Hold On Tight, 'Yer Gonna Get Wet - On the Harvey Trip

Every Trip Needs a Special Event!

A regular reader of this blog will probably be aware that on most travel days we like to keep pretty busy.  On this Harvey trip we kept up the pattern, for a couple reasons: we like to make the most of our time in any given place packing in the most things we can, and also to wear out our traveling companions, three young boys filled with a lot of energy and a fair amount of mischief.

Any typical day would be filled with time spent riding bikes, walking and hiking, playing at the beach, throwing rocks, collecting sticks and stones, and exploring.  That would be on top of running and fighting and building campfires and making camp and breaking camp and driving from placed to place in the Harvey (remember Harvey = RV).

However, we wanted to have a couple of extra special activities that would stand out from the rest.  We decided to take a trip on the Mail Jet Boats up the Rogue River from Gold Beach.  These are the big powerful boats purpose built for motoring up the River through white water and sometimes shallow water – as low as 10 inches!

It turned out to be Mega Awesome!  “Mega” was the word of the Harvey trip - meaning super, amazing, really big, totally cool, or any other outstanding descriptive adjective you wish to apply.  To be honest, I was actually surprised how few people know about this Jet Boat adventure.  I thought it was common knowledge.  It’s pretty popular.  You can make this trip that follows the pattern established by the Mail Boats that used to run up the river to deliver mail in the old days.  It’s a blast.

The boys could hardly contain their excitement as we waiting to load the boats.  They had to wear jackets that were vastly oversized to the point of looking comical.  You need the large jackets (Fiona and I wore them too) because it was pretty windy and a bit chilly, and you can expect to get wet on the way up and back. 

The boats travel upriver 32 miles, and then after an early evening dinner, right back down to the coast where the river meets the sea.  A total of 64 miles, the whole thing takes just over five hours.  There were about 45 people in our boat, one of many that run up and down the Rogue.  With our dry summer, the river levels were low, which makes things a little touchy to navigate.

We got seats up in the front – the boys were in the front row and we were right behind them.  This was important because we had to regularly hold onto them or they would be thrown from the boat! There are some pretty sharp turns and the boat is really moving to negotiate the white water and rocks.  Of course, the captain is quite adept at this having done it for sixteen years, and he frequently did amazing 360 degree spins in this huge boat that flung us around and got us soaking wet.

The weather was warmer once we left the coast and it eventually got pretty hot.  The way to deal with this was to keep wet most of the time.  The kids loved it, in fact everybody did.  One time I had a grip on the collar of Yoppies life jacket and he was bouncing around pretty bad and he yelled “Papa!  I can’t breathe, you’re choking me!”  The kids did pretty good although Jackson hit the deck a couple times in advance of a large wave that was going to wash over us.  

The worst accident was this big guy next to the boys in the front row flew out of his seat and smashed into the windshield and biffed it pretty hard.  A bunch of ladies screamed when it looked like he was gonna eject from of the boat.  It was hilarious.

After traveling up river we stopped in Agness Oregon, and climbed up a path from the river to an old boarding house where they had a fantastic fried chicken dinner waiting for us.  It was served family style with heaps of mash potatoes and gravy and all kinds of good eats.  Except that Sam was pouting and didn’t each much of anything.  I made sure we got our money’s worth by eating his share, although he did perk up and finish the ice cream.

Then back to the boats and back down the river.  We saw a bunch of wildlife and the captain (slash guide) shared a lot of the history of the area.  We saw numerous Bald Eagles, and Osprey who build nests in towering Douglas Fir and Port Orford Cedar trees.  We followed a family of otters, and saw seals way up river (looking for fish to eat) and evidence of bears.  There were cormorants, jumping salmon, and stories about cougars and the early pioneers.  All kinds of things.  It was a great time.

The boys loved it, and we loved it too.  I would recommend this to anyone who gets down that direction on the southern Oregon coast.  It was just a bit wild and crazy (enough to make it fun) and really helped to get a feel for the place and see some fantastic scenery.