We had our company picnic yesterday at Quosatana Campground 14 miles up the Rogue River from the BHM office. My family decided we’d combine the picnic with a four-day camp at Quosatana so we got there a day ahead. We brought everything we could fit in the truck, including our bicycles, four coolers for the picnic fixings, a bunch of firewood, and my axes.

It was a great day!. Quosatana is the local’s favorite camp spot, It’s spacious, has three flush toilet bathrooms, potable water, a boat ramp, and easy access to swimming and fishing in the river. It also quiets down nicely after 10 pm as campers respect people’s desire for a quiet sit by the campfire. I’ve been in campgrounds in California where I decided to leave after a night of shouting and drunkenness from other camp sites.

We brought our Coleman popup camper too, which makes camping pretty easy with its two queen-sized beds, a stove, and refrigerator. But we cook mainly with a small barbecue we set out on the picnic table at the site. Lenie barbecued turkey sausages and chicken for the picnic, and employees brought all sorts of delicious stuff: pasta, potato salad, lots of fruit, brownies, chips, dips, various drinks and desserts.

We all sat around the campfire and had a great time. Lenie and I decided to just close the office down for the day. Conveniently, someone cut a fiber optic table north of town, near Coos Bay, so the town had no phone or internet anyway. As the afternoon wore on, four of the ladies went off and picked blackberries. They got a lot, as blackberrries are plentiful this time of year around here. In fact, blackberries are so plentiful in Southern Oregon that many people treat them as a nuisance, hiring someone to just cut them out. I trim ours at home back severely every year. The day’s harvest went to Lisa, who had planned to make blackberry jam later in the day.

The six kids at the picnic went fishing on the Rogue, at a spot the adults found difficult to get to because you had to slither along a slate outcropping that hung over the river for about 60 yards. I think the kids planned it that way so they had several hours to themselves. They caught 21 small bullhead in all.

The kids, along with several adults, also went swimming in the Rogue. Typically, the river is very cold but the water was in the low 60s today, I would estimate. The warm water is one reason why the salmon season on the Rogue has been poor this summer. Salmon like a certain temperature. If the water gets too warm, disease begins to spread among them

By late afternoon BHM employees had gone home, so Robby and I went fishing for steelhead in a riffle west of the camp. We each caught one but they were too undersized to keep. I tried using one of the small bullhead as bait but steelhead apparently don’t like them. We ran out of worms so I’ll go to town tomorrow to get more.

The Rogue is a magnificent river, with each twist and turn revealing some new wonder of nature. Not only are their black bears and deer roaming around, plus osprey diving for fish, but there are rapids around one bend, then a peaceful swimming hole with a sandy beach around the next. The water is somewhat low this time of year, so when you take your jet boat up you have to keep up the speed through the riffles so you don’t bottom out. There weren’t many boats going upiver today.

The evenings have been very peaceful. My family sat around the campfire until bedtime, then Lenie read Harry Potter to the boys as I continued to stare into the mesmerizing flames or write on this blog post. The boys like to tend the fire. They are expert, since they have two wood stoves to tend at home. Our camp is in a myrtlewood grove so there are dry leaves all over, which the boys gather and toss into the fire to create a burst of colorful flames.

The camp quiets down nicely at night, with the lone exception of the one dodo a night who likes to lock his car door by pressing the button on that infernal key device that makes the car horn beep. But I’m a patient, understanding guy. I block out the interruptions and just relax. Besides, I’ve yet to meet anyone at Quosatana that I didn’t like.

There are lots of stars out tonight, from what I can see between the myrtlewood branches. Like at home, there are no nearby city lights here to diminish the brilliance of the stars.

I’ve taken advantage of my own magazine’s advice for this trip by bringing two of the GE lanterns Jeff Yago reviewed in a previous issue, plus the small, very quiet Honda 2000I generator he reviewed. My trailer batteries are low so I’ll charge them today while the campground is bustling.

Our black lab, Molly, also likes to camp. She swims in the Rogue. My boys are all strong swimmers, thanks to Lenie, who

swam on her college team.

It’s getting late. The campground, except for me, is asleep. I’ll shut off the lantern and let the fire go out. Tomorrow I’ll drive the 14 miles to town to buy

marshmallows and more worms for fishing.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 11:43 am and is filed under Fishing, Publishing BHM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.