Day 4 on the Rogue River with my Biscuit 45

Day 4 on the River

We woke up the next morning to clear skys and a light breeze. There were NO, I repeat, NO mosquitos yet and we sure enjoyed it. I got up early and had a cup of coffee with Debbie. Nothing beats hot coffee on the river. Slowly but surely, everyone crawled out of their tombs from the previous night and got things packed up for a full day on the river. we planned to do roughly 8 miles and just take the first good sight we could find.

After about an hour on the river, the wind really got going. It was blowing us upstream quickly if we didn't paddle. On the way down the river, we stopped at one of the famous jump rocks that Josh and his friends used to play at. Unfortunatley , it wasnt as warm as it usually is on the Rogue. BRRR! We will return when it's warmer! YES!

(beow) Our bug tent ...can you say PERFECT site?

(Below) Me enjoying some of the flatwater....

(Below) Kellie and Tyler in their cute, but masculine, raft ;)

(Below) eh he he he

(Below) our picturesque lunch break spot

(Below) the jump rock- twas cold water!

(Below) we were one awesome "herd" :)

After about six hours on the river, we found a great campsite on river left. Josh isnt sure what the name of the campsite is but it was a pretty sweet one. However, Josh and Kellie couldn't figure out why they hadnt camp there previously. We quickly learned why. The sun didn't set until 9:30 ish and until then, we were baking on sand. Ugh.

Josh found a shaded spot up in the trees where we enjoyed our dinner and gradually migrated back down to chill on the cool sand. Thanks to Tyler, we even had a fire.

check back soon for the final update...

Keepin' it fun and local in Silverton

It just rained here in the tiny town of Silverton, Colorado for 24 hours, hard. In the spirit of keeping it local, saving gas, and paddling in our backyard I rallied the "Silverton A-Team" (Jen Ross, Michael Barton and I) to go run our local manky creek this afternoon, Cement Creek. When you paddle this one, you don't need to take your vitamins 'cause it's chock full of iron and other heavy metals from the mine debris upstream. Actually, I try to keep my mouth closed and stay upright. But it's not often that the gold Jefe nearly matches the color of the water!

Then, still wanting more excitement, Michael and I decided to go back to a run we had explored early in this spring, the rarely-run Mineral Creek off of Red Mountain Pass. The water was up, up, up from all the rain, but we thought it would be good to go because we'd scouted it for wood after it peaked and had previously ran it at a manageable level. But this time, in the first mile we found a lot of scary new wood and super fast tight blind turns. After barely catching a tiny eddy right before a drop with a hidden log in it, I decided that this was not condusive to my new project; that is, the Keeping Kayaking Fun project.
I realized this year that paddling should, above all, be good for the soul. For me, that's good friends, wild places, and the feeling of knowing water intimately. It shouldn't give me the feeling of just narrowly escaping severe consequences. If it just doesn't feel right, it doesn't matter if the run is "only" class 4, or "easy" class 5. So even though at lower water levels this is a pretty easy run, I had no problem walking out of there today. Live to paddle for years to come, and paddle to feel confident and alive. -Maria K.

P.S. Speaking of keepin' it fun: I got a quick lap in on the Upper East on a whirlwind trip through Crested Butte. Here's the greatest boat ever, the Jefe, boofing like a charm:

Day 2 and 3 of the Rogue River Adventure

The next morning we woke up early and headed into Medford for a bit of a search. We needed some sponges and duct tape. A quick visit to Lowes solved that issue and we headed back to Leinman for a few hours of playtime.

Pretty awesome spot

The always graceful...getting in

Josh playing around...

Me establishing that my body is out of shape...darn that sick month I had.

After thoroughly wearing ourselves out on the water, we drove to Eagle Point where Josh's grandmother lives. She is such a sweet person and we wasted no time in getting caught up. She has a nice chunk of property with a GREAT pool...he he he this meant lots of cannonballing off the diving board later on. While Josh explained how the kayaking has been for us, I set out our gear to dry and smelled all the roses. Talk about bringing back memories of Texas! We used to have about 30 rose bushes next to our old house too. Anyways between the paddling, the diving board, the visiting, and pizza; we had an awesome afternoon in Eagle Point.

The rest of the family arrived at 9 ish in the evening after a full day's work in Bend. They were pooped from the long drive. Some discussion later, we headed off to bed and tried to catch some zzz's. This wasn't tough and I settled in to my bed snug as a bug in a rug.

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Our trip leader, Josh, requested that everyone be up around 7:30 to get the day going early. A few coffee pots later, we were on the road with a 1.5 hour drive to get to the put-in. We arrived around ten at the Galice Ranger station where we picked up permits and organized our shuttle service.

We unloaded all of our gear from our truck and Tyler's and proceeded to pack our paraphanalia. Steve used an inflatable kayak while Josh and I paddled in our spud boats. Our gear boat was captained by Josh's mom, Debbie. She was actually one of the first women to row rafts on the grand canyon. She's a pretty impressive river rat! :) Tyler and Kellie captained what I would like to call the "Green Bean Machine". As Tyler would say, "It's cute in a masculine sort of way". Ha ha ha!!!

(Below) Our multiday crew... L to R: Tyler, Kellie, Steve, Josh, Debbie

Our trusty gear boat captain- Debbie Mckeown

Josh and I in awe of Josh's personal "table"... AKA Overthruster

The famous Rainee Falls-twas a fine line at this flow...no thank you

Behold! Our first campsite!

We all arrived at our first available campsite around 3 ish and we took it! There are a few primo sites on day 1 and we got one. It had a nice open beach area with flat camping available. This site just happened to be just across the river from Whiskey Creek cabin so that night Josh and I took a quick hike up to see it. Pretty cool! Those first settlers of the area were nuts. Talk about in the middle of no-where. wow.

Back on track, Josh and I were on cook duty for the night and boy did we cook up one mean meal! Spaghetti with marinara sauce and basil....WITH garlic bread! It pretty much kicked butt. Our only mistake was that we cooked TOO MUCH. Can you believe that? I think I ate the most out of everyone. How wrong is that?! Sun set around nine but I didnt go to sleep until I had spent a sufficient amount of time enjoying the stars. Beautiful! If only I had my telescope...

Check back soon for more pictures of the camp and our second day on the river....

This is Christina, over and out....