Diamond Lake Wednesday
Today was the rafting trip! We left the campsite at 9:00 to make the 45 minute trip down the 138 to the rafting ‘put in’ spot on the North Umpqua. The weather was iffy, but ended up perfect. I am currently a nice tan/burn.
We started off as 2 of 3 people in the pilot boat, where the guide did the majority of the rowing.. Dan and I just assisted where needed… the rapids were all Class 3+ on the first leg. We stopped for lunch and picked up 2 more people that had only signed up for 2 hours. They got our spots on the easy raft and we were put into the 2nd raft, where it was all hands on deck. And the rapids from then on were 3+ and one class 4. With names like the head banger, and Eiffel tower (a big drop), the class 4 was called Pinball and was a crazy paddling logistical nightmare going between boulders and trying not to get sucked under. The scariest one, we thought, was the Eiffel Tower by the shear drop into churning waters it was the one that nearly tossed the lot of us. We did get stuck on a rock for a while, which was interesting…
It was great fun and we’re sore in places we didn’t know we had.
Unfortunately, all the pics on the raft trip are on a disposable waterproof camera and we’ll have to wait for that (and the $50 DVD the rafting outfitters mail us) to share the trip.
We also found out that there is a wildfire burning near here that had the hwy closed until yesterday.. would have been nice to know that!
Tomorrow, we leave at 10am and head to the coast for two days… it will be a new thing to see clouds and 60-ish weather again. It’s been great being in the desert heat!!!
Happy Birthday Alli! I hope you know we’re thinking about you tonight even if we have no services other than the battery power I’m using to make this note tonight.
XOXO. I love you baby bear!
