Excluding Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks, this was the first vacation that Chris and I have planned since Taiwan (in early 2007!). So needless to say, we were ready to relax and have some fun! We went white water rafting (first time with real rapids!), visited Chris's sister in Portland, and drove through both Redwood National Park and Crater Lake National Park. I wish we were still out there. :-) But here's some highlights for anyone else heading up that way!
-3...-4...-5...Liftoff!
By the time we finally got organized and ready to go, it was Sunday evening. We thought about leaving Monday morning, but figured it would be good to do a few hours of driving to avoid the rush hour traffic. So we drove through SF, popped by the newly renovated Frjtz for a dinner of fries and crepes, and figured we would stop somewhere along the freeway when we got tired of driving. Turns out we got tired around 11pm, at which point I searched for a hotel on my G1 and found a Hampton Inn in Ukiah, CA, with dozens of gushing, glowing reviews. I've honestly never seen so much excitement over a Hampton Inn. But it was nice and clean.
Eureka! I Have Found It!
There. I've been wanting to say that since I learned it was California's state motto in fourth grade. We passed through Eureka, CA for lunch, so I finally got my chance, haha. After lunch, we took a walk through the sand at Clam Beach.
Redwood National Park
I always wondered why redwoods always grow in little clumps, and not in large continuous forests. And why does Redwood City seem to have no redwoods? In retrospect, it should have been obvious; we chopped the rest down and the clumps are all that's left. Apparently redwoods used to cover most of the Northern California and Oregon coasts, but 96% of the forests were chopped down to fuel the California housing boom after the Gold Rush. I was also surprised that Redwood National Park is so new; the park wasn't established until 1968. We learned all this during our short but lovely nature walk in Lady Bird Johnson Grove.
As we continued north, we stopped by the Klamath River Outlook, which was gorgeous.
Brake Scare and Galice Resort
Between Redwood National Park and Galice, OR, there were a lot of steep and winding roads. I started to notice rapid thud-thud-thud-thud-thud noises every time I braked, and we immediately suspected that our brake pads had worn down again, d'oh! Last time, it cost us $1700 in repairs. We were pretty stressed by the time we made it to Galice Resort around 8:30 p.m. We were even more stressed to find that the resort restaurant was closed for the night and we had no cell reception or WiFi to find a car repair place or catch up on Wimbledon.
Galice Resort itself was sort of dingy and underwhelming as well. We stayed in the Lodge, which was clean, but let's just say that the carpet reminded me of cat trees, and the comforters were pretty threadbare. We went to sleep, somewhat depressed that the lodges on the river, being more remote, would be even worse. And the next morning wasn't much better. We woke up early to ensure that we would have time for breakfast, but were nearly late for the pickup because the service infuriatingly SOOOOO SLOW. We probably waited for more than 20 minutes after being seated to even get menus. Not auspicious.
Rafting on the Rogue River
Happily, as soon as we got picked up by Noah's Rafting, our day got brighter. They helped pack our stuff in "dry bags" and drove our party of 14 to the drop off point, where we met our wonderful guides, Jerry, Justin, and Jamie.
Kayaking vs. Rafting
After all the safety advice, they asked how many of us would like to kayak. Since it was still early morning in a deep valley where the sun hadn't quite reached, I was skeptical of getting wet in the cold-looking river. And heck, we were on this trip to go rafting, right? Luckily, Hugh, whom I arranged our trip with, convinced us that kayaking was a lot of fun and that the first day had some great rapids for learning. So Chris and I took the double kayak. BEST DECISION OF THE TRIP. Kayaking through the rapids was amazing; the experience is MUCH more exciting because you're so close to the water and have so much control over where you go. When we eventually let other people have a turn in the kayak, we found rafting to be way more boring.
We were concerned that we wouldn't ever get our kayak back once the secret was out, but what saved us was that double kayaks are extremely hard to steer, and no pair had the l33t teamwork skills that Chris and I had. Apparently they call them "divorce kayaks" but throughout the trip, our guides said we were the best pair they'd ever seen. W00t, go us! We watched with amusement as other pairs (admittedly teenage girls) degenerated quickly into bickering and name-calling and swore they would never use the double again. Muahahaha. All ours again!
Rapids
The rapids we kayaked through were Class I-III. Apparently it's too much liability for them to let beginners kayak the two Class IV rapids on the trip, so we rafted through those instead. Here's the best map Rogue River rapids that I could find.
The class III rapids were FUN! Jamie explained which "lane" of the river (like swimming lanes) we should use for each of the rapids. There are five lanes, with lane one being furthest left, lane three being in the center, and lane five being furthest right.
Our closest brush with catastrophe involved a large, sharp saw-tooth rock named the "Can Opener". Jamie had warned us extensively to avoid the Can Opener in lane three, and that we should stay in lane two. Well, as we entered the rapids, Chris and I were looking and looking for the Can Opener, going, "Hm, maybe it's that one? Or that one?" -- all the while looking pretty far ahead and drifting into lane three. I had a nice jolt of terror to suddenly see a big black pointy vicious rock, about three yards away and rushing straight toward us, just below the surface of what had seemed like another big wave from further back. I was like "AHHHHHHHHH PADDLE ON THE RIGHT!!" before Chris noticed and started to paddle frantically too.
In the end, we managed to avoid it, although we were so out of position that we ended up slamming into some more benign rocks on the next turn. Justin later told us how much we freaked them out, and how the last people to hit the Can-Opener popped their inflatable kayak and took hours to rescue. But, disaster avoided!
The other exciting rapid was Blossom Bar (a Class IV), the biggest drop of our trip, where we almost got caught on the infamous "Picket Fence"!
Lodges
After a day of hard rowing, we stopped at the Black Bar Lodge, which despite its remoteness and lack of road access, was WAY nicer than the Galice Resort. The food was delicious; salmon and whitefish smoked by Hugh himself was my personal favorite. We passed the evening photographing deer (extensively, as you can see in the album), exploring the area around the lodge, and playing horseshoes.
We were extremely bad at horseshoes. At any distance.
But idyllic as Black Bar Lodge was, believe it or not, Paradise Lodge was even more luxurious and rustically beautiful. And the food was, again, fantastic. So much for losing weight in the wilderness! I couldn't believe how great the accommodations were, given that we were in a designated wilderness area. We were expecting something just a step up from camping, but were delighted to have hot showers and comfy beds!
Swimming
Besides rafting and kayaking, our guides also showed us several almost-too-lovely-to-be-natural swimming holes in the creeks that feed the Rogue River. A couple of them were deep enough and in close enough proximity of tall rocks that we could jump. I've never jumped off of anything higher than a normal pool diving board, but I resolved to be adventurous and jump off of anything our guides deemed to be safe -- including a rock that was about 20 feet tall. GO ME! Chris didn't do it. :-) Here's a swimming hole at Paradise Lodge that we didn't jump in (which is why I have a picture).
The most awesome swimming we did was in the Mule Creek Canyon, which is the narrowest point on the river, and therefore full of fast-moving water and really awesome rapids. After we went through the Class IV rapids, our guides let us jump out of the rafts and drift through the rest of the canyon in life vests -- one of my favorite parts of the trip.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend this trip to anyone! My only regret was not having a waterproof camera! Next time it would be fun to go with friends and family too, rather than some random loud obnoxious teenage girls. :-P
Crater Lake
On our way to Portland, we stopped by Crater Lake, which was gorgeous!
But sadly, most of the hiking trails were closed because they were still covered with snow. At the end of June! Who'd have thunk?
Visiting Jessica in Portland
Chris's sister very kindly found us a wonderful bed and breakfast called the Rose Cottage to stay at on Friday night, because we hadn't booked a hotel yet. We haven't stayed at many bed and breakfasts in the past, usually opting instead for the predictable hotel chains, but we had such a good experience that we chose another bed and breakfast for our trip to Illinois in October. Anyways, we felt extremely guilty at getting in so late (around midnight), but breakfast was terrific, and included the most delicious blueberry muffins I have ever eaten in my life. The innkeeper was kind enough to give me the recipe, which I plan to try out soon!
On Saturday, Jessica invited us to a Brown alum event -- a relaxing cookout in a hazelnut orchard, where we learned how to play croquet!
We were INCREDIBLY relieved to be connected to the internet again. Amusingly, that's how we found out both a.) that we were in a hazelnut orchard (yeah Image Search!), and b.) how to play croquet (yeah Web Search!). Haha, such dorks.
Our trip ended with a visit to the Portland Rose Gardens. So pretty.
We didn't get a chance to play tennis on the nearby courts that were surrounded by roses, but perhaps that's just as well. Apparently the fragrance can be a bit much when one is trying primarily to breathe oxygen. :-)
And that's it (except for the long hot drive home, which I'm sure nobody cares about)! Next installation: Tommy and Tiffany's wedding!
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