Hi Folks,

Sorry I have been absent for a while, have been busy. But I thought you might like to see some photos from a recent (Nov 2-8) 42 mile trip down the wild section of the Grande Ronde. A dry fall had kept river levels too low to float through October, but a few days of rain at the end of the month bumped them up, and we decided to go. It was recommended that we take a rubber raft, but after a test run on the N Santiam, we decided they were pigs to row, and figured out we could stack my Trapper inside my friend Doc Reedy's boat for the ride over.

Flows of 1500 cfm minimum on the Troy gauge are recommended for this float, we put in at about 1300, and found out on takeout that they had dropped to less than 1100 - the price of the beautiful weather we had (60 degrees and sunny, lows 48 - next week is forecast for rain and snow, high 37, low 15 - we took lots of cold weather gear, but didn't need it)

We had camped six nights on the river, floated for 4, which was a lot of river to cover per short November day, allowing for setting up and taking down camp, and fishing. The only way from start to finish is down the river, no roads, no cell service (although my GPS app did work), and we took a satellite SOS device (a Spot). We saw two people on the float.

There were plenty of nice, unimproved and very clean campsites along the way, finding a place to camp was not a problem (probably because not too many folks are crazy enough to float it in Nov.)

Due to the geology of the river, layers of small runs of basalt, there are a lot of rocks in the river, from the size of a 5 gal bucket to a small car, usually where you least expect them. There is a lot of vertical drop for an Oregon river in this section, so it flows faster than it looks.

This required some carefully picking of ones way down the rapids - we lost the footage of Martin's Misery due to a dying camera battery, but here is a short video of me picking my way down Sheep Creek rapids. Just in front of most of the bits of whitewater you see is a rock, usually about 2" under water. Sorry for the shaky video, taken from an anchored boat.

The steelhead were mostly still in the lower river, the ones we did find were very good at wrapping the line around rocks, but here is a nice wild trout Doc caught:

I want to thank my friend Doc for the inspiration and enthusiasm for this trip, for doing much of the planning and for leading the way :). He had the harder job rowing, I think he needed an inch or two more water than I did.

Despite hitting a hundred rocks, my 'slightly stretched Trapper' was just bulletproof - a few minor scrapes on the side, not through the fiberglass, some very slight fraying of the edge of the IPE chines (I was wondering by halfway down if I would have to replace them, listening to the hard knocks), and the 3/8" meranti bottom with tight weave fiberglass top and bottom was just bulletproof - doesn't look much different than before the trip.  The little boat took some big rollers in perfect stride - (as it did 2-3 foot swells in Siuslaw bay with a 24 Minn-Kota on it, but that's another story).

So while we found less fish than we were hoping, it was an unforgettable trip, and one that has me wondering what the next boat camping trip will be. (Greg's posts may hold a few clues)

Doc has been toying with the idea of building a wood boat, perhaps this trip will push him over the edge :)

Thank you guys for all the thoughtful discussion that informed my Trapper build, and I will try to stay a little more involved.

Michael