A few years ago I went on a private raft trip for my 65th birthday in Oregon for a week. I invited only close friends and my best dog. We ran into herds of elk swimming the river below camp, bighorn sheep, beaver, otter, and mink. We stopped counting bald eagles on the second day at 18. The campsites were several acres in size next the river shaded by ponderosa pines. It was a wild and scenic river so all camp sites were totally clean with no campfire rings. I baked a cake in a Dutch Oven. My friends recited stories and read articles about my birthday. It is the kind of trip by which all others are judged.
