GOING ROGUE

The real reason I wanted to stop in Gold Beach is that I wanted us to take a jet boat trip up the river.  I always regretted not doing this in Queenstown.  There used to be two operators here, and they still operate under separate names but last year they merged.  We chose Jerry’s, and bought tickets Thursday afternoon when we took our walk about town.  Good thing, as they were just about sold out for Friday.  We had to get up at o-dark thirty in order to get dressed, eat breakfast, shuck into our wet-weather gear, and walk to the landing.

Yes it was drippy.  We only loaded twelve people here, but stopped a few miles upstream at a resort where we picked up fourteen more.  A jolly bunch, despite the weather.  We got r-e-a-l-l-y lucky to have snagged the front row seats, as you’ll see later.  The casual-looking dude behind me with the flowing belly was sopping wet when we got back.  The cretin in the sunglasses at the left of our row (it was overcast and raining for Pete’s sake) walked over our seat to get to his (instead of stepping down to the floor) and tracked mud all over it.  His wife apologized as we (well, Loni) swished it off with her hand, but he just scowled the other way.  So, almost a jolly bunch.

 

This is the start of the seasonal run up the river for the Chinook salmon, so there were a lot of fishing boats upriver.  This guy caught a beauty and was happy to show it off.

A little further upstream and we came upon this lady, her rod bent almost double as she fought to land what she claimed was her first fish ever.  Well, tip your hat to beginner’s luck.

Back in December of 1964, there had been a lot of early snowfall.  In late December, a warm storm from Hawaii roared in and dumped tons of rain, melting the snow.  The result was a 100-year flood along the Rogue that was incredible.  The river rose about FIFTY feet!  This bridge withstood the onslaught, with the river cresting four feet above the roadway!

When we stopped for lunch, the lodge/restaurant was way up on a hill above the river.  There’s a sign on top of the restaurant marking the level of the floodwaters:

To give you some perspective, I took this shot looking down at the river from a point only a dozen feet from the restaurant’s porch.  Just imagine the volume of water that filled all that expanse that you can see, all the way above where I’m taking the picture.  Unbelievable.

There are quite a few bears in the surrounding area, and the outfits that run raft and dory excursions down the river have to camp out overnight during their runs.  To keep their stuff safe from bears, they have constructed these “educational” electric enclosures run by solar-charged batteries.  Zappo!

A lot of the people running the river take their dogs along.  After a series of unfortunate accidents, they are now required to have their animals wear life preservers.  Here’s a couple of pooches all decked out and ready to float.

The Rogue really is a beautiful river, alternating rapids with calm float waters.

The boat driver had a good eye to spot what wildlife there was, and we spotted some muskrats, otters, all sorts of herons, ospreys, and (look closely now) this bald eagle:

The jet boat ride was a kick, despite having to stop often and suddenly for boats and rafts that suddenly appeared around bends.  The weather eased up about a half hour on the upstream leg, so we had just cloudy skies for most of the run.  We stopped for lunch on the way back downstream, and the rain started in earnest there.  The driver pulled out the tarps and we all huddled under them all the way back.

Now, you’re wondering how exciting the ride was, right?  Well, your intrepid cinematographer was hard at work.

I managed finally to figure out how to post videos to Youtube, and hopefully this link will work.

Once back at the harbor, we took a shot of the route we took, which is the entire length of the picture.  104 miles round trip.  Highly recommended!