THE ARGO RAPIDS, HYDRO BOAT CHAMPIONSHIPS AND BACKPACKING IN THE REDWOODS
I’m a little behind at the moment after an extended Labor Day weekend that saw me kayaking the Rogue River (Sunday), covering the Cal-Ore Hydro championship in Grants Pass (Monday) and backpacking in Redwood National Park (Tuesday and Wednesday), but I wanted to post at least one blog to keep things fresh.
Here are just a couple of notes, which I fully plan to expand upon.
— The Class III Argo rapids on the Rogue River is one of the most enjoyable spots on the Rogue River outside the wild permit section.
Hellgate canyon is fantastic, of course, but if I have just one afternoon to hit the Rogue, I’d kayak/raft between Ennis Riffle and Graves Creek. It takes about three to four hours but takes you through the area’s best rapids — the Galice Chutes, Widowmaker and wraps up with Argo. Outside the wild section, it’s the area’s best stretch of river.
— It was pretty amazing to see Ryan McGinnis NOT winning the Cal-Ore Hydroplane River Racers championship during Labor Day’s annual season finale. The Gold Beach resident had won four titles in a row, but on Monday, Roger Sanderson took his title and won the race.
Sanderson has won six titles overall, but took 10 years off to devote more time to stock car racing between 1997 and 2007.
— I went backpacking in Redwood National Park Tuesday and Wednesday and got pretty well dumped on. The area gets 80 inches of rainfall and a single Redwood trees actually consumes 500 gallons of water each day (!), so it wasn’t really a surprise. Still, getting the chance to do some backpacking among the giants ... to get off the beaten trail and explore the unique glory of a Redwood forest unhindered is quite something.
We picked up a backcountry permit from the Thomas H. Kuchel Visitors Center outside Orick, Calif. With this permit you can actually backpack into the heart of the National Park and explore to your heart’s desire along Redwood Creek, including the area around Tall Trees Grove, as long as you camp in the river’s streambeds.
This is no problem at all during August and September, as the river is at its lowest levels and there’s plenty of prime real estate on sandy patches.
There are two choices if you choose to camp along Redwood Creek — which is the best option, in my option, because you can choose your camping spot. You can start at the Redwood Creek trailhead (about an eight miles from Tall Trees) or you can take an access road by getting permit, and explore down into the Emerald Ridge area way off the beaten trail.
tehshiv 8/23/2010 7:28:21 am
Thx Zach, I looked into it some more and apparently he saw the sign down on the foster bar end, and he said it looked really old. I'm thinking it was either a typo on the sign, or perhaps it used to be Nov. 15 many years ago and they forgot to update the sign. I guess it wouldn't be that big of a deal anyway because not many people would be floating during that time so getting a permit would be pretty easy. [ Report abuse ]
Katie Smith 8/21/2010 2:29:59 pm
But, you know, Rooster Cogburn and the Lady with the Duke himself was filmed out there, summer of '76 or '77, I believe. Worth checking out! Love your blogs. [ Report abuse ]
Zach 8/19/2010 3:25:05 pm
tehshiv, I've asked around and just left a message with a Forest Service guy I know. As far as I can tell, it hasn't changed. Oct. 15th still seems to be the date for the wild permit area. [ Report abuse ]
tehshiv 8/19/2010 11:55:30 am
I heard a rumor that they've extended the float permit requirement to Nov. 15th on the lower rogue...anyone else hear that? The forest service site still says Oct. 15th, but I was told the sign down at Graves Cr. says Nov. now. [ Report abuse ]
Overrated 8/17/2010 2:04:56 pm
Ryan, here is a phone number that should help in your quest for information: (541) 474-3702. It's the number to the Daily Courier's circulation department. Buy a paper and stop asking for free stuff. [ Report abuse ]
Lance 8/17/2010 12:00:53 pm
Ryan - Zach only is posting his Outdoors material on this website. We will start running our fall high school sports previews in our hard copy version of the paper starting late next week. We will have videos from each football camp that we attend at our paper's main site. Thanks - Lance [ Report abuse ]
ryan 8/17/2010 12:20:00 am
when will you be posting on your blog the local high school football team previews for grants pass,hidden valley,north valley and illinois valley showing returning starters,newcomers and transfers / this would be great help info wise to us parents and fans to read on your blog / if not would it be possible to get by email a copy from your sports dept of your local hs sports team previews for boys and girls fall sports [ Report abuse ]
Amber 8/14/2010 12:19:27 pm
does anyone know anything about the Gold Panning in Grants Pass and the history of it if you do lets talk about it [ Report abuse ]
DAVE 7/27/2010 9:09:02 pm
HI ZACH IM only a fisherman and what Ive seen since lost creek dam was put in I watched it fill after completion a few years later trout had lice then a few more years later the fish out of the hatchery were sent to willow lake trout had lice wasnt worth buying a tag Ive also caught salmon on the rogue with yellow spots on them [ Report abuse ]
Zach 7/27/2010 8:14:13 pm
Those are great. Thanks Jim! [ Report abuse ]
Jim 7/27/2010 7:00:24 am
Photos of our last trip to Caribou Lake: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeagar52/CaribouLake805#. [ Report abuse ]
Jim 7/27/2010 6:57:43 am
We're been backpacking in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area for years. It is beautiful, and less people than you'd think. You'll be going to an area similar to the high Sierra, with white granite. Enjoy! [ Report abuse ]
Tom 7/19/2010 9:18:08 am
U rulz, zak! [ Report abuse ]
Zach 7/15/2010 7:53:36 am
tehshiv -- Actually, there seems to be a couple of reasons. Here's a pretty good story on it. http://www.thedailycourier.com/eedition/?pdate=2010-07-12&pb=0&pg=A1&py=2010&pm=06&pd=21&opd=2010-06-21&opb=0 Rob -- Thanks a lot, I think it's something we're working on. [ Report abuse ]
tehshiv 7/14/2010 2:45:48 pm
Any idea why IV is so popular now? I went there just after the 4th on a weekday even and it was more crowded than it used to be on weekends. The interesting thing to me was that we went to Applegate Lake the next day and the place was pretty much empty. [ Report abuse ]
rob 7/2/2010 2:05:29 pm
You should get a photo gallery started on here so we can see even more details of the trips. Your pictures are fantastic. [ Report abuse ]
Nat 6/30/2010 9:17:53 am
We own property in Grants Pass and have been following your blog in anticipation of when we move there and can do our own exploring and hiking. Thanks so much for all of the great information and suggestions. I could not get the photo of the cabin in today's blog to appear. [ Report abuse ]
Zach 6/24/2010 7:45:07 pm
Yes, I did not spell "Rogue" correctly in my last post, though one of the good people on the web staff fixed it for me. Sorry about that. I was pounding out a quick blog before I took off for a couple days on the Applegate and got careless. Hopefully the river wasn't too offended. [ Report abuse ]
Sam Christie 6/24/2010 6:33:13 am
I don't know if you are a native, But I suspect not. I would think as a native, you would know how to spell Rogue. [ Report abuse ]
tehshiv 6/23/2010 9:06:36 am
Wow, you're not kidding about all the private land on the Applegate. I was looking at the BLM maps, and it looks like there's only a small one mile stretch of public land downstream from Cantrall...other than that, it's all private. Geocommunicator.gov has a great interactive surface ownership map if anyone's interested. [ Report abuse ]