It's "Camping Near a River"

A decisive loss for “shut up, dork.”

So we’re camping near the river, June 24-27, at Indian Mary Park in southern Oregon.

We have five campsites reserved, in a county campground with strict limits on the number of tents, cars, and people per campsite, so this implies availability for maaaaybe twenty people. You can also try to book your own campsite at the same park, or stay nearby at a hotel so you can sleep in comfort and join us for campfires and river rafting. Grants Pass is sixteen miles away, with a bunch of hotels. If you’d like to bring an RV, there are hook-ups. For the rest of us, the park has coin-op showers, though we can’t be certain they’ll be open. Jumping in the river also counts as bathing.

My thanks to reader Scott Cochran for suggesting the trip and reserving the campsites. Scott plans to drive up with a raft so he can take people out on the river, in nearby Class 2 and Class 3 runs (probably, but the river gets the final vote). Scott says there’s good hiking, fishing, and mountain biking nearby, so bring gear. Bring your own tents, sleeping bags, pads, pillows, and plates/cups/etc. We’ll share some food, but plan to bring some of your own.

The campground is about twenty minutes from Medford, with a small airport that has direct flights from a bunch of western cities. I plan to drive, even though it’s a long trip, because I like it.

Scott will lay out a lot of money to get this done — towing the raft to Oregon, paying for three nights at five campsites — so we’ll share costs with him when we get there so he doesn’t have to eat the whole thing. Exact shared cost TBD, depending on how many people go, but I can’t imagine it being hugely expensive. And you’ll sign a liability waiver if you go river rafting, because we’re all agreeing to take our own risks, even though we live in a culture that mostly doesn’t do that.

Children are welcome, although my teenager would roll her eyes to near-fatal levels to listen to people talk about politics for three days — yes, I checked — so I’m planning to show up alone.

If you want to come, send an email to Scott: scott (at) scottriver (dot) com so can keep a head count and plan the thing. Questions and discussion in the comment thread below. If this works, we’ll do it again in other places. Looks like a good time.