On Monday morning at the Almeda Campground, we were awakened by the honking of Canada Geese and the screeching of a Stellar's Jay as the day started out sunny and hot and and stayed that way for our entire trip! Larry and Edith, who were supposed to have joined us the previous night called and said that they were on the way and they arrived about 9:30. Instead of cooking up our previously planned instant oatmeal breakfast and since Larry and Edith hadn't eaten breakfast yet we decided to head back to the Galice Lodge for breakfast. Michael, Pat and I had eaten dinner there the previous evening and the food was pretty good. The food for breakfast was also pretty good but the service was a little lacking. It took just over two hours for us to eat breakfast! After having been seated for several minutes, we asked for menus and were told that "someone would be right out." Well someone finally came took our drink order, came back with water and coffee, and then left. No menus. When she finally came back she couldn't believe that we didn't have menus yet and the rest of the morning proceeded in the same fashion. We finally hit the river at 2:3o pm after getting the raft loaded. Larry, Edith and BB all rode in the raft with Larry at the oars. Having raft support makes a multi-day trip a whole lot cushier. The raft carried a group kitchen, three tables, a groover, most of Mark and Beth's gear since river kayaks are kind of small for carrying very much gear and they carried a foldable chair for everyone. This was a pretty luxurious trip. Pat and I, between our two canoes, carried all of our camping gear and clothing, and most of our breakfasts and lunches. Tortillas and cheese went into the cooler on the raft.
The late start didn't really concern us all that much because this whole trip is only 40 miles long and we have five days to get downstream. The last section from Blossom Bar Rapid to where we were takeing-out is designated as recreational and as part of the historic use from the old postal service boats, commericial jet boat operators are allowed to bring clients up from the coast sightseeing. So we were already planning on doing that whole bottom section in day and spending the bulk of our time in the Wild and Scenic sections.
The diversity of the greenness in Oregon is stunning. Tall, dark Ponderosa Pines with their spiny needles, soft, muted Large Leaf Maples with their broad leaves, shorter, sage colored Willows lining the banks of the clear green water and dancing gracefully between them the bright green leaves and smooth reddish trunks of the Madrone trees. Michael says that as kids he and his friends called the Madrone trees, naked Indian ladies, because of the smooth red bark on the branches and the trunks. This may not be politically correct; but I think it is a compliment and a beautiful description of both the trees and Indian ladies.
We traveled seven miles downstream on our first day and set up camp at the Lower Whiskey Creek campsite. Today's paddle included three significant rapids (class III and one class V) and several smaller class II's. I didn't swim in the very first rapid, a class II called Argo; but I did swim in the next rapid, Grave's Creek, a class III run of barely covered rocks and some holes. I made it to shore with the help of a tow from Michael and Beth and then Michael was able to push/pull my boat to shore right about Grave Creek Falls, another class III rapid. I bumped my shins and knees a couple of times during my long swim (about 200 yards) but the most bruised part of me was my confidence. Especially sitting 15 feet upstream of "a 3- to 5-foot vertical drop over a ledge." After a couple of minutes to catch my breath I watched Michael disappear over the drop and peeled out to do the same. I had a nice smooth drop over the ledge and I scooted into the eddy on the left so I could avoid the wave train. If my routine from the North Umpqua held, I should be swim free for the rest of the trip, or at least the rest of the day!
The next big rapid is the biggest one on the Rogue, Rainie Falls! We could hear it for several minutes before we even came upon the take-out used for scouting the falls, and taking pictures of it. Here are the options for running Rainie Falls as outlined in the Rogue River Guide Book from the BLM. "The Main Falls has a vertical drop of approximately 12 feet with massive turbulence at the bottom. There are two alternatives to running the Main Falls, the Middle Chute and the Fish Ladder. The Middle Chute is aptly named. Located in the middle of the river, this natural opening in the rocks offers a fast bouncy ride with some maneuvering at the top to enter the chute. Another alternative here is floating the Fish Ladder, a man-made channel along the right bank." A final alternative would be to portage boats and gear around the falls entirely but that is a lot of work! Pat was kind of interested in running either the Middle Chute or the Main Falls but no one was interested in stopping and walking down to take a look at it. This was a bit of a bummer since neither Pat nor I have ever run the Rogue before so we have never seen Rainie Falls! We still haven't really seen it, you can't get a very good view of it from the river downstream. The Fish Ladder has a little bit of excitement to it at the water level we did it. It still drops 12 feet but it does so on a 45 degree-ish slant and the channel isn't clear. There are rocks and bushes sticking out from shore and in addition to this it was kind of hard to even see where the entry to the Fish Ladder was! Michael and I were in the lead and we stopped and jumped out to see if anyone was stuck in the fish ladder. Apparently, if the water level is lower rafts can get stuck on the rocks and it can be a bit of an ordeal to push and pull and rock them free. We signaled to Mark and Beth that the coast was clear and they went past us and down the Fish Ladder. I missed seeing where they entered because they went behind a large boulder but I did see them bobbing and weaving their way to the bottom and out into the pool. Larry and Edith went next, I thought I had moved to a good spot to see their entry but I hadn't moved far enough and I lost the entry to another large boulder, this time I didn't see anything bobbing, weaving, or any other motion at the bottom. Where had Larry and Edith gone? Meahwhile, Pat is headed for the entry but we signaled him to stop and he clambered out onto some rocks out in the river. I think he was hoping for a view of the Falls from out there. Suddenly, sticking out from the left side of the ladder I can just see the blade of an oar frantically trying to catch current. I motioned for Pat to stay where he was and tried to get a better view of where Larry had gotten stuck. Just as I was leaping to the next boulder Larry's raft popped out into the channel and continued down to the bottom. I gave Pat the all clear sign and watched him disappear behind the boulders that I still couldn't see around to emerge see sawing up and down through the waves all the way to the bottom. I breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to my boat. A quick "Are you ready?" from Michael, and away we went. I knew the entry was on the other side of the two big boulders somewhere and sure enough, there was an opening the bushes with frothy whitewater cascading down. The Fish Ladder is steep enough that you really get up some speed on the way down; I had to make a series of corrective strokes to keep my boat pointing downstream after each wave tried to buffet me from side to side but it was quite a thrill!
Two miles later we stopped for the night at the Lower Whiskey Creek campsite. We don't have to use our groover because the upper site has a pit toilet that we can walk over and use. Yeah!
Mark and Beth made a great dinner for all of us and after clean up we just hung out and waited for the stars to come out. This is something that I really miss, dark nights, with warm temperatures to sit outside and look for satellites and constellations without getting frostbite! Out here on the Wild section of the Rogue there isn't very much light pollution, I'd think close to none, and the night sky is stunning! There was more light pollution near the North Umpqua and we were camped in a heavily treed area so we didn't get as awesome of a view as we got here in a clear space with less light pollution.
A pretty great day!
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