Three days floating a 45-mile Wild and Scenic section of the Grande Ronde River in NE Oregon ended up being the best kind of family vacation. I felt like the kids were mildly resistant to going and that they were humoring me because they know river floats are something I really love. But I think by the end, they will look back on this as being a pretty good time.
We floated through stunningly beautiful, forested river canyons. The river was running medium-high and we floated about 5 miles/hour and enjoyed some nice wave trains and maneuvered pretty easy rapids. We were self-sufficient. We unplugged from tech. We were bored. We listened to an audiobook about an alien attack on earth. We had campfires and cooked on a tiny MSR stove. We played cards. We saw mountain goats, big horn sheep, pelicans and other birds. We drove through some absolutely gorgeous agricultural land in SE Washington.
We had a problem with our shuttle service and I ended up not having a car at the take out and instead getting a ride 2.5 hours back to the put in to get the car while leaving the kids and gear at the take out. Ugh - it added five hours to our return home and I was incredibly stressed about it. To my surprise, the kids were in good spirits on my return. They had made the best of it, spent the afternoon on the school grounds, played games with each other, and were actually cheerful and friendly when I got back. All my stress that I was carrying lifted away. We loaded the car, hit the road, and are currently in the middle of our six hour trip home - chasing sunset across the rolling prairies of eastern Washington.
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