Paddle To Plate

A new food-fueled rafting trip on Oregon’s Klamath River elevates backcountry cooking.

- David Hanson

I am halfway through my first single-origin mezcal margarita when the lightly charred street corn arrives on a platter at my umbrella-shaded Adirondack chair. Cotija cheese crumbles fall to the dirt at my flip-flopped feet as I dig in. That’s when the smell of chimichurri and smoke reaches me from the grill. Through theoak trees, the dark headwaters of the Klamath River flow past in a hush.

There are 14 guests scattered in similar forms of cocktailhour repose under the oaks. After the last street corn kernals are pinched from the platter, we take seats at the long table under a shade tent. The feast arrives: flank steak, chicken thighs, Oaxacan-mole-braised shell beans, cilantroscented rice, and a salad of pickled onions, radish, cucumber, and cilantro dressing.

It’s a confusing confluence of the senses: the fresh air of wilderness mingling with the tastes and scents of the grill. Such is life (for three days, at least) on a new gourmet river-rafting trip along the Oregon-California border.

There’s something enchanting about the incessancy of a river. I’ve spent months of my life floating down rivers, from lazy ones in the Deep South to hyperactive western whitewater. I’m drawn to the natural beauty of rivers and to “river time,” the calm that comes with relinquishing your pace to the flow. The food part has long been an afterthought. The Upper Klamath River trip, organized by Pete Wallstrom of Ashland, Oregon’s Momentum River Expeditions, promised to bring locally sourced urban gourmet meals to the riverside backcountry. I considered the trip a chance to step up my culinary game while on river time.