River Rafting in Washington

“The Selway, between Double Drop Rapids and Ladle Rapids, has averaged one drowning per year, over the past 8 years.” the veteran Selway River guide intoned.  “Don’t take it lightly.”   As if we needed additional angst prior to boating one of the most difficult rivers to get a permit for in the country and one of the most remote rivers to navigate.  Our long drive to the put-in carried us deep into the forested Idaho wilderness.  It was springtime.  The weather was gorgeous.  The skies were the kind of blue poets wax over and writers fawn on and on about struggling to come up with an original description.  The river itself was flowing at an optimal level for a party that had never seen any of its whitewater. It’s not that we weren’t loaded with experience, we were.  Just not loaded with experience on the Selway. Our group consisted of a paddle raft, a cataraft, two kayakers and a bevy of oar boats.  What we discovered at ...

We utilized a half dozen modes of transportation to wend our way to the end of the South American continent - train, plane, taxi, rental car, ‘chicken bus’ and foot.  When we reached Puerto Montt, we mulled over taking a ferry to the ‘earth’s end’ but airfare was so enticingly inexpensive and, as an added bonus, it included complimentary cocktails on a spacious jumbo jet.  We felt like dirtbag jet setters. The ‘end of the earth’ was gorgeous and windswept.  The glaciated mountains to the north were stark beckoning sentinels on the horizon.  We were in the land of Patagonia and the Argentinian Fitzroys - famous climbing destinations and mountain ranges.  Tricia, Robert, Kent and I came to Chile for river adventures, but we journeyed to the southernmost end to exercise our legs. The jagged peaks we could see from the hostel were called the Torres del Paine, part of the region’s most noted national park.  “Towers of the Pain,” I thought, “Great.”...

The call came in the dead of winter.  It was a Seattle winter; therefore, instead of layers of snow blanketing the ground, or biting Arctic air knifing through your thickest, down jacket, there was a dismal grey light coming through the window and the streets glistened with rain.  Any phone call was a welcome distraction. His voice sounded young, his questions were many and he spoke in the laconic parlance of surfers.  Or, in his case, a snowboarder. He wanted to know about rafting and, specifically, guide training.  He hailed from Baltimore and was working his way westward.  That winter, he was a “liftie” at Schweitzer in the panhandle of Idaho.  A Democratic governor with a penchant for Krispy Kreme donuts and blue dresses had just been elected president and - frankly - anything seemed likely.   Even so, I was dubious.   A snowboard punk thousands of miles from home, unfamiliar with the Northwest, expecting to land in Seattle...

Leavenworth, Washington Thanks to Jermaine for posting this thorough, descriptive review on Yelp.  Jermaine is another one of our enthusiastic, authentic customers that Yelp filtered.  I think the trouble with Yelp's algorithm is that it does not take into account the potential for an effusive review that a white water rafting trip is likely to produce.  Jermaine was STOKED after his experience.  Like Apple computer's early evangelizers, those who take their first journey down a river often emerge at the take-out with an "AHA!" look on their face. Here is Jermaine's experience: "I booked a trip with Orion River Rafting for the 28th of May, with no fear at all, not even thinking about our trip until about one week before the actual trip, then the fear started to set in on all that could go wrong on the water with me not being a strong swimmer. My wife was not afraid at all, that is until we got to the first white waters, then she got nervou...

Above: Grace Peven rowing on the Grande Ronde River (circa 2002) with brother, Ben, behind. Story By: Grace Peven I recently underwent training to become a certified river rat. Not a rodent with a long snout and a sparsely haired tail that lives near the water, but a rafting guide .  In mid-April, twenty students, and twenty well-experienced guides and instructors embarked on a week of intensive training on Oregon’s Deschutes River .    My romantic aspirations of conquering mighty currents and rapids are rooted in a childhood full of river adventures. My mom and my dad met through rafting, became guides, and eventually passed on the rafting gene to me.  I’m eternally grateful to my parents for raising me on the sandy beaches and serene waters of the Salmon River.  Many years of rafting with close friends and family inspired an ambition to carry on the family legacy of guiding.  This led me to start work at Orion Rafting w...

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. Good times river running. This is from L...

River rafting is - for lack of a better term - fun. White water rafting is an exciting means of getting out into the great outdoors.  And it brings the great outdoors to a wide variety of people. Reynolds' character in Deliverance was both empathetic AND cocky. If you have read any of my previous posts related to this one, you know where I am going here.  The river rafting public comes in all shapes and sizes, many different ages and physical abilities.  But what they all have in common is they are  A) counting on our professional expertise, and B) have absolutely no idea how important it is that we exercise prudence when we are guiding them through white water. It doesn't matter how many times a guest has gone rafting.  Unless they spend their spare time out from behind their desks floating white water in a life jacket or getting intimate with white water in a hard shell or inflatable kayak, when we meet them at the river side for their da...

Leavenworth, Washington Convenience is over-rated.  For instance, do people really need the convenience of drive-through liquor stores, and what subliminal message does that send? I understand the attraction of doing everything online.  I know I don't always want to have a long, drawn-out conversation with a stranger.  For instance, when I am shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, I want to be left to my own devices until I determine I have a question to ask.  In my opinion, most salespeople tend to 'badger' their customers.  I'd rather wander around aimlessly until I am ready to be assisted (which may not ever happen). But some purchases, like a river rafting journey , more often than not, require further information.  Users of our service need details and particulars.  They need to know what the river classifications mean or indicate.  They need to know what they are getting for the price they are paying.  They need to know...

Leavenworth, Washington Like most activities, occupations and hobbies, white water river rafting has a language all its own.  What looks to the untrained eye like a wave, but a wave that has the propensity to recirculate boats, people and logs, are called " holes ".  River guides look for the " tongue " as they approach a rapid because the tongue signifies the deepest and - typically - clearest channel. But there are more esoteric terms guides bandy about that I'd like to introduce to the interested boating public.  (Let me preface this list by stating that in the event of injury or tragedy some of these terms may be considered insensitive and are not bandied about.) Lava Falls 1982 - On the 'hateful' left side of the tongue " Yard sale " or " carnage ", for instance.  Each of these reference the same sort of incident.  A raft has had a mishap and now the boat, gear, people and, depending on the sort of trip, mis...

Leavenworth, Washington Henry Ford was quoted as saying, "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."  Managers, work-group supervisors and corporate leaders may want to consider looking outside of the box for tools and ideas that motivate and bring groups together.  Orion River Rafting believes they need look no further than their closest Washington river outfitter.  Our guides become guides beneath the banner of teamwork and know how to provide a quality river trip that will bring out the best in your group and get them working as a team. River rafting is not all flailing paddles and great big splashes. White water rafting trips, once again, are becoming a popular way for corporate groups to bond and grow together. Co-workers unite in powerful ways on a whitewater trip because - by necessity - they are working together to challenge the forces of nature. There are few things more exhilarating than spend...

The 2011 rafting season began - as it typically does - with a memorable April training trip peopled with old faces, new faces; aging faces, faces with peach fuzz; the same old routines, sprinkled with the occasional unexpected wrinkle; a steamy hot sauna, a mind-numbing swim and a blow-out party (or two) to wrap it in a bow. 2011 was the 'official' 33rd river season and, because I have a reverent, irrational affection for the number, we decided to honor it by kicking off the season in May with a gathering of the many generations of the Tribe at the Chumstick property. Jeff Bullock and his brother barbecued a pig on a spit on site, Jeff Archer and his musical band of cohorts rocked the warehouse, Nina Maus gussied up the place, kegs were tapped, shelters were erected - and moved, and moved again - as the rains commenced and never relented. Multiple generations of Orionites emerged - including a few of the original founders - and, despite the high moisture content in the a...

Today's Seattle Times included an article in the Northwest Travel section from an author voluntarily seeking refuge from the digitally connected world many of us have created for ourselves. Our addiction to video display terminals is real, and like alcohol, nicotine and high fructose syrup, it needs to be moderated. Or, as mom liked to say, we "are cruising for a bruising." I am as guilty as anyone in our brave new electronic world of being enthralled by all of my digital devices. I have a desktop computer, a laptop and an iPhone. I am not going to count the desktops languishing in my basement. Recently, I came up with a rationalization to purchase an iPad, but, so far, I have refrained from opening my wallet. I utilize all of these devices every day. The newspaper continues to be delivered by a 'paperboy' (actually a middle-aged guy in a Mazda) but, I have to admit, with each passing day, newspaper delivery and newspaper reading is feeling more and mor...

I did not wake in a cold sweat. I woke incomprehensibly relieved to discover I was in bed. In my own house, next to my blissfully sleeping wife, dry and warm, and not where I had just dreamed I was. Which, for a river rafting guide, was the equivalent of Dante's ninth circle of hell . I was on the bank of a river deep in the bowels of the earth. Upstream and downstream of me were imposing swaths of white water. The white water upstream threatened like it was going to spill over the banks and wash me and all the gear and my boat partner downstream into the hungry turbulence below. It was formidable white water and I had no recollection as to how I had made it as far as I had. My raft was old and listless with no kick in the bow or the stern. In my nightmare, it was empty, tethered to something on shore, bobbing slightly in the only calm water that could be seen. The rapid surging below us reminded me of Ram's Horn on the Wind River, but the terrain --- dark, foreboding, pre...

River rafting in Washington state peaks during the month of July, in terms of the number of people getting out and white water rafting. However, every season, regardless of the depth of Washington state's snowpack, the peak flows happen much earlier. I have been organizing, leading and rafting rivers in the state of Washington since 1975. I have seen every imaginable description of the snowpack. I have been rafting for so long in the Pacific Northwest, I remember when they changed (read: downgraded) the definition of 'average' snowpack in the Cascades because the snowpack was no longer accumulating to the extent it once did in earlier part of the 20th century. I have also been guiding and rafting for long enough in the Northwest to report that, no matter what the snowpack is in February, or March, you would be presumptuous to state that the white water rafting season is doomed to bad water level conditions. This is because the spring could be colder than normal, drier ...

When John Wesley Powell launched his stolid but, ultimately, fragile boats down the unknown of the Colorado River system in the late 1800's. The title was a common refrain amongst his hardy adventurers. The same phrase could be muttered about the future of river rafting . In the few decades I have been floating rivers , inflatable rafts have not changed substantially from the military-issue models that I rafted the Green and Colorado Rivers with Prescott College in 1974. The military gave you the option of black, black or black. Self-bailing models arrived in the late '80s and our Project RAFT Orion team was sponsored by Maravia to the use of a hot-pink Williwaw I during the competitive events at Nantahala Outdoor Center. Inflatable manufacturers have experimented with boat designs --- diminishing bow and sterns rather than symmetrical or asymmetrical, building boats with internal bladders as AIRE does and making rafts out of polymers (the movie The Graduate warned us in...