Southwest Oregon: Rogue River Day 3

This post recalls the third and, sadly, final day of whitewater rafting on the Rogue River in Southwest Oregon. On this day, we would leave Half Moon Bar Lodge just after breakfast and float down to the take-out at Foster Bar.

I awoke at 6:15 to the racket of a Steller's Jay nearby. The light seemed dimmer than I am accustomed to for 6:15 at this time of year, but then light comes late to the lodge nestled between mountains. After I had been awake for a few minutes, I heard someone walking down the wooden walkway outside the rooms and remembered dinner from the evening before.

Just after dinner, we were asked if we wanted coffee in the morning and were told that the Coffee Fairy would deliver coffee to our room well before breakfast. I looked outside to see that the person walking by the room had indeed left a Thermos outside our door. What a great touch!

Coffee Fairy Left a Thermos of Coffee Outside our Door

Ann and I had a cup of much-appreciated coffee while getting ready for our day and packing our gear to have sent down to the rafts. Sadly, it was not great coffee. After dressing, I stepped out of the room to take our drybag to the central collection point behind the lodge. I was greeted immediately and enthusiastically by Roma the second I left the room as if she were camped out waiting for me to appear.

After dropping our dry bag off, Roma and I headed out on the lawn to wander around a bit while Ann finished getting ready before breakfast. The first thing I saw, as I tossed Roma's Frisbee for her, was a fresh pile of bear scat just outside our room. I guess Roma was asleep when the bear came through or she would have chased it away. Or maybe she did scare the poop out of it while chasing it. Who knows?

While I was walking about the grounds, I went to investigate a handsome tree that I saw the evening before, a conical pyramidal evergreen oak with unusual bark. This was my first time seeing a Canyon Live Oak up close; it certainly makes a fantastic landscape tree.

First Light at Half Moon Bar Lodge

Tanbark-oak, Notholithocarpus densiflorus

Canyon Live Oak, Quercus chrysolepis

As we were getting close to breakfast, I took a few minutes to look around the common areas of the lodge, which are extremely nicely appointed. No sooner had I sat down to the table for breakfast than a Boxer head appeared in my lap, looking in vain for handouts.

Got Snacks?

Fifteen minutes after breakfast, we headed down the steep stairs to the river to get underway for the day. I shot a few photos while our guides got all the gear squared away.

An Aster, Symphyotrichum sp.

Water Mint, Mentha aquatica

The water at Half Moon Bar is quite choppy but then around the horseshoe bend, it becomes flat and smooth, the perfect opportunity to shoot reflections on the surface of the river.

Leaving Half Moon Bar

All Along This Section, California Fuchsia, Epilobium canum

An Unlikely Duo

Partway into our trip, we passed another Momentum group just packing up from their evening of camping. We thought we spied Elena, one of our gearboaters from our Owyhee trip, getting ready to set off for the take-out. Later in the morning, just before our peaceful day was interrupted by the insane roar of a jet boat, the boating equivalent of a jacked-up monster diesel truck, a Momentum raft caught up with us and in it was Elena. She came over and gave us hugs.

Soon after, we stopped at the request of another guide that Alyssa knew to join their group in jumping off a big rock overhanging the river. Sadly, I missed my opportunity to jump as I was off in the bushes taking a coffee break. I did get a close look at one of the local gumweeds, a genus of plant that I have not seen since the plains of South Dakota and neighbor Wyoming. And where we landed, I noticed a type of rock that I had never seen before. This rock is made of tumbled river rock embedded in stone. Later, I found out that this is called a conglomerate and indicates the presence of an old beach or river bottom.

Gumweed, Grindelia hirsutula

Conglomerate Stone

As we were pulling to the shore to have lunch just above the take-out at Foster Bar, a large salmon jumped clear of the water just below us. This peaceful moment was soon interrupted by another jet boat coming up from the mouth of the river at Gold Bay. More would follow. We did not yet know it, but our B&B for the evening at the mouth of the river was just across the river from the jet boat operation and that the mouth of the river would be jammed with small boats getting in on the salmon fishing action.

Our Lunch Stop, Sandbar Covered in Elk and Deer Tracks

I Think This is a Common Whitetail

Parting Shot

Just after lunch, we got back underway for the half-mile to Foster Bar. In preparation for concluding our trip, I had stowed my cameras in their waterproof case. Naturally at this moment, we saw a sight that we will not forget, a tiny little mink swimming across the fierce current of the wide river. A strong and naturally gifted swimmer, it was making great headway across the river. Minks are at home in the water, but what an incredible undertaking for such a small animal!

It would take us an hour after landing to get everything stowed in the blazing heat and back underway towards Galice in the van towing the rafts. After Galice, Ann and I would head to the coast for the first of a couple days of sightseeing on the only part of the Oregon coast that we had not seen before.