the julius: 1700 miles of river © Geoff Gourley photographer

Early in 2002, Dimock, having finished his replica of Buzz Holmstrom's Julius, decides to run all the rivers Holmstrom ran. Then he acquires a Holmstrom-era auto: a 1920 Dodge Brothers Touring Car. No one is really sure why. Buzz's original, 1937 Brad's new car, 2001 He heads west and crosses the Colorado at Hoover Dam and keeps going in the middle of the Mojave the touring car gives up regrouped, redirected and re-autoed, he christens Julius on the San Juan River. (Mogollon Superstition Ale, if you're curious) north to Coquille, Oregon, where Buzz's sister Anna and her daughter June inspect the replica. Julius visits Buzz's bar, unchanged in 65 years, beer about the same and heads down the Rogue River from Grants Pass lines around Rainie Falls careens through Blossom Bar and heads out to the sea at Gold Beach and then to Salmon, Idaho on the Salmon River for 300 miles through Idaho to Lewiston and over to the Yellowstone River, from Gardiner, Montana, past Corwin Springs down through Paradise Valley and the Absarokas and wild summer sunsets, to Billings then up to the Green River Lakes to camp at the headwaters below Squaretop then downstream through the sagebrush past Labarge to Expedition Island, Green River, Wyoming, where Major Powell launched in 1869, and Buzz launched in 1937 a portage around Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Dam across Brown's Park to the Gates of Lodore through Triplet Falls down across the Uintah Valley and through Desolation Canyon past Green River, Utah, through Labyrinth Canyon and the Buttes of the Cross through Stillwater Canyon and into Cataract Canyon and rocky Big Drop Three and out through Narrow Canyon to Lake Powell, Hite Bridge and the Henry Mountains a portage around Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam and down into Marble Canyon through Grand Canyon, and into muddy Lava Falls eeeeeeeeee hawwwww out the far end of Grand Canyon and across sixty windy miles of Lake Mead past the security forces to thunk into Hoover Dam like Buzz did. makes you wonder... what was Buzz thinking?     For another perspective on the Rogue section of the trip, visit Roger Fletcher's website at River's Touch. www.riverstouch.com