The Damons:
A decade of rafting & kayaking the
Rogue River with WWW

"Tagging along" as told by Joy Henkle
I was itching to get out on the river. Too many months in the office, too little time in the sun-I needed to refresh my brainiac cells. And knowing just what I was missing was kill'in me. Clients with all the best of intentions would call in and give me trip updates. "Hey, Joy, we had a fabulous time-great water and weather-wish you coulda been there," or, "Your guides were wonderful…they took excellent care of us…it was a totally stress-free vacation." Yeah, yeah, yeah. By August, these conversations were getting downright painful.

So when our guests Ned & Carolyn Damon called and extended an invitation to tag along on their WWW lodge trip, I jumped at the opportunity. My bag was packed, my kayak itching for a little Rogue River funster action.

Now, something you should know about Carolyn and Ned is that they are some of the kindest, most generous people you will ever meet. Each summer they travel from their home in California, chartering two lodge trips with WWW and they bring family and friends. Ned and Carolyn choose our company, they say, because we take a personal interest in them.

We start out the night before our trip begins at beautiful Morrison's Lodge. Many of our other WWW guests overnight here or at the Galice Resort. Both are convenient, beautiful, serve food, and they will shuttle you down to our put-in site the morning of your trip!

Over a fantastic Morrison breakfast, we discuss the adventures that await us over the next three days.

The trip's start is incredible…we boat through fun rapids, stopping along the way to play on the Rogue's coolacious (as you probably noticed, I make words up but this one really fits) waters. Our riverside lunch break provides the show-of-shows with gigantic Chinook salmon trying to navigate, i.e. jump, Rainie Falls. This feat is even more incredible when you look back towards the Falls and see it is a Class V waterfall. Truly a king among salmon, their great size and tremendous fighting qualities make them a fisherman's prize to be valued among the finest.

'round 6:00 p.m. we all drag into Black Bar Lodge after a VERY rough day of play, play, play. I settled into my cabin with a beverage and hot shower-ah, this is the life! Then it's outside for a non-stop chat-a-thon until dinner. Many an interesting conversation about love, life, and attaining world peace came out of that night's intense "jaw-jacking." Little did we know, on that hot August night, how important the concept of world peace would become within the next two weeks...

Morning two and it's another beautiful day-sun streams against the lodge at Black Bar. After snacking down, we grab our gear and it is back on the river for another whitewater-wonderful day of boating and rafting. Two individuals on this trip continually amazed me-and they were some of the youngest guests.

One was Julia, a petite, young girl who inflatable kayaked the entire river-and even surfed some pretty big waves! The other was Jason, an internationally-known surfer who is in his early 20s. He had only been in a hardshell kayak a few times before this trip and amazingly kayaked the entire river with only a few swims to his name. Ah, to be young and bold again! After lunch, Ned the notorious leader of this gang gets on a wave and it's surf-city. I'm not even going to tell you how old this gentleman is…but this guy rocks!

Eight hours down river we arrive at the second lodge, Marial Lodge. Pat & Lori Cameron, the folks who run the lodge are really some of the nicest hosts you'll ever want to be greeted by after a long day on a beautiful river. 60 minutes later finds us sitting out on the deck, beverage of choice in hand, enjoying the spectacular view, and taking in the wonderful smells of our multi-course dinner being prepared.

Waking up that third morning, it seems kinda quiet at breakfast. Think it's because the group knows the biggest rapids on the river are just around the bend! Mule Creek Canyon and the famous Blossom Bar rapid lie in wait. Since I'm feeling pretty sassy and knew there were more than a few guests with the jitters, I immediately pipe up with the infamous line, "Oh, just follow me. You'll be fine!" Famous last words. They follow and I proceed to roll twice through the Canyon! Some fearless leader I turn out to be!!!!

But Blossom Bar, one of the Rogue's Class IV rapids, doesn't eat anyone. In fact, everyone makes it through as though experts. Looking back up at rafts and kayaks negotiating their way confidently through the rapids is truly a sight! This rapid was named after the wild azaleas that bloom in this area in the spring. In earlier days Blossom Bar was impassable and it took as much as half-a-day to portage around its rapids. The Rogue's most famous boatman, Glen Wooldridge, altered this situation many decades ago when he cleared this part of the river to make it passable.

After all this excitement, the afternoon, and our lunch, is much calmer. A peaceful, enjoyable drift-time to hook up our kayaks side-by-side and reflect on all the new friendships we have made. Together we see geological marvels like the natural pavement stones right below Peyton Riffle. These stones, carved out by Mother Nature herself, are so perfectly placed that they look like the work of a skilled stone mason. We spy a black bear, eagles and ospreys-all seem to be enjoying this special place as much as we are!

With some sadness-we wish we were starting the trip instead of ending it-we unpack our dry bags, leave them with the WWW guides, and move our duffle bags into the shuttle van's trailer. Then we climb into the shuttle rigs for the one-and-a-half hour scenic drive over the mountain back to the Galice area and our original put-in site.

It's been a truly groovy trip. Laughing with Becky until my sides split, bantering about life and love with Bernard, listening to Carolyn's incredible life journey (which, by the way, we didn't get to finish and I want to), watching Ned & friends "kick it up a notch" through Mule Creek Canyon, and just enjoying the little moments with some of the nicest, most unpretentious people you'll ever want to meet. Think that last description pretty much sums up all our WWW guests…out to have a fantastic time on a world-class river.

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