AGNESS — Pete Pollard walked up the remote trail through the Lower Rogue River Canyon with the melancholy of a man who knows his one missed oar-stroke killed his daughter's dog.

Wind whipping up whitecaps across the reservoir would keep most paddlers on shore. A team of six men and women, however, defy the challenging conditions.

Southern Oregon windsurfing and kite-boarding fans needn't travel all the way to the Columbia Gorge to find first-rate playgrounds.

Oregon whitewater rafters have one up on most of the country. They can challenge the Rogue River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, right in their own backyard.

Rafting between the canyon walls of the longest undammed river in the Northwest begins again every spring.

The tough-running Pinball rapid on the North Umpqua River has become much tougher to run now that nature has added a new and dangerous bumper to the mix.

Recreational driftboaters and rafters now can apply for the chance to land coveted permits to float the Wild and Scenic Section of the Rogue River this spring and summer.