in June 2012 we travelled in Alaska - kayaking (with Ron) and bear watching (with another company) - our trip was organized in advance by Ron who "runs" www.backcountrysafaris.com
My husband and I have extensively travelled (India, Nepal, Africa, Pacific, Australia, NZ, Europe, North and South America) and live abroad since 12 years.
We never had to write any review about our traveling that involved trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting organized by local or non local outdoor agencies.
Our kayaking experience with Ron at his camp located in Bear Glacier State Park had to be "shared" so people will know what to expect from him:
- no sense of welcoming when we met him in Seward
- no warning that access to his camp depends on weather condition and TIDES (therefore trip can be cancelled or rescheduled)
- camp had just been put together due late snow on camp but tools/gear/equipment was spread everywhere around camp
- little respect for the environment: NO portable toilet or form of toilet and put "grass" on fire when he started a charcoal bbq without digging a hole in the ground (assuming that it was humid enough since snow was present until a fe days ago)
- Trash left around with black and coastal bears present in the area
- cots in Weather ports were not put together (which is fine with us) but he would leave us put them together (since it was complicated :)) and another person had to beg to get his one put together
- Unsocial: Ron's subject of conversation were focused on his own life - not even interested about others interests and conversations
- Not Respectful of his clients - he made very comments regarding one of the clients just before we jumped on the boat back to Seward - client's space: on last night I had to ask him to speak away from our tent so we would not hear his late ongoing loud satellite conversation(s)
- NO form of daily schedule at camp - and when one was vaguely mentioned it was not followed which made us wait or did not know how to organize our time in between waiting or kayaking
- Food: Ron looks very unhealthy and cook/prepare unhealthy food - (for 1st breakfast - nothing was available at 9:30am so the 5 of us (1 couple/ 1 single) started to help ourselves which made him unhappy! - 2nd and last breakfast was only ready by 10:00am. Diner by 10:00pm if lucky)
- Ron did not give us the impression to have ideas about distances + time related to the speed of kayak boats (single and double)
- 2 out 5 persons had specifically asked for single kayaks - but only 1 person had it - the 2nd person had to kayak in a double & in order to get the "missing" single kayak a whole morning had to be spent pulling it from dropping place - since we were running late to paddle around the island where camp is located we carried Ron's single kayak to "help" him as he was busy pulling the single - no appreciation of any sort were expressed from him (not that we help others to get that but you would guess it is part of being an outdoor guide and a human being)
- Unorganized: he did not give us details of how we would get to our following activity, Bear watching (not run by him!) - we had to find out that after 1 taxi + 2 shuttles rides, a lunch somewhere + a flight that we would then arrive at bear camp - but until we figured it out we felt unrelaxed. only because we did not trust him anymore after the camp experience we had. read more