Rogue River, Day 2: Tyee Bar to Missouri Bar

Breaking camp after a sumptuous breakfast, Day 2 on the river started off with a bang when a couple of inflatable kayakers -- Emily and her son Oliver -- flipped their boats in Wildcat Rapids, a Class III riffle that will overturn inflatable kayaks that go sideways.

Since our raft (like the one above with Kathryn, another proud graduate of the University of Oregon, at the helm) was the closest, Frank and I got to practice our rescue skills almost immediately that morning. I've rarely felt so valued as a human being. After Wildcat Rapids, we had a succession of rapids with colorful names like "Quiz Show," "Slim Pickens" and "Kelsey Chutes."

After those rapids, we stopped at the Zane Grey Cabin (below). An American author, Zane Grey (1872-1939) was best known for his adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the American West, which was popularized even more with the advent of television: you know, like Bonanza.

Grey penned stories like Riders of the Purple Sage and other books adapted for television, such as The Lone Ranger and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. An avid fisherman (his son claimed that Grey fished about 300 days a year), he maintained rustic residences in Florida, Arizona and Catalina Island in addition to his cabin on the Rogue River.

Our camp that night was Missouri Bar (below), where once again we dined like gourmands thanks to the epicurian skills of our guides. The shot of camp below was taken from our tent site.

A nice perch for a tent site, the location was a good new/bad news situation. Bad news first: the area was rife with poison oak. The good news? It was likely the best spot to watch the Perseid meteor shower that night: shooting stars everywhere against the blackened sky.