I discovered (the hard way) that there is a new way to get a Deschutes Boater Pass. You can visit http://www.boaterpass.com and get the pass off the internet. This works for the trip passes, not for season passes.
Krista, Suzi and I took out catarafts down the river last weekend. The regular vendor (Dinty's in Biggs) didn't have permits, and we couldn't find any place else that sold them before we launched. A nice Oregon Stater walked into our camp on Sunday morning and gave us a ticket (luckily it was only one ticket instead of three).
Other than that, we had good weather (especially for this time of year), good meals, and a relatively uneventful trip.
Hopefully you-all can avoid getting a ticket by making use of the link above.