Five of us (Fred & Judy, Tracie, Gerald and Lois) set off from the base of Brown Bridge Dam on a hot sunny afternoon, heading down to Beitner. Immediately before we launched, a group of 6 guys put in, with a cooler full of beer in one canoe; the cooler was big enough to sleep in. By the time we reached the first road crossing (about 200 yards), we found one of them dumping out his kayak and trying to retrieve his gear. He claimed that he had tried to go under a log, but that he didn't quite make it. Fortunately, we have a lot of daylight at this time of the year, because we figured that the group would be taking out just about at sundown. Tracie opined that they might actually begin to paddle their boats when they ran out of beer, but that could be a REALLY long time.
We ambled downstream, Gerry literally dancing in his whitewater canoe, and Fred taking up the charge of cleaning up the river whenever he could. Since he & Judy will have to miss this year's Boardman River Clean Sweep, he wanted to do his part now. At the end, he had accumulated a large box of glass bottles and cans, plus a kayak paddle that's not half bad. And his feet stayed dry.
At our short break at the Shumsky access, the women of the group were delighted to find the brand new porta-potty that is being paid for by the our club. It is downright sweet-smelling, and even has a dispenser for hand sanitizer, a small mirror and a rug! We hope that other river users this season will take care of it, and appreciate it as much as we did.
There were quite a few other folks out enjoying the river, and it was easy to understand why. My car thermometer showed 91 degrees on the shuttle back. At the end of the trip, Tracie graciously returned us to our vehicles, and afterwards Gerry headed down the rapids. He finished at Lone Pine, declaring the day complete!
Written by Lois, photos courtesy of Judy (who took them) & Fred (who had the camera and sent them to us)