On our forth day after breaking down camp and grabbing breakfast at Black Bear again, we headed north via a different route. Our first stop along the way was at Crater Lake, which worked well as it was on the way to our paddling destination for the day. Since our plans had changed we had not had a chance to see it. The climb up to it was nice and was thoroughly wood with conifers. Once in the park we were shortly greeted with a very impressive view as we joined the rim section of the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. It is a beautiful sight to behold and definitely worth the trip if you are in the area.
After taking our time and grabbing some photos we continued on into the Umpqua National Forest. Eventually our road came to the North Umpqua and continued alongside until we got to the takeout. The entire run is semi roadside and there are many access points. You can easily choose how much of the river you’d like to do and AW lists it as 25 miles. We ended up doing a little above Horseshoe Bend to Gravel Bin. The run is a good class III section through a pretty canyon. The rapids are nice and the flats between them are moving. This run was definitely a little more relaxed than what we had been paddling up until now. Even though it might not be the most difficult, it makes up for it in beauty. It easily could be something that you paddle just for the view.
There were a couple interesting rapids that definitely would have been more fun with some extra water. We had 833cfs, which seemed to be standard for this time of year. Though all the signage at the takeout talked of flows of 1500-2000 cfs. The real draw of the run is the hot springs afterwards. When we got there we discovered it was very popular even thought it was a weekday evening. The pot we started out in was just luke warm and we had to wait a bit to go to a warmer one. The next to free up was the very top one. The was the hottest and where the water first entered into the system. It was difficult to stay in this one for long. Eventually we were able to sit in the covered pool which was the perfect temperature.
We ended up spending a good amount of time at the hot springs. Because of this we left significantly later than we had wanted to. Our plan had been to drive the 3-4 hours back to White Salmon that evening. However, as time moved on we realized this probably was not realistic. As we left too late to really find food many places, we diverted to Roseburg to find some dinner. Ended up stopping at Elmers Restaurant. Chose it mostly because it would still be open. They stayed open til 10, most closed at 9, and we were getting into Roseburg at about 8:40. The food was good, so things worked out well. We then headed north on I-5 towards Eugene in search of a place to stay the night. Baker Bay Campground and Marina ended up being the location. We set up in the dark and hoped we didn’t make too much noise for the other people there
