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Permalink Reply by Mike Dearing on February 16, 2009 at 11:41am

I know its a raft photo, but here's one of the wife and I headed down the beaver slide. The photo was taken by my buddy from the "picture eddy" right below the fence. Flows were about 3000cfs at Agness. This picture was taken about to weeks after they had pulled the second body of the year off the picket fence. There was lots of talk that the river had changed somehow and that the move around the horn was different. I saw no such sign of this at all. I think what caused all those people to have problems there last year was the river was just a lot higher for that time of year then it normally was, so the move you had to make just had to be stronger. Before we ran this day there must have been 40 people standing on the rocks above scouting, we were the first boats through. You could tell they were all really nervous that for sure.

I doubt if the flows have changed to much Herb. If you go late fall that pour off is still steep and the two rocks you mention are still in play. When I took my Willie down the end of oct. last year this was the way it was.

Blossom to me is never easy. Low water means the river is moving slower and it seems easier to get a little breathing time between boulders. Higher water means less rocks but they sure come up on you quickly. The pull away from volkswagen is much tougher at higher flows, but what I have started to do at higher flows is go right around VW instead, its way less work.

The fishing when we went last fall was great for half pounders, we didn't hook one big fish though. I talked with a five boat guided trip from Noah's and they had similar results as us.

Mike

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Permalink Reply by Mike Dearing on February 16, 2009 at 12:27pm

Here's another one I found that comes with an interesting story.It was taken on one of our December trips. We scouted for quite awhile before we ran on this trip. Flows were around 8000cfs if I remember right. On this trip through this was the one and only time I have ever ran blossom all right. We entered right from the very top and pretty much stayed that way the entire rapid. Only the very top of volkswagen is visible in this pic. As with most pictures it doesn't do justice to what the rapid looked like up close and personal. The waves were much bigger through there then I have ever seen them. On the back side of the horn rock was our biggest challenge that day, there was a huge boat eating hole there that just washed the front of your boat as you pulled away from it.

Mike

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Permalink Reply by Herb Jacobsen on February 16, 2009 at 12:29pm

I saw some old 8mm movies that showed people in drift boats running on the far right at the top of Blossom. I think that was before Glenn Wooldridge blew the one rock. It was the Helfrich's, Skip Zapphe, Eldon Windle and I don't remeber who else....

I have been down the right side below the pour off as that was the way the water took me. As Willie Illingsworth once told us, "the Rogue is just sort of medium-heavy water"......

Thats a great picture by the way. The store at Agness used to have a great post card showing a boat with a bent oar going into the fence. The early aluminum shaft oars......

Herb

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Permalink Reply by Greg Hatten on February 16, 2009 at 12:39pm

Herb... Great idea - would love to see some old photo's. The fishing was pretty good for us this fall - best half pounder "count" in years and they were aggressive to the fly. I probably averaged 8 or 9 a day and caught a couple of 20 inchers too. Mostly I was using a Possee Bugger - a fly that works well for me on the McKenzie. I was armed with the famous "red ants of the Rogue" but never put one on...
I took on lots of water too - my boat is medium to low sided, so I did quite a bit of bailing... well worth it.
Greg

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