I have uploaded the pictures from the vacation to Flickr; now I just need to put them together into blog entries, which will take a bit of work. You can look at Flickr to see the pix for the time being while I get blog entries together to tell the stories, but in the meantime, I wanted to put up a small event from August.
I've told the Babe about the joys of rafting for years and we finally got out to do it. Steve & Andy came down and stayed with us for a few days (a real pleasure in itself; I'm very keen on the Babe's family). We drove out to Belknap Hot Springs, which is a lovely resort with hot springs funneled into swimming pools and rooms looking out over the river and into the forest. (The resort has been there for a long time and has a wonderful and friendly history.) It's also the jumping-off point for High Country Expeditions raft adventures.
All of us got into vans and rode to the drop point on the McKenzie River. We had all been warned to bundle up for being on the water, with a particular injunction to not wear jeans or all-cotton things because they'd get soaked and we'd freeze. The water was very cold, they assured us (48 degrees), so dressing warmly was a major consideration. We all had nylon shirts and plasticized pants and so on for the occasion. The guides gave us life vests and rubber shoes and nylon overpants as well. I felt like I had way too much on but I knew that it was going to be bloody cold when we got onto the water.
We got into raft groups. Most of the rafts are 6-person rafts, but there was one raft that is a 4-person raft with the guide sitting in the back with oars, so the four of us got into that one. Guys being guys, Steve and I got into the front and Andy and the Babe got into the middle seat. Each group carried their raft down to the water and we boarded, then waited for the rest of the rafts to assemble.
While we were waiting for the other boats, out guide stepped us through some practice paddling so we could get the feel and the rhythm. The other rafts did the same as they got into the water, too. We were finally all ready to go and we set off down the river.
The McKenzie River is a gorgeous piece of the Pacific Northwest. The weather was great for a day out on the river messing about on rafts and it's quiet and fresh and green.
As we floated along, the guide told us a lot about the river and the surrounding area and pointed out evidence of the 1964 floods, which had been a 1000-year flood. Every bridge we saw was new since the flood, he said, because the ones that had been there at the time had all been washed away. In some cases, the water would have been 15-20 feet over the road deck on some of the bridges. Oy. (There was also a flood in 1996 that our guide told us about. This one wasn't quite as bad, he said, but it was almost as big. The 1964 flood was much bigger and more damaging and most of the new bridges that had been built were stronger and a little higher in places. Or maybe there just wasn't quite as much debris to wash downstream at that point.)
Because of our dry summer, the river was low and it wasn't more than a difficulty 3. About 15 minutes in, we hit our first rapid.
We paddled hard and bounced around a bit.
As it turned out, I was on the side of the boat that got splashed a good deal more. Steve, on the left, got splashed a fair amount, but I'm of the opinion that I got more of it. Well, if I hadn't wanted to get wet, I wouldn't be on the river.
These rapids weren't very big, so it was more like having a bumper car ride with water and lots of whooping from the raft.
Having gotten down this part of the river, things were much calmer for quite a while. As we drifted along, we occasionally saw people sitting on their decks and a few groups of people fishing. The guide pointed out some truly exceptional eddies in the river for fishing including one where he said it was almost impossible not to get a fish. The guide said that he'd seen 32-inch trout pulled out of that spot. I was very interested to hear more about that.
The guide also told us about the houses and the resort cabins we were seeing along the river, some of which were truly dazzling. He also showed us where he and the other guides live, a few cabins on the river run by the rafting company. It sounded like a wonderful summer job: lots of exercise, fresh air, and the opportunity to lounge around when not on duty. We also saw several collections of resort cabins. Between these and the fishing, we started talking about a larger family vacation with the better part of a week on the river for next year or maybe the year after. It should be a lot of fun; like I say, I really like hanging out with the Babe's family.
A while later, the guide told us we were getting to the hottest rapids on this particular trip. He briefed us on what we were going to be seeing and how we'd handle it.
Most of what we needed to do was just keep paddling strongly so we could keep the raft moving forward straight and true.
We went over several large boulders in the river that we could feel passing under the raft. As we were doing all of this, I kept thinking for some reason of the Lewis & Clark expedition, who'd been doing all of this kind of thing in canoes, which are noted for their relative lack of stability compared to rafts.
We all came out at the bottom of the rapids wet and laughing. Shortly thereafter, we pulled the rafts in to the landing point and hoisted them up to the trailer. We shucked our life vests, overpants, and rubber shoes, then got out of the water clothes we'd worn and changed back into the clothes we'd brought with us and drove back in the vans to the We drove out to Belknap Hot Springs. It was definitely part of our plan to do some swimming in the hot springs swimming pool (which isn't as hot as a hot tub, but it's close in places and very balming after being out on the river), but we were all starved, so we drove up the road about 8 miles in search of burgers and hot sandwiches to a restaurant we'd noted earlier, then came back to the resort. We swam a while, then set out for driving home, but we were absolutely required to stop at the restaurant again on the way home for dishes of really good local ice cream.
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