Fetch; Riding the Rogue River

May 9.   Wednesday I got up bright and early, because I had to show up at 8:30 at the Jerry’s Rogue Jets jet boat company for my ride upriver. Outside the sun was bright and the wind was blowing like it had been the last couple of days. Too windy to sail Fetch. Apparently they have lots of stiff northern breezes here this time of year. The climate here seems to lean more toward the California climate, because I saw my first real palm tree on this trip.

 

 

 

Jerry’s Rogue Jets seems like a well set up enterprise. Their trips are well presented and you are well taken care of. They also support the local businesses by referring people to them in the reception area as well as during the trip. There are restaurants, lodges, campgrounds, fish and rafting guides all depending on tourism. I learned from fellow passengers that it’s also somewhat controversial to run powerful yet boats up this river. Rafters, nature lovers and god knows who may not appreciate the roaring yet boats coming by. However, I was impressed how our pilot considered other rivers users, by slowing down or making a special maneuver reducing the wake in that spot. I think attracting tourism to a certain area is always controversial; it brings money to an area, but some folks hate it. The entire Oregon Coast is riddled with RV parks, gift shops and recreational opportunities. All terrain vehicles (ATV) is very big in the Oregon dunes.

 

 

 

The Rogue River has a long history of settlers and their transportation. For a long time there were no roads going upriver and everything had to be carried over the turbulent waters. I’ve included a picture with a synopsis of the history. There is a small museum showing a lot of old photo’s and information about this river. In 1958 two brothers Jerry and Alden Boice build a revolutionary water jet propulsion system. They had drawings from an Australian (or New Zealand?) design and build themselves a version of it from scratch. This system allowed them to propel boats in water as shallow as 10 to even 6 inches! Water gets sucked into a powerful pump, gets compressed and jets out the back. Keeping rocks and sticks out is somewhat of a concern, but if beats propeller driven motors, bending and losing blades every good hit. A lot of fish boats have jet in- and outboards on the rivers.

 

 

 

 

 

This being America, those bigger yet boats are no wimpy machines. Somewhere inside this welded aluminum, beamy shallow craft they stuffed three Chevy V-8 engines of 6 liter each (I know, they sit in the stern). Together they produce 1000 hp and I was in awe with the power. It may be a surprise to some of you, but I am a bit of a sucker for powerful well made machines (any well made machine for that mater). To put a craft together so well geared for its function and so maneuverable is quite an accomplishment. Our driver threw this thing across the water like it was a go-cart, inching by rocks and twigs to thrill his passengers. Most popular no doubt, was the spin. At a wide enough spot in the river he would rev up and threw this thing around 180 degrees, splashing water everywhere, just avoiding shipping hundreds of gallons of river water inside the boat. The hull is so shallow that it skids sideways like a snowboard. Carrying up to 35 passengers the average speed was 30 knots with a top speed of around 50! That’s high way speed (not for you European readers of course). Our pilot did admit that fuel consumption was not so great; that trip we would burn about 120 gallons of gas (about 460 liter). Oh well, I know all about that, because my camper has a very similar engine, burning about one gallon every 11 miles. This is while pulling Fetch, going the 101 route which is not a free way. At times it seems I can see the fuel gauge go down as I go. To make up for this rash fuel consumption I may have to live all solar for the rest of my life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our driver lived along the river all his life. I believe he was a grandchild of one of the Boice brothers. He was very connected to the river, knew all the good fishing spots and told us stories about settlers all along the river. His sense of humor added greatly to the experience. He had his dog Agnes along, who was a character in and of herself. Every time the boat slowed down, she would come forward and say hi to the passengers. At every dock she couldn’t wait to jump off to take a leak. She listened to orders strictly.

 

 

 

We stopped at a lot of fish boats to see what they had caught. This time of year one can only keep farmed Salmon, size mattered also, but I forgot exactly how. You can only keep two per day (of certain size). A lot of guys had to throw back more than 50% of their catch, which didn’t please them because it is a lot of work to hook one and to get it in the boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The river was divided in zones; recreational, scenic and wild I believe. Further up the river there are wider protection zones (up to two miles) along the riverbanks. Upriver it certainly became more gorgeous as we went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 52 miles upriver we reached a dangerous rapid, Blossom Bar Rapids, at which point we had to turn around. Several people (kayakers and rafters I suppose) die in that area yearly.

 

 

 

 

 

After a happy mix of speeding, slow drifting, spinning and narration, we arrived at the lunch spot. A buffet was set up for us which we enjoyed sitting on the deck overlooking the river. Food was delicious, service and views were great. There were several signs witnessing high water events, one of which in 1964 was particularly bad. At 2:30 we all went aboard again for our return trip. At several point on the trip I realized what a lucky bastard I was to be there.

 

 

 

 

 

As I’m taking a break from writing this, I step outside to stretch and look at the river flowing by, at least 3 Ospreys in sight at any given time, few eagles now and then and lots of swallows. They build their nests under the bridge and there may be about a thousand of them! I’ve never seen so many swallows in one place. I believe they are Cliff Swallows. It’s time to get on the road again, maybe to Crescent City today?…