Are You Ready To Try Rafting?

 We used to canoe, and traveled all over to take family float trips with our college friends.  We started planning for a trip out west in 1995, and one of our crew wanted us to find a place to rent canoes so he wouldn't have to carry one on his rooftop across the country.  We finally learned ( I think from someone in a Forest Service office.) that the Wallowa and Grand Ronde rivers aren't canoe trips; they are rafting rivers.  We found TRT rentals in Elgin, and soon had arrangements made for our group to rent  rafts, and for vehicle shuttling.  When you call the Forest Service or BLM offices, ask them if they can provide a list of outfitters so you have a selection to choose from.

 Paddle rafts carried most of our group, and we had a couple cargo rafts to carry the camping gear.  The Wallowa and Grand Ronde are white water rivers, and are too rough for loaded, open canoes, but they are easy to navigate in a raft, and are a good transition for folks who want more excitement than they would have on a flat water canoe float.  The paddle rafts require coordinated paddling from all the occupants, and I preferred to be in charge of a cargo raft.  Most of the maneuvering in the cargo rafts is done by back paddling and cross ferrying to position your craft and miss obstacles and rough spots.

 Most of the camping along these rivers is in high desert, and you will need to bring a stove for cooking rather than building campfires.  Here we see Susan whomping up one of her great river meals.

 Desert...think rattlesnakes, all the time onshore.  We saw rattlesnakes at every spot we occupied, but they were little, timid snakes that would move away if you gave them a chance.  We didn't move about much after dark, and always used a good flashlight.  Tent doors were religiously zipped shut to keep the little buggers outside where they belonged.

 We did have Douglas-fir timber at some of our stops, and they sure do smell good to Midwest forester.  You can check out information on this trip on a BLM website, and also on a Forest Service page.

 Get a load of that video camera!  Susan shot a lot of footage over the years with this camera, and it sure is nice to have cameras today that use SD cards.

When you read about this trip you will learn about the Narrows.  This spot is near the end of your trip, and the river chokes down from nearly 300 feet to 50 feet, so it is a bit like being shot out of a hose.  The cargo rafts are easy to center up for shooting this spot, but one of the paddle rafts in our group got off center, and was flipped.  You will have many miles to practice before this little challenge, and you can find several videos of it on YouTube so you will know how it looks beforehand.