We finally made it home from our Wild and Scenic Rogue River kayaking trip in Oregon yesterday. We put on Tuesday, Aug 25, and took out on Thursday Aug 27th.
Tuesday morning was pretty straight forward, went to the Galice Lodge and organized our shuttle and had breakfast. Food was okay, but not great. Organizing the shuttle was pretty easy and painless. We then had to pick up our permits from the BLM office, which is just a few miles down from the Galice Lodge. When we got to Graves Creek put-in, a commerical rafting company (NoahsRafting.com) was stopping by there. We got a chance to talk to them and both the guides were really helpful and told us we could tag along with them since it was our first time down. We decided to get going and meet up with them a short while down stream at Rainie Falls.
Normally, back home we have at least a mile of easy class I/II to warm up on, but if you put in a graves creek, you have about 100 feet to warm up on before you hit your first two class III rapids. These were pretty straight forward read and run type rapids. A few rocks here and there, but fairly easy to navigate through. The water on the Rogue river is different than what we are used to back home, it is a little murky, and the eddy lines are not as well defined, which makes for an interesting after rapid experience. Christine and I agree that if these rapids were on the South Fork American, they would be rated class II+ at most. In general, our thoughts are that most of the rapids were overrated just a hare in classes.
Next up was Rainie Falls, which is Class IV/V depending on which line you take. There is a fish ladder that is Class III+ on the right which is what Christine opted for. I chickened out and portaged on river left (pretty easy portage), which also put me in a good position to get some good pictures of Rainie Falls (Main Chute) and Christine coming down the fish ladder. Christine said she was glad I decided to portage because the fish ladder was very rocky, narrow and technical. She thought I could do it no problem, but said if I wasn't feeling it, better not to risk it. A flip in there would not be fun since it's so shallow and a flip is likely. She said it's rating of Class III+ was appropriate given it's technical nature and consequence.
After Rainie Falls, its a nice easy going float with a few easy class II rapids, the scenery was very nice and pretty. Lots of birds to be seen. Next up was Tyee rapid, which was Class III (really a II+). We eddy'd out above to do a little scouting to see what we were dealing with. It looked pretty straight forward, Right of center, move far right, then cut left along with the curving right bank. Fun rapid.
Next up was WildCat rapids, which where Class III (more like class III-) and we had fun in these. There were some rocks thrown about on this one, so we kind of had to navigate around them, but no problem. Again, the scenery is quite beautiful, as it always pretty much is throughout the trip.
Slim pickens was an easy class III (III-/II+) with a hazard (old metal barge sucken on river left), fairly easy as it didn't leave that much of an impression.
Upper BlackBar Falls was a fairly straight forward class III rapid (rated Class III+). The best line is far right to left of center. I liked this rapid a lot. Not too difficult but fun. Before I ran it, I saw a two person Inflatable Kayak run center line and they got trashed and I got front row seats to some carnage. This was the IK riders first time down class III (and I think this trip was the first time they even went down a river in an IK). One of the riders told us she knew they made a mistake and they were off line from the start. Her first class III swim as a brutal one.
Lower BlackBar Falls was pretty easy too. Big wave train right down the middle. Center line is best. Both BlackBar falls reminded me of the first drop into Lost Hat on the Gorge run of the South Fork American River. Not particularly difficult.
After Lower BlackBar Falls rapid on river left is a moored Drift Boat marking the place to get out to hike up and catch the short road to the BlackBar Lodge. It's a good idea to tie your boats up, in case the powers that be decide to let more water down the river from the dam. You don't want to loose your boat(s) :-). I personally like the feel of the BlackBar lodge a lot. They have a generator for power, so lights out at 10pm and they turn back on a 7am whether you like it or not. Some of the cabins have light switches, some don't. What is nice, everyone gets their own little cabin. The cabin sizes range from 15-20 feet long and 12 feet wide. They each feature a private shower, and toilet, with a sink. The beds were actually quite comfortable. Dinner is served at 7pm with lemonade and snacks put out around 6pm. Dinner was pretty good, a typical turkey dinner. Breakfast was served at 8am, featuring pancakes, fruit, eggs, and ham. They provided us a fairly descent lunch to take with us which was nice. They gave us stuff to make wraps, including flour tortillas, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, turkey and roast beef.
Day 2:
After pulling out of BlackBar Lodge, we headed downstream. There are many campgrounds to be seen for the next few miles. One notable rapid which is rated Class III, but was really a Class II+ called Horseshoe Bend. Mostly some class II rapids in between long periods of class I moving water. Normally I hate flat water, but it was nice cruising in the current and checking out the beautiful scenery.
Mule Creek Canyon is probably my favorite experience on this trip. It is very interesting because at the top, there is a rapid called Jaws, which is just class II, and then below that the river narrows into a sheer rock wall canyon. There are many S-Turns with very turbulent water. You want to stay away from Telfer rock. There are some pretty good sized holes. Basically you want to follow the S turns, staying almost center most of the time but when turning stay to the inside of the turn. Stay off the walls! If you flip here, you will have a LONG swim because the rapid is long and there are no easy eddy's to catch, if at all. The grand finale is called Coffee Pot, which is basically huge boils that come up from the bottom, they come and go, sometimes as big as 3 feet tall. Christine and I both were doing tons of low bracing and a few high braces. My recommendation is stay on top and do your best not to flip. If you flipped and you managed to roll up, you could be knocked over again as soon as you make it up. Very respectable hydrolics in this rapid. This rapid challenged both of us and there were quite a few "oh shit" moments. There isn't anything like this on the South Fork American River, our home run.
Blossom Bar (which is rated at Class IV-) was very interesting and pretty. Basically there is a picket fence, and if you don't make the class II move into the chute on river right, you will float into the picket fence where class IV consequences are. I opted to portage for fear I might miss the line. The river isn't going anywhere, so maybe I'll feel better about doing it next year. Christine opted to run it, and she made it look easy (she is better than me, and she has more guts than me!). The portage was not pleasant, watch your butt when climbing over the rock wall on river right. Getting up can be a hard feat when you have a 40lb kayak on your shoulder with about 15lbs worth of gear. It is not apparent either when you get to the top which way to go so you can get down. There is no trail. I had to do a fair amount of walking around up there to chart my path. The way I went down, I ended up falling backward onto my butt and missed my tailbone by less than an inch. Nevertheless, it hurt and I was in pain paddling out of there. The best way to paddle out from where I portaged was the ferry upstream past a bunch of fairly large boulders, and make a few S turns into eddy's along the way to get to river left side of the run where is a fairly simple straight shot out.
Paradise Lodge is on river right a few hundred yards. Unlike BlackBar Lodge, Paradise can be seen from the river, and plus the big sign is a big help. This was the more modern of lodges between the two. Our cabin was roomy and nicer than BlackBar, but BlackBar had a rougher feel to it that I kind of liked. Dinner was at 7pm with tasty snacks put out at 6:30pm. Dinner was better at Paradise Lodge. There was BBQ chicken and ribs, with a great fruit salad, and potatoes with seasoning. Like BlackBar, the only source of power was a generator that goes offline at 10pm and they turn it back on at 7am. Breakfast was served at 8am, which consisted of Buscuits and Gravy, Scrambled Eggs, tasty ham and orange juice. Scones and muffins were also provided. Food was good at BlackBar, but the food was great at Paradise. Downside to Paradise was, they didn't provide a pack lunch, which was suprising since Paradise was more expensive per person than BlackBar. I am thinking it might have been a screw up on their part because the girl we asked was new and she said since we are private boaters we don't get a lunch. Didn't make a lot of sense.
Day 3:
After leaving Paradise Lodge, its about 12.5 miles to the take out a Foster Bar. Most of it is slow moving current with some easy class II rapids, and two class III rated rapids which were really class II+. Both Christine and I got out of both rapids and looked at each other with a "Thats it?" look on our faces. It is important to watch out for the Jet Tour Boats that come up this section. We thought it best to stay out of the middle of the river and kind of stick to one side or the other during flat parts. Good news is you can hear them coming, so it's not like you don't have time to get out of the way. They usually slow down when they see you coming, although once they get .5 feet past you they kick up the throttle and leave you in one hell of a wake. Somewhat rude, but somewhat less annoying in the flat water since at least you get to bob up and down.
Foster Bar Takeout was pretty straight forward, get out of your boat and walk a short distance to get your vehicle, drive down, load up, and take off. The drive to Gold Beach is about 45 minutes from the take out, but from there you have options, go back to Grants Pass or go to Hwy 1 to hit 101 to go down to Crescent City.
Conclusion:
For our first overnight trip, we really had a great time. It was nice just the two of us reading and running the rapids, and it was good we scouted sketchy stuff. We were both more concerned with safety than we were about getting pictures and video and documenting the trip. Next time, we'll have a better idea of what to expect and I think we will get a lot more footage of the rapids and us running them. There are lots of sights to see on the way, and lots of hiking to be done if your so inclined. We managed to make full days of paddling without hiking much so if you plan on doing a lot of hiking or sight seeing I expect your days could be longer. Our average day was put on around 9am, and take off the river about 5pm. Our 3rd day, the paddle out, we got to Foster Bar around 1:45pm. We could have stopped and milked it a little longer, but for me, I just wanted to be done at this point since there wasn't anymore rapids left that were going to be challenging or fun. We had an excellent time though and will definitely be doing this again next year. For a self support kayaking trip down the Rogue, the Lodges are by far the best way to go. We only needed to pack basic essentials (change of clothes for evenings and sleeping, normal hygienic products). Even with as little supplies as we brought, our boats did get heavier which made it more interesting going through the rapids. Next time I think we will be bringing a little food (cliff bars, etc) to have just in case you get hungry and extra water. Better to have more water than you need than to not have enough when you need it.