Running the Rogue

July 30th
We are back on the trail. This time it's the Rogue River Trail. Most people ride the river 40 miles and some hike it. We of course choose the latter. It truly was a last minute decision. We were driving to Medford, OR from the Redwood National Park and remembered a couple we meet at a Eugene, OR dog park telling us about this trail. After having no cell phone service in the Redwoods we pulled off Hwy 101 in Crescent City, CA to do some research. Sure enough the Rogue River Trail started 30 miles North of Medford. We bee-lined it to Grants Pass, OR. Found a place to park Beulah, stopped at the grocery for some high calorie camping food, and put a call in for a shuttle service. It seems that everywhere we go in Oregon there's a Dutch Brother's coffee stand so after shopping we stopped to give it a try. The two ladies working there shocked that we had never tried it so they gave us both a free smoothie! Anyways, a nice lady from Affordable Shuttles called me back and for $30 cheaper than everyone else, she would shuttle us 40 miles by river and 70 miles by van. Plus she is keeping our car in a locked area while we are gone and placing it at the other end the day we plan to arrive. You can't beat that. By 6:45am this morning the three of us were packed in the Toad and headed for Merlin, OR. As she promised she meet us and we were off. On our long and winding forest road ride we talked about everything from her growing up on her parents lodge along the river to people still coming out here and panning for gold. She warned us of the large bear population and to be sure to take care of our food. Our van ride ended in a cow pasture by the river. In typical form Judy immediately started down the trail. About the first 3 miles she would tailgate the leader and wouldn't think of being last. The trail was smooth and semi-flat while following the river. There are plenty of campsites with outhouses and creek crossing with nice bridges. Making surprisingly good time, our first stop was lunch at a waterfall with a great swimming hole. If you raft down river you'll stop here for a break. Shadow threw Judy in for a quick cool off and we watched salamanders swim as we ate. There are also privately owned historic cabins that will feed you and put you up for the night if camping isn't your thing. USFS also have cute cabins that house rangers during the summer months. About 12 miles into our trip we found Half Moon sandbar which was too perfect to pass up for our first campsite. Actually Judy decided to follow the trail down to the river as we discussed other options. We agreed to stop and followed her down to the water. No sooner did the words "I see ducks." come out of my mouth, Judy jumped into the river after them. Pack and all. We both stared yelling for her, but she wouldn't turn around. Thinking her pack was a lifejacket she continued to swim after them into the middle of the river while being swept down stream. Luckily Shadow's whistle broke her concentration and she had time to fight the current before hitting the rapids. Needless to say we was attached to our bear rope to her for the rest of the evening because anything that looked like a duck was fair game, including white foam that floated down. Among bear boxes and bear hoist, they have battery operated fence pens for your food protection for the bears. It's a good thing because about 4 miles in today was our first two bear sightings. The first was on our side of the river and the other was on the South side where are parallel one for for about a 1/4 mile. Shadow tried to catch a fish while I cooked couscous for dinner. We now lay by the river on a sandbar for the night waiting to see if the electric fence will safe our food for breakfast in the morning.

Lunch Spot

Cooling off

USFS Cabin

Camp for the night

Looking for ducks