Rogue River Raft Trip - June 2024

Our family along with two others have been trying to get a permit for the Rogue for 3 years through the lottery system.  This year we drew a permit and 17 of us across 3 family (Donaldson, Lovejoy, Starling) journeyed down the coveted Rogue Wild and Scenic for 5 nights and 6 days.  Normally the Rogue can be done in 3 nights/4 days but we wanted to travel a little slower and allow for a layover day during the trip and being that this was our first time - give us time to scout some of the more spicy rapids on this river.  

The Rogue river is located in southwestern Oregon.  (see map below).  The wild and scenic section is just northwest of Grants Pass and flows west towards the ocean.  On this map we put on just north of Galice (Almeda Campground and Boat Ramp) and took out at Foster Bar.  Our total float was 38.4 Miles.  

2024 Wild Scenic Rogue River Rafting Guide Map updated

Day 1 - Almeda Boat Ramp to Lower Whiskey Creek Camp (Travel: 7 miles)

We got an early start to drive the 4 hours from Bend to the put in.  We got on the river late morning around 11:30am.  This day included the famous Rainie Falls (video below) of a raft going through the main drop.   We did what’s known as the fish ladder on river right)

  

Whiskey creek camp didn’t have a great unloading zone but the site itself was very nice and there was a beautiful creek flowing to the river just above camp.  Chris cooked his famous steaks with chimichurri sauce, potatoes and wedge salad. (You definitely don’t lose weight on our raft trips)  

The boys brought a rope on the trip and rigged up a small rope swing by the creek.  You can see Abbie and I playing at the creek entrance.  


Day 2 - Lower Whiskey Creek to Lower Kelsey Camp (Travel: 10.6 miles)

Lower Kelsey was I think my favorite camp site on the river.  big rocky gravel beach, funny swimming, great views down the river and shade for the hot day.

Day 3 - Lower Kelsey to Upper Half Moon Bar Camp (Travel: 11 miles)

The section of river immediately below lower Kelsey camp was a beautiful winding section through rock.  Todays float took us through arguably the most challenging rapids on the trip.  Mule creek canyon and coffee pot rapids was a crazy ride that just came up out of nowhere, followed by the class 4 blossom bar.  Half moon bar camp would be our layover camp for two nights.

Day 4 - Upper Half Moon Bar Camp Layover (Travel: 0 miles)

Fun layover day, with lounging, hiking, swimming and attempts at fishing.  The adults shuttled across the river to half moon bar lodge.  Only accessible by boat or by plane.  It was an open day so they gave us a tour, and let us eat fresh berries from the garden.  Their freezer was already full!  It was the best fresh fruit any of us had ever had.  The strawberries were to die for.  Kelly and I both said we had never tasted strawberries this good in our lives.  We decided we would all love to come back here for an adults weekend at some point.  

Day 5 - Upper Half Moon Bar to Upper/Middle Tacoma (Travel 4.2 miles)

Another great camp spot to end off our trip.  Walking distance to tate creek falls - a natural water slide about  mile up from the river.  Great fun.  

Day 6 - Upper/Middle Tacoma to Foster Bar Boat Ramp (Travel: 5.9 miles)

Uneventful and enjoyable float out the last 6 miles to Foater Bar.  Smiles and Chaco tans all around.  Stopped in Grants pass for dinner at In and Out.  Treated to a nice sunset views of the mountains on the way home. 

An amazing trip with perfect weather on the famous Rogue River Oregon.  

3rd annual spring boys river float

3rd year doing a spring float with a Bible study group that Mark leads through the school year. The raft trip is the capstone before the summer break.  This year we did the lower section of the Deschutes from buck hollow all the way to the Columbia River (heritage landing). About 40 miles over the 3-day long weekend.  This includes a stretch that none of us have done prior.  

We had one mishap with Mark’s boat and he had to do a field repair on the outer shell.  Thankfully, it  did not puncture the bladder so able to leverage the repair for the remainder of the trip until he can do a more permanent fix. 

Family Rafting: Lower Deschutes (June 2023)

We just completed a super fun and leisurely 3 day raft trip on the lower Deschutes River, north of Bend putting in at Buckhollow (just outside of Maupin) and taking out at Mack’s Canyon.  It was only about 20 miles making for shorter days on the river and lots of fun at camp.   This trip was with the Lovejoy family as usual and the Starlings, (Chris, Hattie and their 3 girls) who we have known for years but never had the opportunity to boat together. 

We drove north to Maupin and we were on the river around 10:30 on Friday morning.


Camp on night 1 (Friday) 

Warm day so the river and the shade along the shore was greatly appreciated. 

Starlings hosted dinner the first night. They served flatiron steaks, smashed pesto potatoes with a wedge salad.  Chris is a great cook and the presentation was phenomenal.

Classic Donaldson/Lovejoy camp shenanigans.
 
As the trip was only 2 nights and 3 families, we hosted breakfast Saturday morning since there were only 2 dinner meals. We did up spicy sweet potato hash and scrambled eggs along with fruit salad and OJ + mimosas for the adults. 


Camp night 2 (Saturday)

Saturday target was a camp that Chris (has done this stretch of river a number of times) said was the best site by far. We ended up getting the site and it did not disappoint. An A++ site for sure. Big sandy beach, rapids and a great eddy to swim in and park/launch boats.  Lovejoys hosted dinner Saturday and made pulled pork tacos which were delish. Mark got things rolling early with the margaritas which made for a fun afternoon. 


Sunday was a short 4 miles to the take out.  A great weekend trip that was too short. 

North Fork John Day River

This was our second annual year end boys bible study raft trip.  My neighbor and friend Mark hosts a boys bible study weekly through the school year and the raft trip is the year end capstone.  

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/view/river-detail/1519/main

We actually put in about 4-5 miles upriver from the states start at tollgate campground as there was a place to park our rigs. This upper section of the river was narrow and filled with excitement.  It was actually our favorite segment of the entire trip. 

This made our trip approx 47 ish miles for the weekend putting in Friday at mid day and taking out Sunday at mid day.  Friday we did about 12.  Saturday was our long day at over 25 miles and then Sunday was about 10 miles to the take out in monument. 

The put in

Fun on the river

Rafting the Main Salmon River (Idaho)

Our big raft trip for the year was a 7 day rafting trip floating over 80 miles on the main salmon river through the Idaho Frank church roadless wilderness in late August. To get a permit you need to submit a request into a lottery in January. This is a popular rafting river with about a 3% chance of drawing a permit. I got lucky and drew a permit so we planned to go with 2 other families and 17 people.  6 adults and 11 kids.

Here is the location of the river:

The total trip length was actually 10 days.  It took 2 days to get to the put-in on the eastern side of Idaho near Salmon Idaho and then a day back from the western side of Idaho near Riggins Idaho.  Our permit put-in day was Monday so we left our house about 6 am Saturday. 

Day 1

By late afternoon Saturday we were north of Stanley Idaho. There was a gold dredge and ghost town a few miles off the main road so we decided to check it out to take a break from driving.  It’s at an area called Yankee fork  

It was getting towards evening so we got back on the road and started looking for a camp site along the highway. We found a place around 7:30 just south of Challis Idaho and pulled in, and got dinner going.  

Day 2

Sunday we got going early and our goal was to get to the Carey creek put-in by mid day to grab one of the campsites at the put in, get the boats set up and rigged and go through the permit process (request campsites, informational talk etc). It was a hairy bumpy drive the last 36 miles along a narrow dusty road to the put-in where the road literally ended.  It felt like you were driving to the edge of the known lands.  The weather was hot so we slept outside with no tents to make it easier to get going in the morning.  

Day 3/River Day 1 (Monday) 

Launch day!

Along the way we stopped at some native rock paintings 

Our camp site for day 1. Small but nice  the only downside was that just upriver from our camp was a dead horse in the river (with a bridle on) and it couldn’t have been more than a few days old but it was starting to smell a little if the wind was blowing down river  

Day 4 / River Day 2 (Tuesday) 
Today was to be a long river day. Our goal was to push down river 20 miles but then take tomorrow as a layover day.  We got on the river around 9:45 and hit our target camp - Upper Allison around 5 pm. We stopped at a natural hot spring for lunch which was fun. The day had 1 class 4 and a few class 3’s. Interestingly Kelly, PJ, and Jasper all fell in as we went through a hole on an un-named class 2. A lurker!  Our campsite at upper Allison was beautiful sand beach with shade. Perfect for a layover. 


Day 5/ River Day 3 (Wednesday)
Today is our layover day at Upper Alison. Hiking, swimming, ultimate frisbee, good food and good friends.  Kelly and I had leisurely coffee by the river. 5 deer grazed by the campsite. 


Day 6 / River Day 4 (Thursday)
Back on the river for another decent push of 17 miles. Hit the river by 9:15 AM.  Cool in the morning but would climb into the 90’s by the afternoon. This would be our biggest rapid day with the most technical being “Big Mallard” - a class 4 rapid with a very specific line you had to hit as to avoid some bad holes. 
The day started off interesting with a black bear along the river.   The Harris family had a family member and a duffle bag go in the river in the first set of rapids but other than that a successful day and everyone got through the big rapid ok.  Our camp for the evening was a medium sized sand beach called Boise Bar.   Cooler is complete out of ice. 


Day 7 / River Day 5 (Friday) 

Leisurely morning drinking coffee. Also a nice view from the groover this morning. Today is a 10 mile day to a reserved site called Hungry Bar, so there is no real rush. Plus we got to stop at Buckskin Bill’s store a couple miles down the river from our camp.  What an amazing place full of history.  Plus after a hot week and being out of ice, cold soda, ice cream etc was a welcome treat. 

Another warm day on the river with a huge sand beach at Hungry bar so we needed shade, but a fun beach camp. 

Day 8 / River Day 6 (Saturday) 
Got going early today on the river not because of a long day but as we close in on the end of the trip more and more boaters are trying to go after fewer and fewer sites. We got going about 9:30, targeting a site called whiskey Bob. We hit the Whiskey Bob site around 2 pm and snagged it making today a 9 mile day and our last river day tomorrow a 11 mile day. Whiskey Bob is a smaller site so a little tight for our group size but it was still very nice. Today is a little more smokey and overcast making for a melancholy day  - weather and the trip winding down. We went cliff jumping on the rocks across the river which was fun! Also some fishing but no luck there.  

Day 9 / River Day 7 (Sunday)
Last day. Drinking coffee on the river this morning. Cooler today and a little smokier. We aren’t sure where the smoke was coming from being on the river for 6 days and no outside contact. 

After getting off the river we headed in to Riggins Idaho for pizza/dinner.  Turned out the fire was near Riggins.  We had a great dinner and decided to try and drive all the way home.   The Lovejoys, and the Harrises stopped to camp about halfway home. We drove all the way through and arrived home at 4 am. What an amazing trip. 

John Day - Wild & Scenic section - Rafting

Our first major trip of the summer was a 6-day/5-night rafting trip on the wild and scenic section of the John Day River.  This is a 70 mile stretch with a put in a Clarno and a take-out at cottonwood.  Beautiful central Oregon desert canyon rafting trip.  2 years ago we did a shorter section upriver from here starting at Twickenham and taking out at Clarno which was our put in for this trip.  the colder than average variable weather spring we have been having this year continued to play out on this trip with warmer temps earlier in the trip dropping to cold and windy near the end of the trip with a torrential rain storm one night and a major wind-storm another night but thankfully our days were more pleasant.  

Like our raft trip to the Grand Ronde river last year we went with our friends the Lovejoy's and the Kerrs.  This year the Noah's ran the smaller 'super puma' raft, while Hunter, Jack and Nathan kayaked.  

This section of the John day only had one major set of rapids that were in the class 3 range.  We hit this set on the very first day but other than that its light class 2 and river float for the most part through a beautiful canyon with some interesting frontier history loaded with stories from early homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, and cattle rustlers.   This was the first longer trip with the new raft after its initial voyage in April on the lower Deschutes and first trip with the family.  

High school boys Bible and rafting

My good friend mark has been doing a high school boys Bible study since the start of the school year. He wanted to get all the boys out plus a couple of additional boys that will be starting high school next year (our Noah for example). We have been planning it for about a month.  In total we had 18 people. 12 boys and 6 adults. 

Mark and I would run gear rafts and our friend Justin who works for CRU at the college would run a raft full of kids and the older boys would run in a smaller raft on their own. (Jack and hunter both have familiarity running this one). 

Mark and Justin ran the programming for the weekend and I was camp cook!

We were a bit worried about the weather as it had just been snowing a little over a week earlier but we were blessed with good weather. Cool at night but nice spring days during the day.  

We did a 3 day run on the lower Deschutes leaving Friday and coming back Sunday. Boys had an absolute blast and it was amazing to see them bond as brothers in Christ.

Dads also had a great time hanging out and bonding with the boys as well. Food was great and always enjoyable to share meals together. Food pics- night 1 - big pot of chilli and second photo is a peach cobbler I did.  

Prepping for Rafting season

We have been rafting as a family the last couple of years on borrowed equipment. This year we invested in our  own equipment. It’s hard to find something that everyone enjoys together and this is one of those things. With that you need a way to transport the raft so I set about building a removable platform for our trailer to carry the raft inflated. 

Rafting the Grand Ronde

We just returned from a 4 night 5 day raft trip on the wild and scenic Grand Ronde river in north eastern Oregon.  Spectacular trip along with two other families - the Lovejoy family and the Kerr family.  16 people in total. 

Day 1 (Friday)

Drove from Bend to Minam put in on the Wallowa river.   Launched late afternoon. Weather was nice at the put in - mid 60’s but cooled down quickly as the sun dropped below the canyon walls. Water was cold and by the time we found a camp spot for the night everyone was chilled.

Day 2 (Saturday)

Rising to frost laden tents and a cold night  made coffee taste even better   And when the sun finally rose over the hills across the river we started to feel excited about the day ahead.  We would continue on the wallowa today to and beyond the confluence with the Grand Ronde entering the wild and scenic segment.  

We found a great site on a bend in the river to pitch camp while we waited for the Kerr family to catch up (they put in Saturday morning) 

When you are in the middle of the forest kids come up with interesting projects such as seeing how many hammocks they can stack. 

When you are on these trips you have to pack everything out including ashes from the fire and human waste. The toilet is referred to the Groover.  One of the projects at every campsite is finding a good spot for the unit. Away from camp, with privacy, but a 5 star site we had here with a view of the river through the trees. 

Day 3 (Sunday) 

As expected on the trip the weather was warming up each day and today it was expected to go over 80.  Here we are loading the boats in the morning.

Some more photos as we floated down river. This trip was great with lots of moving water but nothing over mild class 3.  Lots of rolling Disneyland style rapids to make it fun. 

After checking a few different sites out we settled on a great site that could fit us all comfortably with both shade and sun. We decided to actually do a layover day here to reduce the stress of packing up and moving every day. 

On the trip each family took a dinner and breakfast to cook for the group.  Sunday dinner was put on by the Donaldson Crew. We had margaritas for the adults, a taco bar for dinner and fresh Dutch oven brownie for desert.  

Day 4 - Monday 

With the river moving quickly and going further the previous day we decided to make Monday a layover day and stay at the same campsite. Here is a walk around the campsite. 

We were on for breakfast and did a big feed of oatmeal in the Dutch oven. Following a hearty breakfast we did I hike up high above camp in the morning.

In the afternoon with the weather getting hot we carried out some baptisms!  These were planned and glad for that warm air over the cool river water. I had Mark baptize me. While I have been ‘sprinkled’ as a baby before I have never been submerged and I wanted to do this as a lead for my kids as well.  Noah went second and then Abbie!  We were so happy. Mark then baptized Jasper and then Byron decided to do it on the spot so a very special afternoon for everyone. 

Day 5 - Tuesday

A great float out on our last day on the river.