Not the greatest rafting trip I've been on. I went for a Coast Guard morale trip July 30th, 2015, and it was not the first time I'd been rafting. When we arrived, the site was very open, good for the dry 100-degree weather. The facilities (outdoor shacks) seemed very well-kept and open for the heat. The staff was very friendly and had decided to dress up for our group event. One guy was in a red dress and wig, another guy in a revealing zebra tights outfit, a girl wore a tutu and fairy wings and while fun, I think it might not have been thought through very well because despite their positive attitude, some of their costumes made members of our group uncomfortable. Being in a raft going over sharp rocks in high speed water with someone who makes you uncomfortable is not safe.
Firstly, the transportation they provide is not suitable for the occasions where they have to accommodate groups of our size. The trip was a sweaty ride split between two vans, all of us crammed up shoulder to shoulder to fit our whole group in one trip. It was uncomfortable and unprofessional.
We were all required to wear helmets and life jackets- our group had reserved and planned the trip a month ahead of time, including number of members who would be attending, yet there weren't enough helmets provided. One person on my team traded me because her helmet wasn't the right fit and the gear obviously isn't cleaned properly because it smells like smoke and vinegar. On top of this, my rafting team soon came to find that our poorly-kept raft had a huge leak in the left pontoon.
About halfway through the rapids, we stopped to take a snack break. They passed out water and gave us a chance to swim . I do not believe plastic bags of trail mix are a legitimate "provided refreshment." It was unsanitary eating out of plastic unmarked bags, and it was not the kind of sustenance a person needs on a four-hour+ rafting trip, especially for the children we had with us on the trip. I know if I was hungry, they must have been starving, and to only get melted m&ms and soggy peanuts in shared plastic bags was disappointing. We did pay a discounted price for the trip so I guess you get what you pay for.
On top of this, the guide manager was constantly smoking upwind of us and we had a fair number of children on the trip. He would light one up every time we stopped, about every 10-20 minutes, and it reeked.
Our rafting guide was Libby (sp) and I did not feel completely safe with her. Our raft got stuck on rocks 8 times, and only one of those was due to the drought and shallow waters. My team warned her each time when a rock was coming up her instructions only caused us to get stuck. At one point, we got stuck in the middle of a class 3 rapid for fifteen minutes, water up to our knees rushing into the boat because of our deflated left pontoon. A guide from another rafting company, Trinity Rafting, jumped out, climbed through the rapids, and gave us a tie-down strap to help pull us out. We found out later that she was steering us with a broken paddle and refused to trade for any better paddles offered.
Later in the trip, on one of the last rapids, a class 3, the last raft in our group went down and flipped upside down over a rock. It looked scary, and we counted helmets coming out from under the rapids. We got six, five members and the guide, and realized after a few minutes we were still missing one person. Not one of the Bigfoot guides moved to go to the raft and help the unknown stranded member. The Trinity Rafting guide was still with our group though and once again leapt off his boat, ran up the rapids, jumped onto the upturned raft, and pulled a little girl out of the water. She had been hanging on to one of the raft handles with one hand stuck between the raft and the rocks. As the Trinity guide checked on her, one of the members of our group who had first aid qualifications kayaked over and went to help. Fortunately, the girl was okay and she got right back in the raft to keep going once they had righted it. From a spectator's view, out of reach and unable to help, it was terrifying and made me seriously doubt the abilities of the Bigfoot Rafting guides. They should not only know what to do in that kind of emergency but also move as quickly as the other guide did to go and fix the problem.
Besides those negative points, the river is absolutely beautiful. The setting is stunning- we had colorful dragonflies, very few annoying insects, crawdads on the shore, chances to get out and swim or jump off rocks, and we even had a fly-over by a bald eagle who stayed with us for about a mile of the trip. The staff is very happy, good conversation, and does have the foundation for good direction, but I am not confident in their experience level and I will not be going back to this rafting company again. read more