My family reunion this year was scheduled for a campground in Union Creek Oregon this year. Most of us Higginses took a week off to drive up and take part. Union Creek empties into the Rogue River and I hoped to do some kayaking on this river. At the campground where we were staying the Rogue was a small river of clear water quietly moving by at a good clip. Fast enough to carry a swimmer away but shallow enough to stand up in and walk to shore. But a little exploring showed us some impossible whitewater near by.
Just a few miles south of our camp was a roadside trail to the "Natural Bridge". I assumed that this was describing an arch of rock over the river. But instead it turned out to be a hole in the ground that swallowed the whole river! It was a lava tube that took the water in on one side and let it back out farther down on the other side! So the tube had to cross under and snake back and forth at least once to do this. A kayak could get in a lot of trouble if it drifted down into this! A mile or so north of us was a scenic place called "The Gorge". This turned out to be a place where the river had carved itself a narrow channel through the rock, sometimes only 5 fet wide and 45 feet deep. We would not be kayaking down through that!
On several hikes I walked the shore from The Gorge to Natural Bridge and decided that It would be possible to kayak from just below The Gorge down to our campsite. Once a few of us had tried this and found it safe we were able to do several truck loads of kayaks a day up to The Gorge. So everyone was able to try this out.
We asked around an heard that there was a calm section farther down the river past a lake and a large dam. People regularly rode tubes and rafts down this section so three of us tried it out. This tame section of river was a lot of fun and the reports back from us made everyone want to go down it. So over the next few days more runs down this section of the Rogue were organized.