Wild Rivers with Tillie

The Rogue River in Oregon is known as the classic American River, as one of the first rivers protected by wild and scenic designation.

Its beauty and health have been preserved for future generations.

Come adventure with us down this iconic landscape.

You know, it's funny because in an all rivers, there's little secret spots with little collections from river runners.

The Living Peace Foundation is honored to provide funding support for Wild Rivers with Tillie supporting people and projects that creatively and courageously advance collaboration, compassion and living peace.

This series shares the passion that the Living Peace Foundation has for the health and connectedness of our planet and all who inhabit it.

We are getting ready to go on the Rogue River.

The wild and scenic.

Mighty Rogue River.

And I'm so excited.

I've never been here.

This is one of the first wild and scenic rivers of our nation.

We've got all sorts of amazing folks with us.

The most dangerous part of this trip is the interaction between the boat and the shore.

And we're getting ready to head into this volcanic canyon that this wild river flows through.

This is one of the classic wild rivers of the west.

It starts at the height of the Cascade Mountains, actually, with water that's sourced in Crater Lake, Oregon's only national park.

And then it encounters the coastal mountain ranges, a 5000 mile long mountain range from Mexico to Kodiak Island.

And it cuts the whole way through it.

There are only six rivers do that in the United States.

And the rogue is by far the wildest.

It's a classic salmon and steelhead fishing stream.

The rogue is legendary back to the days of Zane Gray and novels that he wrote, one of which is based here.

And so it combines all these qualities, you know, headwaters to the ocean, coastal mountain ranges, unique botany.

There are more conifer species here.

And in the related Klamath Mountains than anywhere in the world.

It combines these amazing qualities with many of the threats and vulnerabilities of rivers everywhere.

So for that reason, I think it's a great example of the all-American River.

The Northwest is a land of rivers.

So it's incredibly wetter than the Southwest, which, of course, is plagued by drought now.

But things are still green when there's a drought here.

It's totally different.

We all say everybody loves the Rogue.

It's a trip that everybody will enjoy and everybody loves.

And that's why it's been protected and why it's so cherished among boaters.

Like you can really see the diversity.

Like there's so many different kinds of plants along the side and so many different kinds of trees.

The river itself is just over 20 miles.

It empties out into the Pacific Ocean.

Right now, we're on about 2500 cubic feet per second, but the river can flood up to 100,000 cubic feet per second.

And so we're kind of on the lower summer flows right now Part of a signature of a healthy river is the ability for it to.

(Oh, there goes a dragonfly.)

Is the ability for it to fluctuate up and down.

And this, I think, part of why we're seeing so much diversity here is because this river is functioning like an intact river.

A bunch of fun boats on here.

Different ones.

We've got the the guide assisted paddleboat where the guide sits in the back.

We call that the ejector seat because if you go over something really steep, you go flying as a guide.

Then we have some oar boats here where the guide is just rowing us.

Then we also have some inflatable kayaks.

Private and commercial trips... and there's typically up to 120 people a day.

So we're doing the wild section and we're doing 34 and a half miles.

When you first start doing it, you had to think about it.

But then the waters are kind of like an extension of of you.

You always kind of want to look in the direction you want to go.

Your first instinct is to lean away from a lot of things.

You have to lean into the things that you might not want to lean into.

And you're much better off that way.

Well, compared to, like, the rivers I've been running for a long time, there's, like, way more rocks.

Like, this is how I started out.

It was on more technical rivers.

And then for years, I've just been in big water where there are no rocks.

You know, I think the great thing about water is you always just have to remember that it's in control and that you're not in control.

So we're floating through the Klamath Mountains, and a lot of the geology of this area comes from tectonic plates going down and when they go down, the volcano is going (sounds).

When the plates hit a lot of it scrapes off and creates really complicated geology from the bottom of the ocean.

I mean, rapids are basically made of rocks and water.

And so the challenges are typically holes or hydraulics, which is a big white, fluffy things.

Sometimes we go through them, but a lot of times we avoid them.

And then rocks we can run up against.

And they can cause a boat to wrap or flip.

So our goal is to avoid big rocks sideways.

It's the Rogue River named after the Rogue Indians.

The rogue is classic among America's wild and scenic rivers, which is a designation by Congress from an act passed in 1968, Lyndon Johnson administration.

And it designated eight major rivers, 12 counting tributaries.

So when this idea was born through a couple of wildlife biologist John and Frank Craighead, they had the Rogue in mind among a few other of the great Western Rivers for designation.

But because this river can symbolize all of them.

So if everybody in America can look at this river and see its beauty and see its fish and its wildlife and the wonderful rapids and the clean water, and realize that all those values are worth protecting, then the rogue has made a contribution.

Rivers are the lifelines.

Rivers are the most critical part of the ecosystem.

As travelers, even as river runners so connected to the water in these places, we can't even begin to imagine the type of connection that people have had for generations beyond generations going back thousands and thousands of years.

The Rogue River is very important to our people because our people have lived here for thousands of years in specific places.

Each village maintained a territory.

Acorn gathering areas up the hill... here we have sugar pine trees with big, long cones.

That was a food source.

The country has changed quite a bit over the generations since our removal.

A lot of different plants have come in, but there's still a lot of natural areas that have our native food and medicine and fiber plants for weaving.

So we still gather from these places.

Our Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians have dozens of ancestral tribes and bands.

Even though through treaty agreements, federal Indian policy, we lost title to the place, we still feel those deep connections.

My great grandpa and his uncle and their families tried to move back down here to Applegate River Country, but they said things had changed so much that they couldn't even distinguish a lot of the landmarks from logging and clearing of land for farming and mining activity.

We have deep connections to place and culture.

And to be able to pass those values and those traditions on, we have to have access to the landscape.

And we just ask people to pass through quietly, respectfully and take their experience here, hopefully a very good experience home with them and just add it to their memory book.

Pulling invasive non-native star thistle.

Some of those can like dominate what was a native plant community.

And it's pretty bad right here with star thistle.

Especially just up behind you here.

It's pretty thick with it doing something to take care of it, enhance it, leave it better than when they got there.

I love that I'm here with two fellow river rats and both of you that have done so much for conserving rivers and raising awareness.

The rivers are certainly one of the most important parts of our entire landscape.

They are an indicator of everything we do to the land.

So it's like a report card on the behavior of humanity.

One reason the Rogue is so valuable in that respect is that we have this National Wild and Scenic River designated since 1968.

It's kind of a baseline, but compared to everywhere else, you know, it's relatively the same.

You know, we have more fires because of climate change.

It's hotter.

The water quality is not as good because there's a lot of development in the I-5 corridor.

We have a lot of exotic species, like when you look at the plant growth behind us, not the trees.

They're all natives, but the grasses.

It's full of weeds that have come in, in part because the flows have been evened out.

But comparatively speaking, we're kind of looking at the real thing right here.

And now we get the joys of bailing Yeah, I mean, the technology for boating, has not changed, but one of the greater inventions is the self-bailing floor.

Yeah, no kidding.

And you know, this is really old school.

Like it's got for the straps for putting your feet in when you're to hold on to and and everything.

Yeah, it's awesome Especially when you're in big water.

and you get these boats loaded down, they're really hard to move once they're full of water.

Which is fine if you're in a pool drop.

But if you have a rapid you've got to make moves on.

It can be kind of challenging.

But there are two times when a non-self bailer is absolutely great.

One is when you have to pick up the raft from inside the house and carry it out to the van for the trip.

It weighs just two thirds, as much.

Its a 100 pounds.

I can pick it up.

The Rogue is certainly one of the iconic rivers of the Northwest.

It's 154 miles free flowing without a dam.

There's only one other river on the West Coast that are that long without a dam.

But this one is by far the wildest, mainly because of this 33 mile canyon that we have right here.

There's nothing that really signifies life more than a river.

You know, the whole landscape is beautiful, but the river's moving.

It's got a life of its own.

And that life of its own is so indicative of all the rest of life too.

The salmon are coming back on their spawning journey of 200 miles.

Imagine that.

Coming out of the ocean, into this river, and knowing that home where they were born is 200 miles upstream.

So the river signifies all that life and determination and it makes the river really valuable to civilization.

To have this landscape here for everybody to come to and be inspired by, not just to care for it, but to care for our own lives.

You know, because you can see our lives are reflected in the water, really, and our civilization is reflected in the water.

And everything we see in the water.

One of the key differences between running this river and running the Colorado in the Grand Canyon is that relatively speaking, the Rogue is a low volume, high rock river, where the Colorado River is a high volume of water, low quantity of rock river.

So what that means to the river runner is that here we have to be nimble and able to evade hazards as they come up to quick, dash left or right to miss a rock or a big hole and then get back in the channel.

Whereas in the Colorado set up is everything.

Once you enter a big rapid on the Colorado, your fate is pretty much sealed because there's so much water you can't get out of it.

How old are you?

I'm 21.

Yeah.

And you started when I.

When I was 20.

So this is my second season that I started when I was like on third Generation River Runner.

So I did my first river trip.

I had my ninth birthday on the river and that was cool.

They tried to do ice cream, they did dry ice, and it just carbonated.

It didn't make any good at all.

What moment did you know that this was for you?

That didn't come until I was 18.

I did a self-supported paddle-boarding trip and that was when I first felt like self-reliant on the river.

Another skill with rafting is parking the beast.

Because that was hard.

I guess we are going on an adventure swim, an adventure hike?

Yeah.

This is one of the best part of river trips is all the excursions we get to do.

Being isolated with people on the river away from distraction and just like relying on this is a connection that you really only get when you're with people doing it So exhilirating... ...that.

I think we basically had a rockslide.

That was awesome.

No rain dropping into the road.

Yeah, the cold water.

I actually will take a woman guide any day over email guide.

I love to hear it.

Because they have learned Because they have learned how to use the current and how to use the water.

Because you're not going to muscle your way through something and you're going to work with the river and you're going to know that the river is more powerful than you are, and you're going to move with it in a way that illustrates that and respects it.

There's nothing like spending a day and a night on a river, getting into river time, being away from civilization gives us a time to.

This is an opportunity to check in with the rest of life.

And there's just something about water that's beautiful and alive.

And seeing all the birds and wildlife, you just realize that rivers are the center of so much The quintessential river duck is the merganser.

They are at home in rivers so they're wonderful animals to see here.

Describe for us like what is river time?

Well, when you're out on a long river trip like this, you know, you sometimes people take off their watches entirely, but you tend to get up when the sun rises and you're on a schedule that has more to do with just how long it takes to do what the chores are.

You, people don't pay attention to clock time at all.

And there's just something that's so wonderful about being away from that press and rush that the rest of our society puts on us all the time.

Hot coffee, dry clothes, clean underwear, set.

River ecosystems are really delicate and fragile.

And this they're some of the first to feel and show the impacts of climate change.

So, for example, last summer when that heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest, I was watching fish just boil alive in the middle fork of the Salmon and it was crazy.

They were just belly up floating down river.

And these places are really where I feel most at home I think.

Being a river guy is all about having fun on the job and it's a lot of work, but it's worth that, super fun.

Oh, one.

two, three.

There's a certain cast of birds that you see on a lot of rivers, but especially the Rogue.

And those are the birds that eat fish.

And so we would see on this river birds like kingfishers, which are small birds that dive and eat fish.

Mergansers, which are more ducks, that eat fish.

Moving on up to some of the bigger birds like osprey that are amazing divers that plunge into the water and grab fish.

And sometimes you can see them flying with either a fish or a lamprey in their talons, which is quite extraordinary.

And then the top of the list here in the Rogue is the bald eagle.

We often see bald eagles and sometimes see them fishing, which is really breathtaking.

I started as a canoeist and then a kayaker, and then I realized, gosh, if I want to run these trips, I better learn how to raft too, so I can carry gear.

And there weren't a lot of women guides at that time.

It is a very male world and because it sort of seems like rowing these big rafts requires a lot of strength, you would sort of think, oh, this is going to be something that guys are better at.

But we did learn our way of doing it.

And I think it's just sometimes we have to take a few steps ahead, think farther ahead, get the boat into the current line it up.

And of course we did just great, you know, doing that.

So it was fun.

A lot of history on the river and this is part of it.

This Zane Greys Gray's cabin, he came here almost 100 years ago and fell in love with the solitude and the beauty of it.

And he stayed here until the late 1930s when he decided this place had become too popular, thanks in part to some of his writings.

And so he packed up and moved to another river in Oregon.

This is an old drift boat.

This is what river runners used to run.

He was one of the first river runners down here and he managed to get down this whole stretch of wilderness in this boat, which is pretty cool.

Not so forgiving when you hit a rock or anything else, but these guys must have had pretty good boat skills down here, was the first to run a lot of these rapids.

You know, it's funny because in an all rivers, there's little secret spots with little collections from river runners.

Sometimes it's heart shaped rocks, sometimes it's little wooden dolls hidden in places.

Sometimes there's mailboxes where the guides leave each other mail.

There's a lot of little secrets along most rivers for river runners.

No I'm a fishing guide.

I'm a fisherman.

I'm a waterman.

My earliest memories, I was asked again, you know, where's that connection start?

And that was with my uncles who were charter boat skippers down in Florida.

So I that passage in Ernest Hemingway's Old Man in the Sea, where he talks about bonito thumping the deck and the sound and the fury of it all at the age of about three, that's when it started.

for me.

The fishing has become an excuse to go exploring and to explore a waterway like this.

I've never been on, but it's fun.

A lot of people get up in the morning and do yoga or something like that.

Maybe meditate the rhythm of this, the poetry of it.

I get up in the morning and I like to cast.

Even if I have that gut feeling, I'm not catching anything.

The casting itself and watching the movement of the river, my fly across the river.

What better way to start the day?

Everybody has their home river and everybody has this river or place that is special to them.

And when you a place is special to you and you have a connection to it, you care about it.

And when you care about it, you inspire others to care about it.

For many, this is the iconic American River here because it does have wild and scenic designation.

Something about just floating on flowing water, watching the scenery go by.

It's just very calming.

So on every river there are cool, hidden things off of every side canyons.

You could come down here.

So many times and never do the same thing.

Traveling by river is the most special.

way to camp.

The river is your mode of transportation and you don't have to carry your gear and you get into these incredibly wild, pristine and remote areas where nobody else is around.

And it's just stunning.

Like, for me, I realized that, like, the simple things in life matter, like it's I remember sitting there with a saguaro cactus and watching the sunset and think, wow, you don't really need a lot to be happy.

People need wilderness.

People need places where they can come and be on water and check out and have fun and be with friends.

And there are so few places left where we can actually have a multi-day float because there's usually a dam along a river that blocks the flow.

To have this and have it intact and available with warm summer weather, beautiful water, fun rapids, you know, it's really it's really a unique experience to be able to have.

The Living Peace Foundation is honored to provide funding support for Wild Rivers with Tillie supporting people and projects that creatively and courageously advance collaboration, compassion and living peace.

This series shares the passion that the Living Peace Foundation has for the health and connectedness of our planet and all who inhabit it.

I invite you to visit us at Wild Rivers with Tillie dot org or Wild Rivers with Tillie dot com.