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Campers spirits not dampened Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Kerri Carter, 18, of Medford, camps with a little extra protection Saturday at Joseph Stewart State Park on Lost Creek Lake. Most folks took the cool, cloudy weather in stride and hoped for sunnier skies today and Monday. But forecasters predicted mostly cloudy skies with scattered showers through the weekend. Despite the cool, wet weather, enthusiasts head for the outdoors By Bill Varble Gray skies, cool temps and rain aren�t exactly what most folks would have ordered for the last big weekend of the summer season, but campers around the Rogue Valley seem to be taking the unseasonable weather pretty much in stride. "I think it�s nice weather," says Scott Linden, 11, of Medford, as he prepares for his first-ever raft trip down the Rogue River. Linden is coping with jackets and life preservers at the boat ramp just below the Cole Rivers Fish Hatchery with a group of friends celebrating his 11th birthday. He could be speaking for others as well. "It�s fine," says Julie D�Amore, who is visiting from Utah with her husband. "It�s not what we were expecting, but we�re prepared. We left in bad weather, and we have wet weather gear." The couple are drifting the Rogue to fish under gray skies. D�Amore�s friend Linda Brouzes, of Eagle Point, e-mailed D�Amore when she and her husband were getting ready to leave their home in Utah. "I told her all she�d need is a light jacket," Brouzes says, laughing. D�Amore says the cool weather is actually something of a relief, coming at the end of a hot, dangerous summer that saw wildfires plague the West. "Everything around us has been burning," she says. She and her husband, Al Davis, live at an elevation of 6,000 feet. Both are cross-country ski instructors. She sums up their secret for being prepared for all kinds of weather in one word and a laugh: "Layers!" At Joseph Stewart Park on Lost Creek Lake, Park Ranger Nancy McLeod says the cool, wet weather Saturday put a dent in crowds, but not much. "It�s down a little," she says. "A lot of people are paying for just one day at a time." Kerri Carter huddles next to the warmth of a small campfire as Scott Sawyer fries up some bacon on a camp stove he�s set up on a picnic table. Nearby, their tent is nestled under a canopy of branches. "We were hoping it�d be nice," says Sawyer, 21. "But we�re not disappointed," says Carter, 18. "We�re staying until Sunday." The couple say they didn�t do as much camping as they�d like this summer, or last year either, come to think of it. "So I was like, �We�re gonna go�," Sawyer says. Matt Miller, of Medford, sits at his campfire with friends, plans for water-skiing for the moment down but not out. "We�re going to stick it out," he says. Despite the weather, the group says they hope for "maybe a little" time on the water of Lost Creek. It�s not so bad in wetsuits, they say. "It�s better than being in town," Liz McCauley says. And the rain? "It rained pretty hard last night," says Tade Paris, of Medford. He says he woke up in the tent a couple of times. He can�t say for sure it was the rain that did it, he says. "It�s nice to listen to, though." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA