I was fortunate to go on a vacation that I have always wanted to try. This vacation was a was a whitewater rowing clinic on the Rogue River in Oregon, a 7 day 6 night trip. Check out the itinerary, river route, professional photos and more on the OARS site HERE.
Day 1
We started at Alemda Park in Oregon where we spent the first afternoon getting to know everyone and started classwork (rafting terminology like ferrying, pour overs, and lateral waves, etc.). After a warm afternoon of lessons we set up our individual campsites and settled in a chair circle for dinner and beers.
Day 2
We started with a wake up call by the birds (especially the geese) when the sun started up... I am not even sure what time of the morning that was, but I got up and coffee was already started. The river guide Kevin was the early riser of the guide staff and he started coffee about 5:30 am each morning. He had a special way of making it... according to the staff, which after watching it for several mornings in a row I discovered that his "special way" was just using a pound of coffee per pot. Either way, I was glad to have it. We started with "fake" breakfast which was fruit, yogurt, and granola (this is what the guides called it). Which would be great for me, but about an hour later each day actual hot breakfast was served. Needless to say we ate like kings for the entire trip.
After a morning of lessons we... ate again! Lunch was served before we hit the water. I was paired up with a local chef who works for the company (OARS). When they have fully catered trips my first boat mate travels with the "gear boat" and sets up full plated dinners each night. We only traveled 2 miles on the river that day with 38 miles to go. We found a campsite on a large island in the middle of the river which was covered in large river rocks. Once we all hit shore the race was on to find a small patch of sand to set up your tent for the night. I was able to find a patch of sand but I had to arrange my tent so my feet were below my head.
Day 3
We started day 3 the same way that we started Day 2.... The birds! And a lesson. Knot!!! We talked a lot about knots on the river. How to tie up rafts, how to connect rafts, how to tie off to the shore so we can use leverage to get a raft unstuck and more. Ropes played a much bigger role in this training than I thought. Day 3's highlight was a class 4+ rapid that no one on the trip was going to attempt. We instead were headed to the "fish ladder". The fish ladder is a section of the river that was dynamited out, it is about 15 ft wide at its widest and has some quickly moving water but is really not much of an issue, just put the raft in the channel and you will make it out. I was with David T this day and David is a retired teacher that was kayaked the river 40 plus times but has never rafted it. He allowed me to run the fish ladder because he has done it before. I was pretty nervous because this is the first bit of water that the guides really prepped us for. The nervousness was all for not, the fish ladder was really an uneventful bit of water once you get into it. Dave and I spun around once and ended up exiting the ladder backwards... all in all not too bad.
Day 4
We had a bunch of "read and run" rapids in Day 4 . Read and Run means that the rapid is a small class 3 or less and you need to, read the river, the waves and obstacles, then make a good decision and run the river. Day 4's highlight was our first class 4 rapids, Black Bar. It is a fast moving narrow lane of water. We spent about an hour scouting the rapid and making a plan for the run. I was in a boat with Kevin, our guide and Mary Pat a retired parametric, needless to say I was set for the rapids. This rapid is a two stage rapid with a class 4 on top, then a short set of eddies, then a class 3 rapid. Mary Pat asked me to row the rapids and I obviously agreed, but I offered her a counter. If I could get the raft into an eddy (a section of the river that flows back up stream) after the top of the rapids we would switch. I was able to hit my spot running the top of Black Bar and get the eddy in the middle so Mary Pat and I switched. I however was not going to ride the lower section of Black Bar so with the permission of the guide I decided to do an up river ferry... not with raft but swimming! Then I would take the lower section of rapids with just my life vest... it was awesome! The water was moving so quickly I had to get picked up by a second raft as I went flying right past my intended target.
Day 5
Short day on the river on day 5. After... morning lessons around another great breakfast... I will get to the food, but holy man there was food! We only rafted till about noon this day and we had more lessons all afternoon. Lessons on raft selection, rafting patching, rope buying and selection, etc... We also were spending plenty of time on the next days rapids... The guides were meeting to determine who they thought of the 19 of us was competent and comfortable in running Blossom Bar rapid the next day.
Day 6
Class 4 rapid day!!! Bring it on! I was selected to run Blossom Bar... YES! There were 7 of the 19 of us allowed to row Blossom Bar. The 7 of us were assigned a boat for the day and a guide to run the rapid with. I was selected to row a 16 ft boat with solid ash oars (bigger boat). All week people were complaining about running one of the two boats with ash oars. I was able to do it two days, these oars are significantly heavier than the other oars on other rafts, but if you can manage them they are the best for the river.
Once the rowers for Blossom Bar were put on a raft for the next day others could sign up to be on that raft because not only was there a second class 4 but a challenging class 3 later in the day. Mary signed up for the same raft as me so I thought she would want to run Mule Creek the other class 4 of the day, but she didn't she just wanted a ride. It was a great day for me and very tiring as well. Ten total miles of rowing and some serious rapids to handle.
The rapids went well, Mule Creek is an amazing 1/2 mile of narrow creek with very fast moving water and lots of eddies and whirlpools to get tangled up in and Blossom Bar is a strange grouping of rocks in some fast moving water. The water moves fast but there is a very tried and true way through, however if you miss your hole you get wet and the boat is probably going to flip over then you spend the rest of the 100 yards of rapids trying to keep your head above the water. The guide in the boat with me was Nicole (our trip lead) and she is fantastic! We went over the game plan several times and jumped in the raft. The run went well, I hit my hole and was able to head down the rest of the run with no issues... it was a great experience. I spent the rest of the 10 miles working on my "feathering", "bicycle", and into the wind strokes.
Day 7
Class run day... which means we got to elect a trip leader and a sweeper boat. We elected Dave T, he was a good choice. We also got to run all the rafts without guides I was asked to be in a boat with Matt, he is a IT professional from Los Angeles who works in Denver part of the year. Matt had never been rafting before the trip and was working hard on his techniques all weeklong, he did not get the opportunity to row any of the class 4's the day before and was very eager to get back into the chair. After a 10 mile day I was more than happy to let him run the boat . However, after about 10 minutes of rowing Matt got hurt, yes he is ok. But that meant I need to get back into the chair for another 7 mile day on the river. Not a lot of fast water on Day 7 except on class 3, which I did not take as serious as I should have and got out of the "wave train" which put us in a bit of a bad spot. We went over about a 3 ft drop sideway, needless to say I learned my lesson.
At the end of the river we de-rigged the boats, cleaned up our gear, and loaded up for the drive back to our cars. We had 8 river guides on this trip to accompany the 19 people who were there to learn. These guides were mostly long term guides, but there were a couple that were "relief" guides or training staff. I really enjoyed all the guides and they all brought a lot of professionalism to the trip. OARS is a top notch company and never let me down through the entire process. Everyday this group made a full breakfast, lunch and dinner, then cleaned up the kitchen and still had time to answer endless questions from eager newbies like me.
This was one of the best vacations of my life. I enjoyed the nature, river, education, experience and the people I met on our trip down the Rouge River. Several of us are already planning other trips in Oregon and maybe Colorado for the 2023 season.
Thanks to my rafting mates for sharing their photos and Matt Anderson for sharing some of his GoPro footage with us!
Until next time, pack it in and pack it out.
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