Stay away! This operation is disorganized and unprofessional to the point of endangering customers…read more Take your money to a more established outfit.
My girlfriend and I recently did a 2-day pack trip. While "Soda Peak Outfitters" sounds like a legitimate business, and their website looks professional, this is a one-man operation (Chuck). On our trip, he brought his 10-year-old son as the only other "employee." A 10-year-old is clearly not a substitute for a trained adult, and creates an obvious conflict of interest.
We'll begin with the emergency situation with which the trip ended, but please note that this was not an isolated incident but rather the culmination of two days of sloppy disorganization.
As we were getting ready to leave the campsite, with all of us finally on our horses (hours after we were supposed to be off the mountain, by the way), Chuck lost control of the mules, which started fighting and bolted. The horses all bolted too--we just managed to jump off at the last second without injury. Obviously, this sort of thing happens from time to time (though you might have expected some instruction on what to do, which we never received--or at least the OPTION to ride with a helmet, which we never had. I have never not had the option for a helmet on any other ride I've done, and I've done these sorts of rides on four continents).
Chuck then immediately went down the mountain after the horses without a word to us--zero explanation, zero instruction. We were left alone, on foot, outside the campsite with all the stuff, including a trash bag with food scraps. Mind you, this is grizzly country, in Bridger-Teton National Forest, and we had been told that there was a mother with cubs in the area. Moreover, Chuck, who had abandoned us by the campsite with, again, no instruction or plan, had the only can of bear spray (and sat phone) on him, having never suggested that this was an item we were responsible for bringing ourselves.
We felt that we had little choice at this point but hike out--which, of course, is not what we signed up to do, this being a horse pack trip. But we had no indication of when Chuck might come back, or what his plan was.
And good thing we did! We caught up with Chuck at the bottom of a hill in a meadow, where he had found two of the horses and mounted, and he was going to try and catch the other horses. That is all he said; we told him we were walking out (on the same trail), and we never saw him again. Again, it was a good thing we decided to hike out, because the horses apparently had gone to the road and it took him until midnight to get the gear out. I can't imagine how dangerous it would have been for us to have been waiting by the gear that entire time--in the evening, in bear country, without bear spray, without cell service, by a pile of food scraps.
As is, we managed to complete a difficult, long hike we had not signed up for at altitude without bear spray. Chuck never came to help us, nor even checked in to make sure we were OK.
As mentioned, there were a lot of other issues on this trip. A quick, non-exhaustive sample:
- Chuck forgot to bring a lighter, and spent all afternoon and evening trying to make a fire while we ate cold cuts in the rain
- He changed the meeting location at the last minute without telling us, in an area with no cell service. We only managed to find him at all by a stranger with a sat phone
- When we showed up at the new location (2 hrs late because of the location change) he still wasn't there
- We didn't leave until 5-6 hours after the agreed meeting time, in part because Chuck had lost a saddle, while we were left to our own devices
- It was all supposed to be worth it because the trail was supposed to lead to a cave we could go in, which Chuck never found
To add insult to injury, Chuck has refused to refund us, which is obviously the least he can do. Clearly this was not the experience we've paid for. Again, I've done many rides on four continents, and this up there for the sloppiest experience I've ever had--find an alternative.
