Rogue Memories
Rogue River, August 13-17, 2025
2200 cfs
Written By Mark Kieran
We had a fantastic trip down the Rogue this August. Meeting at the Rand boat launch on August 13th to set off, we spotted a Bald Eagle before setting off on the water. We’d see a number of them, as well as Ospreys, Kingfishers, and more, almost every day on the trip. It was warm on launch day, but each day’s heat was progressively milder as we moved West. The nights were cool and mostly clear, and perfect for sleeping outdoors.
Indigo Creek Outfitters is our host on the Rogue. They provide all our camp equipment, stellar raft support, delicious fresh meals, and best of all, inflatable kayaks for any takers. We aired up IKs for a few group members who were new to kayaking and/or looking for something a little less demanding than a hard-shell kayak.
Argo was the standout rapid in our first section of the river. Several smaller rapids helped us warm up and get to know each other. The pace of our Rogue trips and the style of rapids available on the run provide many opportunities for instruction, practice, play, and simply working the river as we descend it with the team’s support. Wildlife spotting continued as we happened upon a pair of Mink on the rocks. We’d see more of them downriver, too.
We paddled down to Grave Creek to enjoy lunch in the shade. After this point, we would leave the roads behind and enter the truly wild (and designated so) portion of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River.
After lunch, the rapids showcase the variety of whitewater that the Rogue’s geology has to offer, but without revealing all the fun that is in store later in the trip. We run rapids in pods of 5-6 paddlers each. Depending on the day and the intensity of the rapids, the pods work together to set safety or spread out for space. We navigated Upper and Lower Grave Creek rapids, Rainy Falls Fish Ladder, and Tyee Rapid.
Tyee (just below the rapid) was our first camp. It offers a large, flat beach to really spread out on. An impressive wood debris pile, partly made up of entire trees, sat above camp, showing us just how inundated the river can be at times.
Before we even arrived at Tyee, our camp boat pilot had the kitchen set up, as well as a big shade wing, chairs for all, and tables. We’d need them to host the upcoming appetizers, cool drinks, card games, and so on, which would be followed by dinner. This would be our MO each day: work the river, rest like pros at camp, eat well, sleep well, repeat. As if life wasn’t already grand enough, two wonderful musicians in the group brought guitars and were only too pleased to entertain us.
As the sun sank, we noted that the moon would rise bright, but it would come up very late tonight, so we would see some stars. It gets properly dark out there at night. An avid stargazer in the group showed us around the night sky as the details each revealed themselves out of the twilight. We saw so many stars, the Milky Way, meteors, and eventually, the moon. This would also be a repeated theme for the trip, with the exception of one cloudy night…
Day two began as they all would: with a hearty hot breakfast including fresh fruits, cereals, coffee, and tea. Again, the river provided much variety from narrow chutes to wide open wave trains, from short drops to long sweeping turns. The rapids are not without consequence. Sometimes the geology makes for interesting but unpleasant in-water features. We worked together to support each other in navigating past hazards with safe and sensible lines. Some of the rapid highlights were Wildcat, Russian, Howard Chutes, The Nozzle (Plowshare), Upper and Lower Black Bar, and Horseshoe Bend.
Lower Horseshoe camp offers views of the steepest slopes within the gorge. We watched the sun set in the west while the last of the light illuminated the steepness to our east. In the morning, we watched a group of at least four Otters, swimming and playing across the river from our beach. We saw more birds than I can name, but who can fail to identify a Great Blue Heron?
Day three offered more complex rapids than the day before. Many of them featured more than one viable line, from straightforward routes to eddy-hopping zigzags. This set up opportunities for ‘challenge by choice’ as each individual selected their desired line. Again, we approached the rapids as a team to discuss our lines and make sure we avoided any hazards that the rapids may present. Day three stood out to me as offering the best selection of features for working the river and practicing tough moves. We ran Dulog, Quiz Show, Kelsey Canyon, Big Boulder, and China Bar. Right after running China Bar, we arrived at our camp, The Ranch.
The Ranch currently features a large dug-out depression where an expansive, flat, sandy bar used to sit near the high water line. The hole in the sand bar was created by high flows since last summer, and conjures up images of massive swirling eddies drilling and dredging up sediment, to be delivered further downstream and to the Pacific. Clouds hid the stars that evening, and a light rain arrived after midnight. We were prepared with tents. The next morning was pleasantly warm thanks to the night’s cloudy insulation.
On day four, we didn’t encounter very many rapids, but we did run what may be the two most significant and standout rapids in the reach. Mule Creek Canyon is a remarkable, narrow section of the river, where the Jurassic volcanic rocks constrict the flow with steep, somewhat inescapable walls. This makes for some demanding moves on the way to the notorious Coffee Pot feature, where all the river’s water is trying to get through a pinch in the walls. The result is boiling, swirling, folding, surging, and simply chaotic currents, with an eddy or two that aren’t too fun to visit. We worked through this area as one big team. We’d do the same for Blossom Bar.
Blossom Bar may not feature the toughest move on the river, but it does require a must-make move to descend safely. At this point in the trip, we were well dialed in as a group and well warmed up to the style of the river’s currents. We carefully ran the rapid one-by-one. Everyone had clean lines, and this meant the stoke was at an all-time high as we proceeded to lunch.
After lunch, we basked in the glow of a serious but successful day, while we floated, played, and practiced our way to Lower Solitude camp. We saw a bear cub on the bank. It was at least our second sighting on the trip. The cub ran off when it spotted us: a good sign that it still had a healthy fear of humans! I was glad to see that, as we were in the part of the river most renowned for bear encounters.
Lower Solitude is a vast camp with a large lava formation climbing up and away from the river. Campers spread out up the hill to find their perfect spot for a night, enjoying the camp’s namesake vibe. We dined on the cobble bar near the water. After dinner, the conversation became a round of Phil and Mary DeReimer’s appreciation stories. The group for this trip included folks who have been paddling with Phil and Mary for many years, including multiple generations. These DAK veterans had no shortage of touching and funny memories to share. This type of convo could be justified any time a group of DeReimer fans was assembled. On this trip, it was spurred by the celebration of Phil and Mary’s retirement. We listened to, and told stories about our heroes, until it seemed to be raining again, but only on our cheeks…
The last day of the trip was just as beautiful and enjoyable as all the others, but with the bittersweet finish of landing at Foster Bar to end our expedition. We ran Solitude, Tacoma, and Clay Hill rapids. We found every surf wave we could possibly find, as if by surfing them, we could stop the clock that was counting down the last of our time together on this trip. We had a relaxed lunch just around the corner from Foster, so we could even further maximize our time together before we landed to de-rig and load trailers.
Once we landed at the takeout, our hands were working on moving gear and loading vehicles, while our minds were working on determining how soon we’d be able to get back to the put-in for another lap. As usual, we left the trip with new friends, new stories, and new plans for future trips together.