Three Days on the North Umpqua River

With the extra day off over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to head down to the North Umpqua River for paddling and hot springs. It was a fantastic time, the water levels were high for this time of year and we pushed our skills to the limit. The runs we did were mostly class III with a few class II thrown in to keep you sharp. I rolled, I swam, and I got beaten down by big boulders. 

Coming over a 4' ledge that dropped into some hard foamy water.

Slipping sideways through some waves.

This hole tried to eat my boat. It's directly upstream from an even larger hole but I wanted to see how the boat feels in a hole this size.

Maneuvering around a boulder. You have to lean into them, especially when they're large, to avoid the upstream current swamping your boat. My only, and most dangerous, swim came from poor technique getting around these rocks. I failed to lean, was swamped by the upstream current and couldn't hit a roll in the downstream hole so I got pushed downstream into another boulder that caused  a nasty bruise on the shoulder and made me happy I wear a helmet. It also scared me enough to bail out of my boat pronto. It's eerie to lean into one of these boulders because there's usually a big hole on the downstream side. This one is safe and small though, perfect to practice on.

A not uncommon sight in some of these big rapids. That's Kim in the foreground, she's underneath her boat, hoping to roll up before her boat collides with something harder than water.

We retired each night to our campsite at Tokatee Falls where my favorite Oregon hot springs are. I didn't think once about my thesis or mental to-do list the entire weekend :)