Testing The Waters: Rafting

After a few years away from the John Day River, my parents and I decided that it was time to go back. (Our last trip was in 2005, you can read about it here) The trip was planned and we headed out at the end of April along with my father in-law. The river ended up being higher than we had planned so we added on some more miles and opted for the Service Creek put in. We had 5 days on the river and covered 118 miles. It was a fun trip. Previously, we had run the Clarno to Cottowood Bridge section in 5 days at 4,500 cfs. This time we were adding 40 miles for the same time frame. However, we were also putting on at 13,000 cfs.

The weather cooperated for the most part. The wind picked up and really got going on our third day. I was a little nervous about Clarno rapid knowing that it would be fast with some holes to avoid and with my father in-law a relatively new rafter. In the end, we elected to just read and run the rapid. What a great rapid! It was long, not too difficult of moves, and some nice big waves. We both had nice lines and no problems. Basalt rapid, just downstream, also proved to be a great rapid at this level.

The fourth day ended up being our hottest and the fishing finally turned around. We didn't catch more than perhaps a dozen small mouth bass, but more than we had thought given the high water and cool temperatures.

Nankoweap

Pictures are starting to come in from everyone and the video should be underway soon. Here are a few more pictures from the trip and a brief story. Check back often as I will continue to add pictures and video as I soon as I can.

Danielle and I at Havasu

Keith and DeeDee

The Power of Lava Falls or: How I Lost My Sock

Lava Falls is always exciting, however it was just a little more exciting than normal this time around. A couple of guys in the group weren't up to rowing through Lava so we had two brave volunteers step up to hike back up and run the boats through. Well, after a long wait, the first boat appeared just above the ledge hole and dropped in. Things went well at the start, but the boat ended up too far right, caught a wave and flipped. Nothing special for Lava, lots of boats flip here. However, as everyone jumps into action to go after swimmers and a flipped boat things don't make sense. As the oarsman climbs back onto the boat he looks incredibly pale, not the bright yellow of his drysuit. OHHH!!! HE'S NAKED!!! This now explains the long wait for the boats to come along, but wait, there's another boat coming and he appears naked too. Fortunately, the second raft makes it through without trouble. Some how, a throw rope appears floating right next to the boat the naked rafter throws it to shore and we pull in the boat above Little Lava. Of course, I know they are going to need help to flip the boat back over (it happens to be the kitchen boat). Unfortunately for Danielle, the only eddy I can catch is also were naked rafter #2 is stopped. So, I left Danielle to talk, take pictures and find something else to look at while I scramble up shore to help out. By the way, the first boat over to help rafter #1 is Will and Laura, the trip leader's 17 year old daughter. Well, this was supposed to be a learning experience, a Grand adventure to help her see the world and learn about life. I have a feeling it exceeded everyone's expectations. (We'll talk about the sauna later) Everything worked out well, the boat came back over easily and everyone got dry and warm without too much trouble. Oh, the guys were wearing socks they found on the boat as a last minute attempt at modesty though the river had other ideas. This brief description doesn't do the story justice, but here are a couple pictures.

Rafter #1 post Lava Falls