was the only person on this cruise alone, so I joined a ragtag team of people whose spouses or friends didn’t want to play. As we answered questions about Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail, and nautical terms and tried to guess which Facebook status updates would have been written by which historical characters we’d learned about on the trip, competition heated up. We forgot all about forest fires. Later, when friends asked what the fire looked like as we passed through it, I realized I’d been so absorbed in winning that I forgot to look out the window. But our team slaughtered the competition.
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