The guy who owned the fly shop I worked for in LaGrand always used to say. " if you're gonna walk from Minam to Troy why would you want to drag a boat along"
Oh man, ain't that the truth. We actually got really lucky this year with a nice bump just before the launch. It was primo when we showed up then dropped a foot that night as we camped at the put in. We were a bit concerned to see it drop so much but it was still well above average and we had a pretty easy go of it.
I do love this raft. Even fully loaded with 8 days worth of junk, a TeePee with a wood stove, and way to many beers she only draws a few inches. The gravely drops were no problem, but that river has sooo many of those boulders just below the surface that its still a tough float. My buddy has a 14' cat and he can just straddle those suckers while I row all the way around each and every one of them. but he draws triple of what I do so he has his issues as well.
Still a great float and we didn't see another soul until the last day when we got passed by the funniest shit show of a raft I've ever seen. 3 dudes on a POS 18'er with a mountain of gear on it. They each had a 5 gallon propane tank for the heaters! No clue how those guys made it down, but they were bumming beers so I'm guessing they had a good time. Wish I had gotten a pic.
