Solitude in Spring on the Grande Ronde River

So we got a new boat.

A 13'8" Sotar raft to be exact, and it's beautiful.

Kirk's old frame fits, but a new boat deserves a new frame, right??

The purchase lined up nicely with the rising water levels around the state, and we decided to head to the deep chasm of the Owhyee River. Hot springs, ancient canyon walls and a chance to run a river that only comes up high enough to boat once a year (or maybe not) was a powerful draw. I spent the weeks before our trip checking the water levels hoping they would reach 1,000cfs, the minimum we wanted to raft the section from Rome down.

The week of the trip I was disappointed to see it just wasn't going to happen. Water was just too low, so on to plan B. The Grande Ronde! This river doesn't deserve to be second place, but we had already been down it once before in our packrafts and I like to choose a new adventure when given a choice. Water levels were in the high 6,000cfs and would carry us much more quickly down the river than our previous September trip.

I got back in touch with Grant at Minam Raft Rentals to see if he wanted to join, but his brand new baby boy, Callan, was keeping him close to home. So Kirk and I loaded up our gear along with our friend JJ and his kayak, and drove late into the night from Bend to reach the put-in on a chilly Wednesday evening.


So here we have it: a new raft, the photo essay:

Rigging...hmmm, how does this all fit?

Ok, ready!

The Steelhead were running

We found some beautiful camps

I give the oars a try

On our ride out we got to look upstream at the majestic river.

We love this part of the state. We didn't see any other boats on the water and had the privilege to see 2 bears, some mountain goats, and tons of elk. Just a wonderful weekend, despite a little rain.

Hikertrash

Here is my shameless little plug for my new business: hikertrash.

What is hikertrash you might ask?

Backpackers who are out for weeks or months on the trails often are mistaken for the homeless...it could be the smell, or dirt, or ravenous way they attack any kind of food in town. The phrase is common on the trails, and I have been self-identifying as hikertrash for years.

A few years ago I taught myself how to screenprint, designing primarily bike graphics, but a few hikertrash graphics crept in there too.

For this recent incarnation I have partnered with Brian Frankle, founder of ULA packs and designer for Six Moon Design's new pack line. He has the business sense, I have the incurable enthusiam for the hikertrash lifestyle.

We are starting with a line of trucker hats, shirts, stickers & coozies, but have lots of other products and designs in mind.

A percentage of our sales will go to support one of the three long distance trail associations in the U.S.: Pacific Crest Trail Association, Appalachian Trail Conservancy or Continental Divide Trail Coalition.

So take a look, buy a hat or let us know what other kinds of things you would like to see.

Thanks!

Get in the Boat

Hmmm, it's been over four months since we've been packrafting.

If I'm honest with myself, our trip down the Minam River in July has a lot to do with the gap. It was beautiful, challenging and exhilarating, and I got scared by some of the bigger water.

Time to get in the boat.

Beyond Packrafting...Rafting the Lower Deschutes

For a while I've been wanting to start writing about some of our other trips, we get out in so much more than packrafts, but is this blog the right place? Should I start a separate site for adventures other than packrafting? Or include all our trips here? Not sure quite yet, so for the mean time I'll include them here.

For Thanksgiving we decided to yet again head for the water. Last year you may remember our packrafting trip on the North Fork of the John Day River, it was complete with Turkey and pie and dropping water levels.

The year before we rafted the Lower Deschutes River from Warm Springs to Maupin, and we decided to complete the journey and raft from Maupin (for those familiar with the area we actually put on below Shears Falls at Buck Hollow) to the Columbia River.

As two years before, we were joined by two good thru-hiking friends, Speed Stick (Mary) and Luigi (John). Instead of all piling on one raft this year, Kirk and I decided to borrow a friend's Super Puma.

That is one sexy boat.

We had been talking about getting one of these bad boys...for many reasons. One, together we could boat some bigger water than I'd like to solo boat...Kirk started out the pitch by showing me people R2ing waterfalls and Class V water.  I would love to boat more stuff like that, but don't know if my packrafting skills will progress to that level (or if I want them too...) but with Kirk in the boat directing our paddle strokes I could see us running A LOT more stuff. Two, we could outfit this boat for longer trips and even set it up as a mini oar-rig. (And we probably wouldn't have to carry other people's stuff!). Three, we only have a 14' bucket boat right now. Four, this can go creeking!

We put on the river at Buck Hollow, approximately 40 river miles from the Columbia River. We had a 10 lb turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, green beans, rolls, wine and enough beer to float us for the next four days. Mary was watching Bella, our friend's black lab, so she came along for the ride. 

Beer and dogs make good companions on the river.

That morning we dropped into the Deschutes River canyon amid a freezing fog...once the sun hit us we warmed up a bit, but the air was cold and our late fall sun didn't break through the thousands of feet of canyon walls very often. 

At noon we still didn't have much sun in the canyon.

Frozen waterfalls marked our way.

We made camp the first night and set to work heating up the Turkey and fix'ns. YUM.

Mary and John dig in.

Thats the stuff!

We woke to a bitter cold morning, everything was frozen and putting on the water when the sun was still behind the canyon walls wasn't an exciting prospect. But, we donned dry suits and sipped hot coffee and it got better.

Our float was fairly mellow. Most of the rapids of Class II & III would be the following two days, so we floated along and enjoyed the sponsored goods Mary brought (she is the only girl I know sponsored by BEER. Thanks to Hop Valley out of Eugene, OR we had plenty of bevys all weekend.)

The impressive canyon continues

Hop Valley Rocks!

Camp the second night was a cozy affair, a fire kept us warm into the darkness, but the temps were warmer than the night before and all were happier for it.

We cooked up a pound of bacon and a dozen eggs in the morning to get us fueled up for another chilly day on the water.

Camping in the kitchen is only a good idea if you are an early riser....

More boating, more water. Kirk and I were enjoying the R2ing in the Super Puma....getting closer to wanting one of our own.

Super Puma on the move.

We were the only boats on the river.

Toasting a great trip.

Our last camp was a bumpy burned-out affair, a fire this year left much of the lower river corridor scorched.

The only flat spot around.

Our final day saw a few rapids and I have to say, the Super Puma did quite well. We'll be seriously thinking about this boat in the future.

The terrain got milder and we started to see the wind mills that trademark much of the Columbia Gorge today.

The canyon gets milder.

We took out about noon and finished with cold turkey sandwiches. Yet another awesome river trip with good friends.

Super Puma in our future? I hope so.