Tuesday, July 27, 2010

On Monday morning, I did my writing, practiced, and then went for a bike ride. After checking out, I drove to the McKenzie Bridge campground to clean up the truck and get ready for the kayak trip. At 1:30 Casey picked me up and by 3:00, seven rafts—with my kayak strapped to on until we got past the log jams—took off from a few miles above Belknap Springs. Bill, the guide in my raft, was affable and didn’t think I would have any problems. I am glad I got to see the upper river, and I am sure I could have handled it, although Belknap Springs rapid looked very tight at points.
After the last log jam, Bill pulled over and I got into my kayak and began paddling. The water level seemed a little higher but I bumped a number of submerged rocks so it probably wasn’t much higher. I remembered many of the rapids, and I had fun getting through the trickier ones. I didn’t come close to flipping over, which helped me recover from the fishing problems yesterday, and my big problem was that I was pretty cold, even with the wet suit pants and thermals on. A dry suit would make things much better but I don’t think a couple of trips in really cold water a year would justify the expense. I can’t find my full wetsuit but I may buy a new one at some point.
I was very cold and pretty exhausted when I quit the trip at McKenzie Bridge, so after packing up all my gear I drove for a couple of miles then stopped to nap.
After the nap I realized that I was done for the evening so I simply drove to Roseburg and called it a night.

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