"Goose Drama"
This post documents our fifth and final day of our recent rafting trip down the Lower Owyhee River in far southeastern Oregon, four hours from our home in Bend.
After a cold night in which I battled my leaking sleeping pad, re-inflating it four times, I finally awakened at 5:50 in the morning to raucous Canada Goose calls and to thoughts of the logistics of how to pack and what to wear on our last day on the Owyhee. I really started regretting having to get home and wished we could extend our trip. I'm pretty sure I don't speak for Ann in this regard.
Again, I put on five layers before exiting the tent but unlike yesterday morning at Canyon, today we were on the west side of the river where sunrise comes early. We all took a moment out of what we were doing to watch the sun rise over the ridge opposite us. How many times in life do we get to see that? And with all that early sun, I was shedding layers by 8am.
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| Pre-Sunrise Cloud Formations |
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| Sun Coming to Our Side of the River |
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| Sun Almost Down to Our Camp |
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| Et Voilà! Sunrise! |
All the while we were drinking coffee and huddling around the fire waiting for the sun to come up, we had to deal with the most obnoxious goose drama ever. In the photo below, which shows the very tip of the big formation behind our camp, at the very top, backlit against the sky and slightly right of center, sits a goose, a very noisy goose.
It would sally forth from time to time, sometimes alone, sometimes with a compatriot, and make a lap of the rock spire or a lap in front of the spire. Then, it would land either right back where it started or on another high place, either alone or with its partner. And it would honk incessantly. Other geese from nearby pinnacles and even from down on the river would add their voices to the near-infuriating goose drama to which I awakened and which went on for hours. SO MUCH DRAMA!
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| Overly Dramatic Goose Atop a Rock Spire |
The final stage of today's trip would be a tow across the reservoir, so before breakfast, we made sandwiches to eat during our tow. In reality, we ate them waiting for our tow to arrive. Breakfast was a scramble with mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers along with a big batch of home fries and Canadian bacon. We motored through breakfast and got our gear packed quickly; we could all feel that Amanda wanted to get moving so that we did not miss our tow connection. She feared a possible headwind that fortunately never materialized.
With all of us hustling, we got away in decent time and started our final miles on the flattest water of the trip. Today was the only day that all three rafts would travel together. We would go just 7.5 miles from Pothole Camp to river mile 56, a mile below the limits of where motorized vessels are allowed to go. There, after lunch, we would chain together our rafts with those of the other group we had been leapfrogging for the 12-mile tow to the Leslie Gulch Boat Ramp. Our human-powered rafting route is shown in fuchsia on the lower map below while the tow route is highlighted on the upper map in dashed purple.
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Day 5- Pothole Camp to Leslie Gulch Boat Ramp
(fuschia in raft, purple dash under tow)
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The water on Day 5 was flat but still moving at a decent pace. The wind that Amanda feared did get up, but it was directly behind us and helped us make good time to the motorboat rendezvous. I took some last photos of the rock features on either side of the river as we neared the quasi-civilization of the Birch Creek takeout. The road out is steep and rough and a tough slog while pulling trailers of rafts, hence our tow to the much more benign Leslie Gulch road.
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| Civilization! The Birch Creek Road |
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| An Old Waterwheel for Irrigation |
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More Trees in One Place Than We Saw All Trip
Birch Creek Takeout |
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| Elena Doing Her Thing |
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| And Sara |
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| White Pelicans |
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| Great Blue Heron |
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| Great Egret |
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| Still Bundled up Against the Raw Day |
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| At the Rendezvous Point for the Motorboat |
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| Say's Phoebe Watching Us |
We arrived at the rendezvous point some 20 minutes ahead of the other group that would be joining us in the tow across the reservoir. We ate lunch as they were arriving, a prim and proper bunch if I have ever seen one. Each time we encountered them on the river, it just didn't look like they were having any fun. When we'd see them, they looked like schoolkids sitting in their perfectly spaced desks, hands folded in front of them, and heads attentively pointed at the teacher.
We waited a pretty good long time for our tow boat, populated by Luke and his four dogs who all came to visit with us. He apparently was making many such tows today. At long last, we got lashed up and underway for the two-hour, twelve-mile tow. In our three boats, we all laid back and propped our feet up, while taking in the rays and the sights while under tow. Contrast this to the boats in front of us with all the students still sitting properly at full attention in their desks. Different strokes, I guess. I hope they had some fun.
During the tow, we saw many typical reservoir birds such as Mallards, Canada Geese, Lesser Scaups, Western Grebes, various gulls, and Double-crested Cormorants. We also saw a great many White Pelicans which probably live here or at least visit on migration, but which I consider unusual, having only ever seen them in the Gulf of Mexico or when flying over Great Salt Lake. Groups of pelicans were soaring frequently overhead; I forget what impressive fliers these huge birds are.
Among many turkey vultures and a couple of Red-tailed Hawks, we might have seen an eagle, but it was terribly high and far away enough that I couldn't tell. I am very surprised to have not seen any eagles at all during our trip, however, lack of large trees for nesting sites would deter Bald Eagles, while Golden Eagles are not really fish eaters.
I felt guilty about watching the ladies doing all the work, but understanding how it would be if we had "helpers" in the restaurant kitchen when we were breaking down for the night, I got the hell out of the way until I could use my height to help lift the big coolers and the topmost raft onto the trailer. This gave me time to hit the disgusting pit toilet and to wander about and shoot a couple photos of the gorgeous rock formations around the Leslie Gulch ramp.
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| Unpacking Everything |
Loading up was a well-rehearsed and choreographed affair and soon enough, Al took a final photo of our group and we were off, albeit slowly, as we wound our way out of the dirt road leading up and out of the gulch. The road was in surprisingly good shape and both sides were covered with balsamroots with their gleaming yellow blooms dancing in the breeze.
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| Last Stop: Coffee at the Rockhouse in Jordan Valley |
Vista after incredible vista unfolded as we climbed up and out of the gulch and by the time we got out to hard-surfaced US 95, we could see residual snow on the Owyhee Mountains across the border in Idaho. At Amanda's insistence, we stopped at the Rockhouse in Jordan Valley before continuing the last leg of our 2-hour shuttle back to the Rome Boat Launch. I had a double espresso to help keep me going for the four-hour drive back to Bend, with a stop at the Safeway in Burns for a bite to eat for dinner.
After battling snow squalls and the setting sun directly in our faces, we arrived home just after dark, longing for a hot shower and a soft bed.
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