The Rogue River

On June 26, 2012, we headed south to the Rogue River to remenice about a campground we visited with our sons Matt and Keith 25 years ago.  We found it and discovered it has changed very little.  The trees seemed larger and the boat ramp was larger and finished in concrete.  They also added an asphalt parking lot for all the river rafters who put out at this point for a 4 to 6 day journey through the wilderness and to the ocean.  We arrived at Alameda County Park early afternoon and quickly found a site that was not reserved.  This is a small park with only 26 spaces.  Most campers only spent one night here to set up their rafts for an early morning departure the next morning.  We had to renew our campsite every day because you must make reservations 2 days in advance and there is no telephone reception, internet, or satellite reception from here.  The county park only takes cash, no checks or credit or debit cards.  For $19 per night you get an unobstructed view of the Rogue river and a natural setting in the woods.  We had no trouble with mosquitos and the temperatures were very comfortable.  There were no hookups here; there was a dump station here but it was not level and was only accessible to campers on the way into the park.  Too difficult to find an area outside the park to turn around our 40 footer.  We were able to dump at their sister park up the street a few miles.  We enjoyed our stay here and rate this park F***. 
We decided to take a 5 hour raft trip down the river and rented a two person kayak.  When we did this trip with the boys it was an easy float trip with a few ripples.  The river was very high for this time of the year and the water was running very fast at the rate of 36000 gallons per second.  They rated the section we rafted class 2 but the larger rapids were 3 foot waves and the first big set of rapids tossed us out of our kayak into the cold 60 degree river.  Aggie thought for sure she was going to drown, but I managed to hop back into the kayak and then pull her onboard.  We limped to a sandy beach area and Aggie wanted no more of this adventure.  She was ready to find the nearest road and hitch a ride back to Galice where we rented the kayak.  I had donated another pair of prescription eyeglasses to the Rogue River.  I will never learn, but I was able to replace them the next day at Lenscrafters in Redding, Ca.  We met a group, Dave, Tilda, & Maurice who entered the river with us on a larger raft.  They stopped to rest after that last set of rapids and kindly invited Aggie to ride on their larger raft.  Aggie is forever gratefull to them.  We arrived at the halfway point in Galice and ended our trip there.  We had enough excitement for one day.