Skip to main content

River Rafting Testimonial

Leavenworth, Washington

Over Memorial Weekend, a group of ladies celebrating an imminent wedding date booked a river rafting trip on the Wenatchee River at pretty high water.  The organizer of the trip - but not the bride-to-be - was a mite skittish about the whole white water thing.  I assured her we would do everything within our means of showing her a safe and fun time.

As the River Manager, I made certain this group paired up with a guide who I knew would succeed in showing them a rollicking good time, skirt what needed to be skirted and challenge the waves they could successfully challenge.  They had a fantastic time!  So much so, the organizer wrote an eloquent and pithy review on Yelp.  She gave us five stars.

Well, Yelp decided to filter it out.  Which is a shame because it is one of the best written reviews I have seen.  I hope she won't mind me sharing it with the Orion public.
Rafting Joie de Vivre
Good times river running.
This is from Lera M.  of western Washington.

"If you want a personalized experience for river rafting, with the security of going with an established company--use Orion. (Ignore the cheesy BBQ marketing from the "other" guys).

This company has class. The guides are excellently trained. The owner of the company even let us pick one of the most experienced guides because we were a little nervous taking a Bachelorette Party down the Wenatchee in May just two weeks before the wedding.

We only got wet if we wanted to (except for the splashing harassment from the other boats--which was awesome) and for those who got wet--our guide, Ally--offered up her own personal gear to make sure the girls who jumped in wouldn't be too cold as the weather turned chilly and dark the second half of the trek.

It was a great workout--we had planned on having a crazy night in downtown Leavenworth afterwards--but we were so exhausted, we kept it low-key.

Ally was an exceptional guide. We didn't need to use any of the safety tips she provided before we got in the boat (thankfully!) but as the most scared one in the group, I felt confident that she had prepared me. She was fun and personal, and it was evident from the 16-mile trek with HUGE waves that she knew exactly what she was doing, when we needed to preserve our energy, when we needed to focus and work hard, and when it was time to have fun. She kept us safe, warm, and excited!

And! ... They offered clean equipment--warm wetsuits and booties (LOVE the booties!), fancy well-maintained boats, and you can wear your own rain jacket (Do NOT skip this in colder months!) which just feels better after 4 hours of wear.

Thank you Orion! This was the Bachelorette Party Weekend Getaway HIGHLIGHT!"
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 6, 2012 at 1:05 PM

    That is a darn fine review indeed! I hope you are contacting Yelp to get them to list it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jim Fielder - Washington River Rafting Pioneer

Jim Fielder was, as they say, larger than life. The former middle school teacher, beloved by many, and former white water rafting outfitter , envied by even more, lost his life recently due to poor electrical wiring and a flash fire.  He lived on Queen Anne hill in a house handed down to him by his mother. The Queen Anne News reported that he was also a former screenwriter and novelist of true crime stories.  I know he had published a book or two, and I know he wrote an insightful article about Mary Kay Letourneau for a women's magazine, but I don't know if I would characterize anyone who has been published as being 'former'.  Once a writer, always a writer. Jim Fielder owned Zig Zag River Runners from the late 70s through the early 90s, and that is how I know him.  But the last time I saw him, he was haunting a Queen Anne coffeehouse, absorbing information and scheming about subject matter you could sink your teeth into.  He was long past his white wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

River Rafting Rescue 101

Rivers are cold in the state of Washington. Gushing down the slopes of the North Cascade mountain range, westbound toward the Salish Sea and eastbound toward the Columbia, Washington rivers are the result of melting snowfields, diminishing glaciers, brisk Pacific Northwest rainfall and subterranean cold water springs. Meanwhile the Skagit River has all of those factors plus it is water spilled through turbines released from the depths of a very deep and very cold Ross Lake. For those specific reasons, it is not unusual to be wearing neoprene throughout the white water season in the grey and mossy Pacific Northwest. Even on the Skagit in August. And when the river is running high in the spring from snow melt, not only is the temperature of the water frigid (prolonged exposure to 70 degree water induces hypothermia - as I can attest to on a pleasant afternoon without a splash jacket on the Pucon River in Chile) it is moving rather fast. 'Swimmers', as we call persons over...
2 comments
Read more

Not the Sharpest Tool in the Raft Shed

The first time I rowed a raft was on the Rogue River.  Come to think of it, the very first time I rowed - anything - was on the Rogue River. Thirteen kayakers led by a WWU professor hired me to haul their cargo on a week long trip.  But there was one glitch - I was a paddle guide.  I had no idea how to row.  What I knew about rowing you could put on the back of a matchbook cover. But it was an offer I couldn’t refuse for two reasons.  It was the Rogue River made famous by Zane Grey, the pulp fiction western writer, and by guide books claiming the Rogue harbored one of the country’s ten biggest rapids. More importantly, the kayakers were paying me five hundred dollars for the week.  I saw no reason to dissuade them of their offer, or mention my deficiency.  I set about building an oar frame out of knotty pine purchased at the local lumber yard. I found a blueprint for a rudimentary frame in a river running handbook.  I wi...
Post a Comment
Read more