Guest Letters & Trip Feedback

Feedback from a party of 3 from a 1-Day rafting trip on the Merced River and a visit to Yosemite Valley.

J-

Just got home today from Yosemite. The rafting trip was phenomenal! Our guides were Dan and Joe and they were great. Very friendly and talked us through the entire trip. I was surprised by our delicious lunch. We had Salmon/cream cheese rolls, gourmet sandwiches, chips, fruit, veggies oh and some cookies too!. Plenty of food for everyone.

The rapids were sooooo much fun and we are planning a group trip already for next summer, so yes feel free to reach out next spring. We didn’t get many pictures because we were busy rafting which is the only thing I would have liked more of but other than that, the trip was fantastic.

Thanks for making our Yosemite trip a memorable one!

Regards,
Nikki

Feedback from a Merced 1-Day Trip on June 13, 2009

Roxanne,

We all had a fantastic time. We laughed continuously throughout the day both together and at each other whenever one of us got particularly soaked. The food as always was great, plenty of fruit and water and those salmon wraps were a welcome surprise for a pescatarian like myself – ordinarily I make a cheese sandwhich since I don’t eat meat but since there was fish this time, I got protein for lunch!

Joe Marshall was a splendid guide: the perfect combination of humor and focused energy. I’ve rafted with guides who were either clowning around too much that I felt unsafe or were too serious that I didn’t have as much fun on the water. And I always appreciate it when the guide emphasizes teamwork and reminds everyone to paddle as one by following the lead of those sitting in the front and Joe didn’t miss a beat during his safety talk; this call for teamwork is one of the main things I want to hear from a guide and wait to see him/her implement whenever I go rafting. We all look forward to rafting with him again in the future.

Thank you for your help planning and booking the trip for us, Roxanne! We will definitely raft with AO again.

Aedrey

Merced River feedback from a group of 7 from Thousand Oaks, CA

HI Lenka!

Thanks for your email. I planned to send an email to AO to let you know what a FANTASTIC trip we enjoyed with our guide, Dan.

The entire experience was “top shelf”. We were thrilled when Dan choose to be our guide. He is knowledgeable, personable and really worked hard to make sure that we all had a great experience. Everyone loved the trip. We’re ready to go again!!!

Yes, one of our group went on a quick trip (along with Dan). The pre-trip safety briefing was very useful. She was OK (still smiling, feet pointing downriver) and got picked up about 20 yards downstream
by one of the other rafts.

The lunch was again: top shelf. You guys didn’t scrimp one bit. The quality of the food was SUPER. So good, that the following day, we went searching for the baker in Mariposa that provides you with your
bread.

If all that wasn’t enough: geeze, that bus ride back was impressive. That old railroad road is pretty narrow, especially when you meet someone coming in the opposite direction. Your driver did a great job.

So…all in all: it was a FABULOUS EXPERIENCE. The classy touch was a postcard from “Diesel Dan” yesterday. You guys run a great outfit.

Thanks so much for making this a most memorable trip for our group. We just got to see the photos. They’re great!

Please send a an enormous THANKS to Dan. He’s the best.

Best,

Louise M
Thousand Oaks, CA

Feedback from a group of 4 out of North Carolina who stopped in for a rafting trip on the Merced River while vacationing in California.

Roxanne,

The trip was excellent! Our guide, Laura, was first rate. The weather was perfect. The river was very enjoyable, especially with the higher flows. I think a couple of the rapids were pushing Class V, so that was very cool. I have been on many, many rafting trips and I will say that was the best lunch I have had on the river. Y’all did good! Maybe you can move into W. Va and NC and show some of these companies how to do rafting right.

Unfortunately, we won’t be coming back to California anytime soon, but if we do and decide to raft, I will definitely be calling you.

Thanks!

Dennis K.
Charlotte, NC

Feedback from the a group of 7 on the Merced River over Memorial Day Weekend.

Hi Lenka,

We had a fabulous time! It was especially wonderful that our group of 7 was altogether in one raft. We enjoyed our guide Laura’s professional yet friendly demeanor throughout the ride. Although one of us did fall into the water, he did say that it was probably his favorite part of the trip. Of course, that is because we were able to safely pull him back into the raft – thanks to Laura’s guidance.

Overall, the guides were great at informing of us of what to expect and managing the risk without sacrificing the thrill of rafting. In fact, each one of us has said that we would definitely go rafting again.

Thank you for your assistance and we look forward to rafting with your company again soon.

Best,

Elena

P.S. Lunch was delicious!!

Feedback from the a group of 8 on the Merced River.

Hi Roxanne,

Everything was fantastic. The guides on all the boats were great, Dan, Joe, and Laura. The food was great too. We had a great weekend! We will probably do it again next year and should have more people going after the feed back from us. So yes contact us especially on any specials you have going next year.

Thanks for everything!

Feedback from a Merced River 1-Day Trip on May 2, 2009

Hey Diana,

The trip to Merced river was most definitely a memorable one. I had a great time and yes, I do feel very lucky for having such great timing. =] All the guides excitement really made me be even more excited to be there… I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

As for it being too much… it really wasn’t. It was a challenge and great learning experience and I am so going back soon.

The only feedback I have is positive. The guides were amazing… and I especially loved mine. I believe his name was Matt. He was experienced and friendly and seemed to be in control the whole time. He totally made my experience better… so that’s a shout out to him.

I actually told all my friends about my trip and now everyone wants to go with me (they didn’t the first time!!! can you believe it?) So I’m trying to plan a trip for about 6 people for may 23rd or the 30th.

I was wondering about your policy on people younger than 18. My brother would love to come along and he’s 16, so I was wondering how that would work.

Any more info you could send me would be greatly appreciated. I had a fabulous time and will definitely be returning!!!!

~Maya

George D. of San Jose organized a bachelor party for his group 8. He chose a 2-day South Fork American River trip. Here is what George had to say…

Lenka,

Thank you so much for all of your help with the planning of my friend’s bachelor party. We had such a great time we have decided to make river rafting an annual event.

We cannot say enough good things about All-Outdoors. Your Raft Guides were great and they made the trip one that will never be forgotten. We would really like to thank Amy for putting up with our shenanigans while we were at camp. Thanks also to Joe and Erin for the great example they give to all the other raft guides. But special thanks to Mason our boat guide who went above and beyond to make it the trip of a lifetime.

We look forward to next year.

George

Some feedback from earlier in the season regarding a Merced River 1-Day Trip.

Hi Taylor

Sorry for the delay in responding. We were on a loooong vacation and just returned.
And no access to internet too (how wonderful).

The rafting experience was really wonderful. Your guide (coach, trainer, captain,,,,) in the raft was simply great and we loved it.

We believe that it was chose right that we went with you rather than with the the other company in Yosemite where we have seen crowds of people. Your group was smaller and we got real personal attention -which was teriffic. (The lunch was very thoughtful too – if we were not so polite, we should have wolfed down a lot more).

The river was a let down. We expected some real “action” – but found the river too tame. Perhaps the time of the year was wrong. But that’s nature’s work I guess and nothing you can do.

We stayed in “Yosemite Bed & Breakfast” at Mariposa.

We particularly recommended your group to the owner – Mr. Clay Black – in fact he asked us about you for recommending to his future guests. Perhaps it may be worthwhile for you to visit him and present your credentials. You can refer my name when you meet him.

We will certainly call you up when we come to the West Coast again.

With warm regards and wish you and your team a wonderful success.

Vasu

A group of 15 friends and co-workers who are spread out across the state got together for a 1-Day trip on the Merced River.

Hi Lenka!

The rafting trip went GREAT, thanks for asking! Everyone had a great time, and we enjoyed hanging out with the guides at the campground afterwards. You guys really do have a great operation and top-notch guides! I also appreciated how easy you made it for me and Julie to organize this trip. (I’m in Southern California while Julie is my group’s local coordinator in Santa Cruz, by the way. Our group is really spread out! Thank heaven for e-mail!) Anyway, communication and payment was all clear and streamlined from our perspective.

The river was a bit low at times, but we don’t fault you or the guides for that! It was still a blast. I believe we had one person fall in accidentally, but no one was seriously hurt. Several jumped in or were “pirated” into the river, but again, that was all in fun. (I’m glad your outfit lets the guests play like that. within reason, of course. I wouldn’t stick with an outfit that was too high-strung about prohibiting playing.)

Lunch was good – food always tastes better than usual in the middle of a day of rafting! The guides also told us about a really nice hidden swimming hold to hike to, and we loved that.

We will DEFINITELY be joining you for one or two trips next year. I think we’ll be doing a 2-day trip in July or August of next year (2009) on the Tuolumne River assuming you have availability.

For the second trip, I was trying to recall a conversation I had on the bus with one of the guides (Darren) about another river we might try in the late Spring (April/May) though. I am going to copy this e-mail to Darren (I’m guessing at his e-mail address though) to see if he can remember the river we talked about. If I guessed wrong on his e-mail address, could you forward this to him? I know he’s out guiding again this week, so I won’t expect to hear anything immediately.

Thanks Lenka!

Dave Kendig