A lot of people run the Rogue River in Oregon - so many, in fact, that the Rogue requires permits during most of the year. Getting a permit for late September or early October is easy, because most people apply for earlier permits and people who want to run it later in the season will either grab cancellation permits or will wait for after the permit season. Personally, I really enjoy the late season permit times because the river tends not to be crowded. This trip was on the permit of some friends. We decided to do 5 days on the river, including 1 layover day.
I started out early on Thursday morning with my gear in the SUV and my boat on the trailer. I got to my friend's house and we switched trailers and loaded our boats. We decided for this trip that we would deflate our catarafts attached to the frames. This would allow us to save time later. Three of us took off and headed South. We stopped for a quick lunch, and then made it to Portland in the mid-afternoon to pick up the last person in our party. We then drove down to the Rogue put-in.
In the morning, we were able to inflate the boats on the trailer and take them off. I was a little frustrated setting up my boat because I changed from having a cooler to not having one. This might sound like a small thing, but it affected the way I had to load my boat and it slowed me down a bit. Still, everything got done and I was on my way. I did forget two things, though. I forgot my lunches back at home, and I forgot my water bottles in my car (which was already gone before I noticed it). Luckily, I had water and I could eat leftovers, so I just had to borrow a water bottle.
We got going down the river well before noon, and headed towards Rainey Falls. This rapid has 3 routes. The main falls was too big for our boats. The secondary route, called the Dory Chute, was the best option for the rafts and catarafts. The two IKs on the trip were destined for the Fish Ladder, which is the route with the least water and least danger. I got things started by getting one of the IKers to sit on the rock next to the Dory Chute. I went towards his position, and then took the sharp left turn into the chute. I shipped my oars and the boat went right down the rapid. When I was through, I parked on the other side and climbed up to watch everyone else. Some of our group had decided to scout first, and they walked over. Then came the dumb mistake of the day. A couple of us thought that the second IKer was going to run the Dory Chute, and we didn't want that. We tried to motion for her to go around, but then both IKers went and ran down the Fish Ladder. This meant that none of the other boats knew exactly where to go, and it slowed things down a lot. It took a lot of waving and yelling to finally get those boats moving.
All of the boats except for one had an easy time through the Dory Chute. One cataraft didn't make the turn quickly enough and ended up stuck in the entrance. It took about 10 minutes to get the boat free. The next weird situation was my doing. In order to get my boat out of where I parked it, I had to get down in the frame and push off rocks. This left me with no easy way to get back onto the seat. I tried the tricks I used to use, but my new frame is too narrow for that, so I had to hold on and float while everyone wondered where I was. Surprise!
Once we got past all of the fun at Rainey Falls, we headed down to camp. We were relieved to see that the camp we wanted was free and clear. We set up camp and cooked dinner. A friend and I had the first night, and we made curries (chicken, fish, and veggie) and rice. It was a great end to a fun day.
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