John Day River Trip - Day One

We did a lot of preparations for this three-day raft trip on the Upper John Day River. They were all worth it - even getting up at 3:00 AM to drive to the put in on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The sunrise as we were heading east over the mountains was incredible. Eben was excited to use his Cargo Carrier on the hitch and to inflate the extra air bladder suspension in the back.

 

It didn't take too long to inflate and pack the rafts. We put in a Service Creek and arranged for a shuttle service to bring our cars to the take out on day three (at Clarno). The kids were giddy with excitement and we couldn't keep them away from the river.

 

The scenery was consistently amazing. It is a wild & scenic river and did not disappoint. It felt much more remote than the Deschutes which had a road and train track running along it. This was either canyon or isolated farms.

 

 A beautiful spot for a lunch stop.

 It was fairly windy on the first day which made for slow progress downriver. But we made it!

 Reed found a great spot for a nap - note that he was always holding on.

 Finally got to a spot to camp. We were exhausted and ready for wind down.

 Sadly, I forgot the marshmallows. So we had chocolate and dried mangoes.