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Paddling on a stream of consciousness Kayakers work their way down the Wood River in July. Photo courtesy Loren Kerns / Flickr.com Friday Aug 12, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Lee Juillerat for the Mail Tribune Surreal colors. Bucolic scenery. And gentle waters that almost lullaby a paddler to sleep. When it's time to kick back, relax and savor the scenery, the Wood River is the place. Meandering 18 miles from the spring where it emerges at Joseph Kimball State Park near Klamath County's Fort Klamath to where it merges into Agency Lake, the Wood never roars or intimidates. It’s a lazy river, one filled with oxbow curves that flow beside riverbanks lined with copious displays of yellow monkeyflowers and, in some stretches, grazing cattle. Especially in its first few miles, the Wood meanders alongside aspen groves and dense stands of Ponderosa and lodgepole pine. According to “Oregon Geographic Names,” the Wood is part of what was the west boundary of the former Klamath Indian Reservation. During the early years of the Army post Fort Klamath, the river that had been called Eukalksine Koke by Klamath Indians was named the Wood by early white settlers because fort-builders harvested trees from groves along its banks. Few people paddle the Wood’s entire length. The usual focus is along a 6-mile section from Kimball to a Fremont-Winema National Forest day-use area. The slow-moving river slides past forests, through meadows and alongside ranchlands. Views north and west include a panorama of distant Cascades peaks, including Mount McLoughlin, Union Peak and other high spots near the Sky Lakes Wilderness, along with Mount Scott, Garfield Peak and other mountains that surround Crater Lake. The Wood is immediately stunning, its crystalline clear, otherworldly pristine waters sometimes called Mediterranean blue. It’s possible to simply paddle easy loops around the blue lagoon in a kayak, canoe or a rubber raft and be charmed. But the better option is aiming downstream, quickly cruising over fascinating rock formations, weaving around fallen logs and, when the river quickly becomes shallow, avoiding sandbars. "This is the kind of place you travel around the world to see, and it's right here," Jenifer Roe, co-owner of Roe Outfitters, a Klamath Falls outfitter-guide service, says of the impossibly blue hues of water. "The color is breathtaking." Breathtaking, indeed. A group of us paddled the Wood independently, leaving cars at the day-use site then shuttling our fleet of kayaks, a canoe and stand-up paddle board and boaters to Kimball. Before heading off, we took the short walk to the Wood's perky headwaters. The Wood isn't a river to be rushed. Or, as Roe puts it, "It's not like you have to work your tail off." The Wood is a river that encourages relaxation. Over much of the distance, paddling is optional, although it's necessary to avoid sandy shallows. It's not unusual to see boaters "walking on waters" towing boats to flowing river sections. The river occasionally sidles past ranch houses and ducks under a trio of bridges, one with a trio of low, narrow passages. The Fort Klamath region is cattle country and, right on cue, a herd of grazing Angus watched as we floated past. For anglers, the Wood River is home redband trout, brown trout and brook trout. Bag limit is catch and release for redband trout, two brown trout per day and no limit on brook trout. With its laid-back appeal, traveling the Wood River is literally exploring a stream of consciousness. Lee Juillerat has been writing about outdoor adventures in Southern Oregon and elsewhere for more than 30 years. He is also a regular contributor to the outdoor-travel website High On Adventure at www.highonadventure.com. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 541-880-4139.