It was a quiet morning as I had over 5 miles to go before my first big rapid called half mile. I’ll let you guess why its called half mile. The thing about boating at low flow, is there are lots of rapids that appear that normally aren’t there. Fortunately most of them are class two and three and a lot of fun to boat. I wanted to come do this trip in July to see how it would be to packraft it this time of year, and present this trip as an option for others, and my conclusion is it’s definitely doable, but only for experienced boaters!

I got to half mile about 10:30 in the morning and I just took it one rock at a time. I was able to boat some, and I had to portage some, but all in all it took me about an hour and a half. I think the rapid was much longer because it was low flow. Regardless I was happy to cross this barrior. I had some more big rapids today, but found plenty of others due to the 169-200cfs.

This canyon is gorgeous. It is absolutely stunning; I can’t believe I’m in Oregon and this is part of the trail.

All in all it was a good day. I did slip once when I was scouting and hit my tailbone good…I think it might be bruised as there’s no shooting pain. If thats all that happens aside from the numerous bug bites, bushwacking scratches, rock scrapes and other random mishaps, I’ll be in good shape. Note to self bring a tent next time. There are lots of biting things as I sleep on the sand next to the river and my bug condom just isn’t cutting it, especially because it’s warm at night and for some reason I brought my 20° sleeping bag which I don’t want anywhere near me.

So it looks like I’m making good time for the first half of my trip. I have another day and a half of boating before my resupply stop,  and then another week to go. I had no clue how long this first stretch would take, so I’m rather please that I’m doing what I expected. I have a big morning of rapids coming up and after that I think it’s a little mellow…but then again the river maps don’t show the low flow rapids so who knows? I still haven’t been sleeping well and I think that effects my energy level during the day so I’m crossing my fingers for a good nights rest tonight.