Boat Smith 2026

By Rachel Mulholland

It was July of 2023. The sun was glittering off the Willamette. A warm breeze was caressing my sun-kissed skin. My friend had jumped into the river with his iPhone absolutely convinced that it was waterproof. The largest of the three dogs swam over to me and tried to claw his way back onto the SUP. I was laughing so hard I could barely keep the board steady as I grabbed him by the lifejacket. My other dog was counterbalancing all the shifts in movement as if he were designed to do so. Life was good.

Back at home base, as my friend realized his new iPhone was broken due to water damage, he told me about an upcoming self-supported camping trip he was taking on his SUP to the North Umpqua River. I had never heard of overnight camping that involved SUPs. My brain cut to that scene from the Parent Trap where the girlfriend is floating on her air mattress in the middle of the lake. After quickly learning that the camping part did not happen on the SUPs, it made a lot more sense and it sounded amazing!

I had family in town the weekend of that particular trip, so I was not able to attend, but this new concept of boat camping was locked in! I had a new life goal to work towards!

In 2024 and 2025, I tried a few times to join kayaking overnight camping trips only to be thwarted each time. Different reasons were given to me, but mainly my partner at the time did not want to camp with my dogs.They thought it would be too difficult and too much work. Which was a big bummer. I had successfully camped on my own with my dogs and a SUP at Timothy Lake and Little Crater Lake, but it was tricky with two dogs without a second set of hands. I thought back to the joy of three dogs, two people and two SUPs on that sunny day on the Willamette River. I knew it was not only possible but downright super fun to camp with dogs… but, after asking my previous partner several times to go camping with me and my dogs, I finally gave up and stopped asking.

Lucky for me, by February of 2026 I was no longer in a relationship with someone who did not like my dogs! When Boat Smith came around something inside me lit up. Could this finally be my chance to combine whitewater kayaking and camping?! Is it finally here?

I sent out a few notes to my network of paddlers and found out that a LOT of people I knew were going to be there. It sounded like I'd be losing service upon arriving at the campsite, which meant all I had to do was find someone that I knew and trusted, figure out where they would be before I lost service, and then plan to get myself to them before dark. I figured once I got to them in person I could figure out the rest of the weekend from there.

When I pulled into my specific campsite that my friend Amanda was kind enough to hold for me, it was perfect! I set up my tent right away and quickly realized that I was surrounded by friendly faces in every. single. campsite. I thought I might know one or two people at the festival, but… I knew EVERYONE. It was completely unexpected and delightful! My dog and I took a lap around the campgrounds with Damon and noted that every site had at least one kayak in it. I had never seen such a sight. My dog and I settled into our new home for the next few days.

The next morning we began the day around 7:00 AM. My dog and I took a lap around the campsite before settling in to make a cup of coffee with the jet boil and have breakfast. I could sense a certain excitement in the air and it started to build. People would walk over to my site and invite me along with their crew for the day. I’d ask, what section? What time are you starting? And the anticipation started to grow! I had been worried that I would struggle to find people to kayak with, but it was the opposite. Everyone was inclusive and kind.

It’s hard to say how long exactly it took for the talk of kayaking to translate into action, but the shift was palpable! One moment, I’m drinking my coffee and the next I’m shimmying into my dry suit and cracking jokes to calm my nerves. It started to dawn on me that I had not researched the Smith River(s) at all. I still couldn’t tell you if the forks are different rivers or all the same river? I did not know and it did not matter. I was simply along for the ride.

We packed Carl’s pickup truck full of boats and headed up to Stairs on the South Fork. Our first put in for the day. Along the way we drove past two more of my friends!! I was SO excited. What were the odds? My luck became even stronger when those same two gals were putting on the river at the exact same time as us! I couldn’t believe it. So lucky. 

We were paddling from Stairs to Craig’s Beach. I don’t remember when exactly, but I was made aware that we would be running a class IV rapid on this run. I had no interest in running a class IV rapid, but what was I going to do? It was between me and the takeout!

As we approached Surprise rapid (IV), I fell towards the back of the group. I sat in an eddy by a rock and contemplated my life choices. There was a horizon line. I watched every single person go down from the safety of my boat. Everyone entered right of center. Then they cut to the left with control and dropped down, from there I could only see the tip of their paddle and I did not like what I saw next… Their paddles violently jerked to the right before disappearing out of sight completely followed by cheering from the folks below. Sasha was the last to go… She asked me if I was OK and I said, “Yes. I’ll be right behind you.” I’m pretty sure my voice cracked as I said it. I watched her enter, move to the left, and then jerk to the right… Oh crap. It was my turn…

I took a deep breath, locked into the boat and sent it.

Some action at the bottom of Surprise (headcam shot by Rachel)

My own self doubt and all the negative things people had said to me about my kayaking over the last couple of years swirled around in my head as I approached the rapid. I could think of many people who would have nothing kind to say about me running a class IV rapid. Were they right about me? Am I bad at this?

I snapped back into the present moment and my eyes locked on to the tongue in front of me. It was wide, obvious and easy to hit. I was grateful for that. Then my eyes read the next part… It looked like a curling wave and a hole combined and it was right in the middle of the river. As my heart rate doubled, I quickly assessed that I had two lines: go to the right, into the loud massively churning wave/hole situation or go straight into the massive object which was either a rock or a large hole. I edged to the right and stuck my blade in on my right side, before careening to my left edge and switching my blade to the left. I picked up speed as I dropped down and teed up to the rock as if my life depended on it. I tightened my core even more and held my breath as I went flying over the rock. I landed in a completely vertical tailie position. I heard people cheering as the physical sensation of holding my boat in the vertical position reminded me of horseback riding. I don’t know how exactly, but I kept the boat in a good position and landed gently right side up. I did not even wobble or come close to flipping in anyway. I looked at Amanda in disbelief. I couldn’t believe it. Everyone was cheering like crazy. I had not just survived, but somehow accidentally styled my first ever Class IV rapid!

This was just the beginning of what turned out to be a stellar weekend.

Later that day, I found myself exploring a private section of the South Fork with two friends. We had the entire scenic river to ourselves for miles. The sun was shining and we were all three in absolute awe of the beauty and wildness of the experience. We had great crew energy. No one was telling anyone else what to do or how to act. There was no ego anywhere to be found. It was just three women on a sunny day reading and running some pretty stout Class III+ rapids and it was as joyful as it was healing.

We did not know anything about the run aside from it was “about 5 miles of class II+ / III ish rapids.” Beta that we received from a relative stranger mind you! It dawned on us a few hours in that we actually had no idea if it was true, but in the midst of the unknown we found ourselves naming the rapids as we went through them. The most memorable to me was Pillow Fight.

Pillow Fight rapid is just after a large luxury home on river right. You enter through a boulder garden and then suddenly drop down towards a huge rock that almost resembles an exclamation point. The pillow looks simple enough but as you careen into it, it pinballs you to the left and then back to the right before you exit the feature. We all made it through just fine, but that one was unexpected and fun!

There was another one with a hidden rock. Ellen was the third in the crew. Sasha and I were waiting at the bottom of this rapid for her and signaling to her to go to the left to avoid the hidden rock we had hit. She hit the same rock and caught some decent speed before sailing into the air with a decent hang time! She landed it like an absolute boss! Honestly, we’re not sure it’s possible to avoid the hidden rock on that one. It should probably be named “Hidden Rock” if it isn’t already!

I guess in that way exploratory runs have an extra layer of fun and adrenaline to it. You watch your friends go through the rapids too, so it’s not just a matter of you getting through a rapid, it’s being on the ready to support your crew if they have any issues. Before I would run any rapid, I would watch Sasha in front of me. She would read the rapid and determine the line and communicate it back to me. I would then watch to see if she hit anything and then communicate it back to Ellen (as best I could) or at least make sure I was in her line of sight before entering into the line. Sasha and I would hang in an eddy at the bottom of each rapid and wait for Ellen to make it through OK. Always checking to make sure we did not lose sight of her. Every time either of them successfully ran a rapid it felt just as exciting as when I made it through the rapid myself. We were truly renegading out there!

It was hours before we came upon any other boaters on the river and of course, in true festival magic fashion, the next boaters we saw were people I knew! I could not believe it, but we ran into Nemo and Vova as we approached Surprise Rapid for the second time that day. This was great news because I had planned to look for Nemo at the lodge that night, but I should have known I would find him lapping the one Class IV on the whole run! It was so amazing to run into a friendly face in the middle of a river in California. That felt surreal.

The seemingly magical timing continued as we reached Craig’s Beach at the same time my camp mates were putting on to start their next lap of the Class IV+ canyon! It was unheard of in terms of luck. Literally no planning of any kind, just pure chance and good fortune.

The weekend carried on in this fashion for days… kayaking in the day time and cuddling with my dog over beers by a fire in the night time.

Stepping out of my tent in the mornings, I felt a visceral certainty when I looked at my kayak laying there by my Jeep. I knew we were going to have another good day.

Thinking back to July of 2023 when I first learned of these kinds of experiences, I can now say with certainty that I love boat camping and my dog does too! I still haven’t seen the North Umpqua, but I have plans to do just that with friends this summer!

In the words of Penny Lane from Almost Famous, “It’s all happening.”