Tuesday - Today's adventure was our jetboat ride on the Rogue River, 52 miles each way. We were up and on the road early, our check-in was 8:30 but we were there before 8:00. Joe checked out the boat first, then, of course, I had to get in.
Actually, here's the fleet.
While we were looking at them, we heard sirens and could see smoke, then fire, just across the Rogue River. Just what Oregon needs - another fire! Looked like a house or vehicle fire, and they got it out pretty quickly. We could see 3 fire engines over there, we were surprised that many were available, with their fire resources stretched so thin fighting the Chetco Bar fire here.
Here's a map of our route. This river actually comes from a spring whose headwater comes out of Crater Lake. The Illinois River comes in from the bottom of the picture to join it.
We got loaded, 27 total I think. I chose an inner seat, Joe wanted to be on the outside of course.
Our boat driver worked his way out of the dock area and through all the fishing boats at the mouth of the river. And they were seeing some action!!
There were a lot of fishing boats out here. We actually thought about coming back here tomorrow and hiring a fishing guide, but the prices ($150/person for 1/2 day) persuaded us not to pursue that idea.
Our driver was good, did quite a bit of narration, had a sense of humor and a sense of adventure. We got to see a myrtle tree, which Joe had been curious about because a lot of the gift shops have myrtle wood pieces (bowls, etc.)
We saw an eagle pretty quickly, then 2 coyotes, then a black bear. We also saw a river otter, several deer, a turtle, a couple more eagles, several osprey and hawks, Canadian geese, blue herons, egrets, and various other birds and/or water fowl. Most of that we didn't get pictures of, but here's what we got. Between my camera acting up and the animals not cooperating, we missed most of them. (Those river otters are FAST!)
We came upon Fish and Wildlife seine-netting, looked like they had been pretty successful. They told us the water temperature was 62 degrees.
We saw several little waterfalls on the river, here are a couple.
The river was slick as glass, except where the rapids were. Our driver liked to spin the boat too, which created its own rapids, so we definitely got wet. We had a lady in front of us who cackled and hid her face every time we spun or hit rapids, and her companions all laughed loudly at her -- got a little annoying after several hours of that.
We passed one sandbar set up with tents, and a young boy across the river from them with a fishing pole. Didn't see him catch anything, unfortunately. We met another boat a little later that had landed a beautiful salmon, which the lady proudly showed us.
We passed fish camps, lodges, and RV parks in the early part of the ride, but after about halfway, there were no roads to the river. The river is divided into 3 sections -- recreational, scenic, and wilderness. Jerry's Rogue Riverboats are the only commercial company with licenses to go into the wilderness section. but we did see several other rafters and one other private jet boat upriver. The first section ends after 32 miles at Agnes, where we made a pitstop and a 300-ft hike uphill to go to the bathrooms and the restaurant. An SUV was waiting to haul anyone up the hill who was unable (or unwilling) to make the hike. We of course hoofed it right up there.
We shared a muffin, then loaded back up. At this point, we had to put on life jackets for the next 50-miles of the trip. Our boat was 32 ft long, 12 ft wide, and had 1100 hp provided by three six-liter Vortec Chevy engines.
Here come the rafters.
At our turn-around point, we had crossed some class-3 rapids, but ahead of us were class-4, so that was as far as we could go. The rafters had probably come through them, but our driver said they usually get out and walk around them.
We passed this awesome tree, that our driver called a "pinosaur (rhymes with dinosaur) tree.
We stopped back at our Agnes stop for a buffet lunch (back up the 300 ft hill). The smoke seemed to have worsened on our way back downriver.
We got back to the boat dock about 3:30, but it was a fun day. We were still a little wet, even though we wore our raincoats (first time this trip) and our zip-off, nylon pants (first time this trip). There was a photographer on the bridge so we got a picture of our boat load. I was a little apprehensive about this jetboat ride (well, maybe a little more than a "little"), but it actually was fun, not bumpy, comfortable, and we saw beautiful scenery and some wildlife. All in all, an excellent adventure!
On our way back to the campground, we stopped at a couple pull-offs that we had missed before. Arch Rock was a nice one, and it even had some wildlife!
Visibility had improved somewhat here on the coast, and the ocean color was actually showing signs of emerald (as opposed to gray, same as the smoke). We are moving on tomorrow, about 60 miles south to the Trinidad area, hoping to get into Patrick Point State Park, where there is an agate beach. We hope to be out of the smoke!!
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