California and Oregon Rafting

Oregon’s Rogue River is one of Oregon’s treasures, along with Crater Lake and Mount Hood. It starts on the flanks of Crater Lake and flows 215 miles to the Pacific Ocean. There are many places to raft the Rogue River, but the most famous is the part that cuts through the Klamath Mountains in the Wild Rogue Wilderness.

Rafting the Rogue River

Local Film Provides First Hand Look at Unique Dam Removal and Restoration Project in the Wind River watershed in the Columbia River Gorge.

What: Portland Premiere of Trout on the Wind and 3 other short films: Ascending the Giants, (John Waller, Portland), An MBA Meets a
Fisherman, and SalmonsKin. (all films available for advance review)
When: May 13th, 2010, Doors 6:30 PM Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd
Cost: Tickets are $7 and proceeds benefit the Crag Law Center
and Gifford Pinchot Task Force
Contact: Ralph Bloemers, (503) 525-2727 or Megan Hooker at 525-2724

On Thursday, May 13th Crag and Gifford Pinchot Task Force will host the Wild Rivers Movie Night at the Hollywood Theater. The evening will feature the Portland Premiere of Trout on the Wind, a locally produced documentary about the removal of the Hemlock Dam from Trout Creek in Washington. Trout Creek is a tributary of the Wind River in the Columbia River Gorge, and in the summer of 2009 salmon and steelhead made their way up the creek without the aid of a fish ladder for the first time in decades.

The Forest Service worked with local organizations, contractors and citizens to joined forces to remove Hemlock dam and restore over 20 miles of prime habitat for Columbia River Steelhead. This film provides a first hand look at how this successful restoration project was accomplished from start to finish.

Three additional selections from the Wild & Scenic Film Festival will be shown, including John Waller’s Ascending the Giants, the Good Life Parable: An MBA Meets a Fisherman and a short called SalmonsKin by Thomas Dunklin.

All proceeds from the showing will benefit the Crag Law Center and Gifford
Pinchot Task Force. Crag is a public interest environmental law center that supports
community efforts to protect and sustain the natural legacy of the Pacific Northwest.

Gifford Pinchot Task Force supports the biological diversity and communities of the
Northwest through conservation and restoration of forests, rivers, fish, and wildlife. The two organizations have worked together for many years on projects in Washington, played a role in the removal of Hemlock dam and restoration of Trout Creek.

The films will be shown at the Hollywood Theater in Portland (4122 NE Sandy
Blvd). Doors open at 6:30 pm, films start at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $7 and are available at
the door or in advance via the Hollywood Theatre website. For more information, visit
www.crag.org/support-us/crag-events and http://www.gptaskforce.org/getinvolved/
upcoming-events

The First Annual Wenatchee Raft Games, hosted by Riverbooty Photography, will be held on the Wenatchee River between Leavenworth and Cashmere on the second weekend in June 2010. We are very excited about hosting this event and look forward to this being the first of many. We have had a great response from rafters and outfitters alike and look forward to this event bringing the rafting community out for a great day on the river. Come out compete and have fun.

Events include:

• Raft skills race (wheelies, guide control, etc.)
• Raft surfing competition ( at Rodeo Hole depending on water levels.)
• Raft stacking competition ( take out )
• Flip and recovery competition ( Drunkards drop)
• Throw bag competition (accuracy and distance at Rodeo)
• Timed rigging & derigging competitions
• Timed down river raft race ( Snowblind to bottom of Granny Rapids. )
• River board race competition ( Snowblind to bottom of Granny Rapids. )
• River board surf competition ( Rodeo or Granny Rapids depending on water levels.)
• Cat boat race competition ( Snowblind to bottom of Granny Rapids. )
• Cat boat surf competition ( Rodeo )

Teams can include R-2 raft, R-4 raft, or R-6 raft 12 SOTAR RAFTS PROVIDED. 1st come first serve.

Sign up early space will be limited

We are looking for participant prizes, volunteer gifts, silent auction items to help pay for permit fees, equipment to use for some competitions (i.e. throw bags, race number tags, easy up shelters, tables). We also need sponsors for items such as participant medals, water, t-shirts, port-o-lets and participant numbers. Volunteers AND competitors are welcome as well.

Volunteers needed for:

• Safety on the river
• Set up and break down
• Sign ups
• Judges on the river
• Help with event schedual and coordinating
• A couple rafts to carry First Aid, water and food
• Extra shuttles if needed

Any proceeds will be donated to American Whitewater.

See our growing list of sponsors and Get more information as updates come along at www.riverbooty.com.

This last weekend was the 3rd Annual Wind River Whitewater Festival on Washington’s Class IV+ Wind River. The water was low, but boaters from all of the Northwest showed up for some technical raft, kayak, and cataraft racing. Check out the race results at the Wind River Whitewater Festival Blog.

Wind River Race

This is the first race of the Western Whitewater Championship Series, a series of whitewater races throughout the West.

Rogue River Rafting

The Rogue River is a Wild and Scenic River in Southern Oregon. It flows from Crater Lake and through Grants Pass before it cuts through the Siskiyou Mountains on it’s way to the ocean. A four day trip through the mountainous section is the most famous part and makes for the perfect family vacation.

Rogue River rafting trips start about 30 minutes from Grants Pass. This is a half day drive from Portland, Oregon or Central California which makes it a popular section. River use is restricted by the BLM so it takes some advance planning to get a spot during the busy summer months.

For more information about 4 day rafting trips, contact Northwest Rafting Company at (541) 450-9855.

The WWCS began 3 seasons ago when the Oregon Rafting Team (ORT) began to take on an active role in coordinating the dates of races and festivals in the Western United States. This coming season ORT will provide a scoring summary on their website which receives approximately 4000 hits annually. Prizes are awarded, and a regional representative is then nominated for both national and international levels of competition which at this time occurs only in the paddle raft racing category. In 2010 the WWCS R6 paddle raft champion will be nominated to compete in Costa Rica, an event which will take place in October of 2011 on the Reventazun and Pacuare Rivers.

The past two seasons, WWCS events have each drawn 45-105 competitors annually, in addition to a significant number of spectators, logistical supporters, and sponsors. Event coordinators are currently seeking a sponsor specific to the WWCS. This sponsor’s name would be directly linked in all promotions to the WWCS name and tradition. The WWCS represents the soul of competitive whitewater activities. We are paddlers, river lovers, and real people who wish to develop and nurture our respective river communities. Please contact Tim Brink nomadyellow@yahoo.com if you wish to support our efforts.

Here’s a press release from the Forest Service about upcoming changes in the permit application process for the Selway, Snake, Middle Fork of the Salmon, or wild main Salmon Rivers.

If you want to obtain a permit to float the Selway, Snake, Middle Fork of the Salmon, or wild main Salmon Rivers in 2010, you need to know about changes coming in the Forest Service permit lottery and launch reservation system. The Four Rivers Lottery is going “green”, incorporating an entirely online system as part of our desire to go paperless.

From December 1, 2009, to January 31, 2010, the Forest Service will conduct its usual lottery for floating the four rivers, but with some changes and at a different website. Applicants will now apply online at www.recreation.gov. This will require each applicant to have their own email address to create a profile online.

In the past, you could enter applications for several people at one time. Because the new system will be used for processing cancellations (and payments on the Middle Fork and wild main Salmon Rivers), each applicant will need to be registered under a unique email address with a password to access their profile.

Officials feel this will save time, paper, and money, and make the lottery run faster.

There’s another plus: before, a potential river floater could file only one application with four possible launch dates spread across all four rivers. With the 2010 season, applicants can file as many as four applications, one for each river, and list four possible launch dates on each application. Each river will have a separate lottery to assign their launch reservations; they will no longer be combined into one drawing system.

Applications can be filed online any time of the day or night. And the price, $6 per application, is the same as previous years.

“This quadruples the number of launch dates you can ask for,” Dave Campbell, the Forest Service’s West Fork District Ranger in Montana, said. “That’s a real plus of putting the lottery online.”

“The Forest Service has used online applications now for several years”, Chris Grove, the Middle Fork District Ranger in Idaho, said. Grove noted a similar lottery has been run successfully online for Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

“We expect to be able to let people know the lottery results much faster with the new system,” Russ Bacon, the Forest Service’s North Fork District Ranger in Idaho, said. “We’ll be able to notify everybody by email.”

The online system can also be used to post safety alerts to inform people as their trips draw near about special situations or river conditions.

“Our staff will be posting that information to the reservation system and they’re already set up to help spread the word when people need to know,” Mary DeAguero, the Forest Service’s Hell’s Canyon NRA Area Ranger, said.

The online system will also be used to accept cancellations and reissue them as new reservations for the four rivers. This system will also be the place for boaters to make their reservations for pre/post season launches for the Middle Fork and wild main Salmon Rivers, as well as to pay their recreation fees for these two rivers.

The Forest Service lottery for 2010 permits opens December 1, 2009 at 8:00 am Mountain time at www.recreation.gov. Reservations for the pre/post season launches for the Middle Fork and wild main Salmon Rivers will also be accepted beginning December 1, for this year only. Once the system is up and running the pre/post season reservation start date will revert to the usual October 1 date.

For more information in the meantime, go to www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/recreation/4rivers/index.shtml or call one of the Forest Service offices for the four rivers. To learn more about the reservation system and to create your unique profile visit www.recreation.gov.