{"id":11469,"date":"2016-12-21T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=11469"},"modified":"2017-05-12T10:34:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T17:34:46","slug":"rafting-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2016\/12\/21\/rafting-the-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafting the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coast Range in Northern Oregon doesn\u2019t look impressive. The mountains are below 4,000 feet, and from a distance they look like a featureless green wall. As storms blow in from the Pacific, however, that wall is the first landmark they hit. So it\u2019s the biggest thing those storms have seen for thousands of miles, and the result is rain, lots of rain. Some years, the Coast Range receives up to 15 feet, and most of it falls during the winter.<\/p>\n

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When the storms begin in October, the Coast Range transforms. Heavy waves begin pounding on Tillamook Bay and the salmon swim for the mountains. A fog creeps up the valleys and mingles among giant trees, and the rain falls hard on the cedar, hemlock, and Douglas fir. It drips to the sword ferns below, and flows down well-worn tributaries. Waterfalls appear. Soon the rushing sound of water is the soundtrack of the forest, and down in the valley, the Wilson River begins to swell. All summer it languished beneath the sun, but now it expands across the riverbed and pushes against its banks. Waves form over the top of mid-stream boulders, and all of a sudden, it\u2019s time to go rafting.<\/p>\n

For the past three years I have haphazardly tried to raft the Wilson River, but it\u2019s tricky. It\u2019s not the access nor the rapids that are too difficult, it\u2019s the flow that\u2019s temperamental. It only runs after a few days of heavy rain. Too much and it turns into continuous Class III-IV\u2014beyond my league. Too little rain, and you\u2019re scraping over rocks. The sweet spot is when the river is running between five and six feet, but you have to watch the online gauge, and for the past three years I did, but was met with a trial of mishaps whenever I hauled my boat out there.<\/p>\n

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The first time I tried the Wilson I had only owned a boat for a few months. I bought a 30-year old Campways off Craigslist for 500 bucks. It included the frame, the oars, and a cooler stained with fish blood. The bottom of the boat was a quilt of patches and the valves constantly hissed giving it its name, Old Leaky Butt, but it was my first raft, and I loved it. After floating some smaller rivers near town, I set out for the Wilson in March with two friends. The put-in for the seven-mile stretch was supposed to be at mile marker 15, but that mile marker was missing, and there were tons of pullouts. We checked each one numerous times but we couldn’t find it. So we canceled the trip and went for a hike instead.<\/p>\n

The next time I tried the Wilson I was with my brother, Wylie. This time we put in at the established Jones Creek Campground. After we hit the current, I asked Wylie to top off the leaking chamber. He gave two hard thrusts before the valve collapsed and the entire left side of the boat deflated. We were mid-river and about a quarter mile into the trip. I rowed us over to the bank, and we spent the rest of the day hauling Old Leaky Butt upriver to my truck. It took four hours and a lot of effort. Two years passed before Wylie rafted with me again.<\/p>\n