Well, what began as a trickle has become somewhere between a steady stream and a flood. There can be no mistake about it now. That river is alive with redsides, but this new kind reads BUDWEISER". It has become at first predictable, and now dependable. If you are wading, and keeping an eye out, especially in the better backeddys, you are going to find beer, or pop, in scratched and battered aluminum pop-top cans. You would think you would be finding zillions of empties for each full one, but that is not the case. For one thing, the new breed of eco-rent-a-rafter would NEVER litter with empties, and two, the empties sink, which leads me to my theory as to the real origin of all this beer. I'm fairly sure that most of these do not come from upsets. While there is a fair amount of other various and sundries that you find in these backeddys, including full fly boxes, dishracks, chairs, etc., you really do not find many empty cans. I am sure that someone has a mathematical model predicting the number of empites in any given boat versus the number of, ah, virgins, varying with miles between put-in and take-out. But it should all average out at 50-50, and that's not what you find. The second mechanism for this beverage pollution is the neophyte who, while camping, simply plops his six-pack, or case, along the shallows and really does nothing to secure it. Paper cartons break down, sure enough, but the subtle wave action and continuous current claim more. But I don't even think that is the major contributor. I ask you. What does every party of rafters do within one hundred yards of launching, and compulsively at least once a day thereafter. Answer, have a water fight. And what happens when someone in raft A runs out of beer or pop? Someone in raft B,C,D, or E THROWS HIM ONE. And they always miss. Then rafter A has to wake up everyone else in his raft, and try to coordinate a rescue effort, which entails some really fine manuvering for a six paddled raft of neophyte-eco-rent-a-rafters, and the currents, or rapids take over, and voila. The river is salted with beer! I have actually seen as many as three beers heaved in an attempt to transfer one from raft A to B, before they gave up and rowed the rafts together. Whatever the cause. let there be no doubt that the Deschutes is experiencing a new kind of pollution, if you could call it that. Somehow, a full, cold, can does not offend as much as an empty one. Those of us who don't drink beer have to wait for the Squirt and Cokes. And it's always a little like an easter egg hunt, a pleasant surprise, a freebie, most appreciated because you can clean up and drink up at the same time.
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