Rafting the Rogue River and Ashland, Oregon- July 4th-5th

We awoke in Klamath Falls in the luxurious Majestic Inn (easily the dingiest hotel of the WHOLE trip so far), and got an early start on the road. We were going to end up in Ashland, Oregon, by the end of the day, but first we were going to stop at Shady Cover and do some white water rafting on the Rogue River (a solid idea and discovery by Marty). We had to backtrack a bit and took Route 140 past Lake Klamath (which was quite nice) west back across the bottom of Crater Lake Park and then Route 62 north to Shady Cove.

There are few things more enjoyable than spending a cloudless Fourth of July drinking beers with a good friend and rafting down a river. The rental place provided not only the raft, but also a cooler, and a waterproof bag, all at a reasonable cost. I was a little worried that only two people paddling wouldn’t be sufficient, but the raft was a good size, and we were able to handle the rapids without much trouble (I believe the Rogue is a Class II-III).

There was an indubitable sense of freedom as we paddled away from shore, pulled in the oars, and then cracked our first brews while letting the river move us along. The river was moving at 6 mph, which seemed perfect for the day, as it made for a trip time of about 4 hours. Occasionally there would be some rapids, which splashed us (pleasantly on such a sunny day), and made us paddle frantically until we were clear. It was a nice combination of exciting and relaxing. God, I love rafting. The only disappointment was that the water was a bit too cold to go swimming in for any length of time. That being said….

What happens when one has a few beers? That’s right, the inevitable bathroom trip. About halfway through the river we decided to paddle the boat to the shore for a pit stop. The only issue was that there were lots of houses on the shore, so we had to wait until there was a wilderness clearing. Marty had that dangerous look in his eye that we was going to explode any second, so the moment we caught sight of a small clearing, we paddled like mad to get to it and stop the raft (not the easiest thing when the river was moving to fast). Luckily, I was able to grab on to the trunk of a sturdy tree, which stopped the boat in its tracks. Marty was forced to step out of the raft into about two feet of water to make it up to the trees on shore. Once the deed was done, he had to climb back into the raft. Marty has many talents, but I don’t know if I would list balance among them. Marty was able to prop one leg up on the raft, but slipped on something, and ended up falling into the water and at the same time, shoving hard on the raft, and causing me to lose my grip on the tree stabilizing us and fall into the water. So now here we are; Marty is down in the water, I am kneeling in the water after having fell out, and the raft is skipping away downriver. Let’s just say I felt a small twinge of panic as I watched our only transportation float down the Rogue. A surge of adrenaline hit me and I leapt, making a play at one of the metal rings that surround the raft. I was able to grip the ring, but then realized my mistake…I had nothing to stabilize myself. So the raft started to drag me downriver with it. Fun times on the Rogue. I banged around some rocks, opening a small cut on my knee, while Marty swam like a madman behind me trying to catch up. I ended up digging my feet into some rocks below, and somehow was able to get a solid enough leverage to stop the raft and pull it to the shore again. Seriously, as I write this, I have no idea 1) how I caught up to the raft and 2) how I was able to somehow stop it, but it happened exactly like I just wrote. Marty caught up, and we were both able to get into the raft without any further incident. A bit battered and bruised, we both were thankful that the situation didn’t turn into a big disaster. You know what goes good with relief? More beer.

The rest of the rafting trip was uneventful (at least compared to the first bathroom stop), and that was just fine by us. I will stop to say that there are few things more fun that the rush you get when hitting a rapid. There is the whole anticipation once you spot it in the distance, and then the preparation, and finally, the execution, trying to paddle in sync to make it out of the water’s force. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Wet, sunburned and happy, we turned in our raft once we hit the final marker. Of course this was not the end of the day, as we still had a short ride to Ashland. Ashland is a town in southern Oregon, famous for its performances of Shakespeare. The whole town’s economy revolves around the Shakespearian Festival.

After checking in to an Econolodge, Marty and I headed downtown to the Standing Stone Brewery for some burgers and brews, as recommended by the wonderful Alicia (who interestingly enough used to live in Ashland and work at the brewery). After our meal, we spent the rest of the night playing darts (where I beat Marty once again) at The Black Sheep, an upstairs pub with a unique and charming, antique hip décor. The bartender even was cool enough to wave his hand in refusal of our ID as we took the house darts from him. “I trust ya’. God, I love being on the road. The rest of the night was spent visiting a few of the watering holes in Ashland, starting with The Black Sheep and ended at O’Ryan’s Irish Pub. I was actually surprised at the scene in such a small town, as there were a variety of different people out having a good time (some even had glitter and were sporting feather boas). We ended up just playing pool and enjoying people watching. Luckily, Ashland had inexpensive cabs, so getting back to the Econolodge was no problem.

The next day we were able to catch a 1:30 PM performance of Julius Caesar in the New Theatre. Ashland actually has three different theatres, the most impressive being the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre replica, but Julius Caesar was only showing in the very intimate New Theatre, so that’s where we ended up. We actually ended up being pretty luckily, as randomly I checked online for sales on tickets, and was able to get half price tickets (saved us both 30 bucks!). Always check for sales when it comes to theatre tickets! The play was a modern adaptation of the original, and was quite enjoyable. The acting was pretty solid, and the there weren’t a lot of seats in the 360 degree new theatre, so there wasn’t a bad view in the house. After the play we ended up catching a quick dinner and relaxing the rest of the night. It had been a long few days, and we had bones to rest, and sleep to catch up on. The next day we were heading into California to witness the immensity of the redwoods.