Guest Letters & Trip Feedback

Feedback from a Wisconsin family of 3 who joined a Middle Fork 1-Day Trip back in early May.

Hi Diana,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It seems life has jumped onto the fast track for me with both feet!

Our trip in May on the Middle Fork was awesome! We had beautiful weather, great raft-mates, a fantastic guide (yay, Louis!), a lot of laughs, an exhilarating trip down the river, saw beautiful scenery - including waterfalls, learned a great deal about the area’s history, and got a great physical and mental workout. I’d do it again with you guys in a heartbeat! Everything, and I mean everything, was taken care of, and at all times we felt we were in very capable hands. Our 14 yr old son enjoyed it fully. Does he realize what a lucky kid he is?? I DO know he is now very prepared to take on another rafting trip. I was impressed at the range of ages of the rafters and how all the guides made everyone feel included and special. I can’t say enough good things about our experience and would definitely recommend you to anyone considering rafting in California. I was especially impressed of how ecologically sensitive the staff was. If I could think of something negative to share with you, I would, but I can’t!!

Diana, you were extremely helpful in helping me plan our first major rafting trip. Everything was just as you said it would be. Our rafting trip really put the crowning touch on a fantastic weekend. Thanks a million.

Best Regards,
Mary Jo

Guest feedback from a group out of San Francisco. Kumar and his group joined us on a Middle Fork 2-Day rafting trip.

Hi Roxanne,

We had a fantastic time on the 2-day Middle Fork trip! All of the guides were extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Our guide Laura, in particular, was awesome. In addition to being a skilled guide, she shared many details about the river, history, and local wildlife that added color to the trip.

The food was excellent! Especially considering everything came along with us in the gear boats. All in all it was a great experience. I highly recommend AO and this trip to friends.

Regards,
Kumar D.

Feedback from a Bachelor Party group on a 2-Day Middle Fork American rafting trip.

Diana,

The rafting trip was absolutely epic. I have only gone on 1 day trips but after doing that 2 day I will never go back. I’m not a big camping-sleeping-on-dirt kind of guy but the hikes, cliffs, and waterfalls more than made up for it. The food was unbelievable. I thought it tasted like moms home cooking, just a regular night at home. I couldn’t believe it was all cooked with portable equipment. I thought we would be eating sandwiches and power bars for 2 days. I was completely shocked to taste how delicious every meal was. All my friends agreed too.

The guides on the trip were my favorite part. I feel like I have formed a lifetime companionship with our guide. We had Kyle Connolly as the main guide on our boat and he was absolutely perfect. We are already planning another trip in a few months and we want to go to whatever river he is the guide. He was like one of our best friends after 5 minutes. He just clicked exactly with us from the clowning around to the stories. Kyle exceeded his guide duties and made us feel welcome. The other guides that we saw on the campsites (Anna, Tom, Dane, and Kelly) were all extremely nice and friendly too. I couldn’t have picked a better group of people than them. I hope you corporate people pay the guides well and they all deserve a platinum star for the way that we were treated.

The river, food, hikes, and guides were all A++++. I couldn’t have imagined having a better time. The guides were the ones that made us all feel so at home and comfortable. The only negative thing I could think about would be the price for the trip ($299). That is extremely expensive per person. I would think $199 would be more fair, BUT if the guides are getting paid a percentage then I would gladly pay more for that type of companionship and bond.

Overall I would highly HIGHLY recommend AO Rafting and especially those guides to all my friends and family and I will be planning another trip hopefully soon.

Thanks again,

Paul G.
Concord, CA

Feedback from a Middle Fork 2-Day Trip over Memorial Day Weekend.

Roxanne,

I wish I had time right now to tell you how GREAT the trip was. I could spend hours. My son, his friend and I had a wonderful time. The guides were incredible — professional, cautious and polite. The food abundant and delicious. The hikes incredible. The rafting — well what’s not to like.

You guys did a great job.

Thanks again — we will be back!

David S,
San Diego, CA

Feedback from a mother & daughter who joined us on a Middle Fork 1-Day Trip in May.

Dear Lenka -

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know we had a really awesome experience on the Middle Fork yesterday. My daughter Alicia and I have rafted before (in Washington) but wanted to step it up a notch.

Kyle was our guide and we had a great experience. He is very witty, personable and knows how to make people feel completely comfortable on the river. I wanted to thank Kyle for being patient with me where my daughter is concerned. I know I am a little protective of her, but she is my only child and my baby (even if she is almost 17). Thanks so much for keeping her safe and making me feel secure in her safety.

Our entire experience with All Outdoors gets an A+ rating. We will definitely book all of our future California rafting adventures with you!! I have already recommended you to a co-worker interested in rafting the Merced River.

Thanks again All Outdoors and especially Kyle. You ROCK!!

Jodie
Hanford, CA

Feedback from the 2nd Annual rafting trip for a Scouts group from Oakley, CA.

Diana,

Camp Lotus is perfect for the Troop. The boys and adults had a blast. The Rafting experience gets better each year and the whole trip was just about a 10.

My group went on the Middle Fork with Lou and Kyle. Lou was a great leader in the fact this was a Boy Scout Trip and definately had safety first. Lou took 3 of the youngers scouts and our Troop Chairwoman Lori Scheer. He was absolutely Perfect with there raft and I would say he should be given a medal for What he did with that raft. His crew was the less aggressive Raft.

Kyle had the Aggressive Raft and knew how to keep us in check. I am 42 years old and the 3 boys in my raft were 17, 17 and 15. No matter what we said Kyle always came up with the reasons why we can’t do this and that. He was Awesome with that Raft and did things with the Raft that I didn’t even know was possible. He made our trip a complete success. Safety is unreal with your Rafting company and I know Troop 152 will stay with your company for as long as we raft. Kyle used Safety all through the trip and I am one of those guys that likes to live on the edge and he always explained it short and simple why we could not do things. He is a huge asset to your company.

I know our troop will do this again next year and I may be in charge one more time. We are talking about doing South Fork, Middle Fork and North Fork. We will stay at Camp Lotus again and the travel from there to Middle Fork is no problem. North Fork no matter how far is no problem either.

Thanks Again

Tony L. Hartland
Assistant Scoutmaster
Boy Scout Troop 152
Oakley, California

Feedback comes from a family from Phoenix Arizona who chose to go rafting on the Middle Fork American River while on their family vacation.

Dear AO:

After researching several different companies on the Internet, we booked our first white water rafting trip with your company. Our guide for the one day excursion was Hunter. He was simply fantastic. Hunter made our first time as comforting and enjoyable as possible. Hunter was engaging, attentive, professional, fun, witty, and knowledgeable. We can tell he cares a lot about what he does and about the environment as well. 

Along the way, Hunter provided us with so much information on the area, the history, the animals, the river, and the plants. He was really a wonderful guide. While we did not have Jordan as our guide, he was there to greet us and give us the orientation prior to our trip. He was a lot of fun and helped to first timers, like ourselves, with both his knowledge and humour.

In addition, kudos goes out to your crew for providing us with a nice lunch spread. You could have just given us all premade sandwiches in plastic wrap, but instead, we were treated to a really nice layout which included fruit, chips and salsa, various choices in sandwich meats, and snacks. The crew worked together to cater everyone’s needs. They genuinely seemed to care about us. Especially impressive was how well your crew all worked together to make the trip both fun, exciting, and enjoyable. Watching your team work together to both get us all down the river safely and working together to help get everything gathered up and stowed away at the end of the day was really impressive. 

Clearly we made the right decision in choosing your company to provide us with our first rafting experience.  We had so much fun, we will definitely use you again for future rafting adventures.  We are hooked!

Thanks so much,
Tayce and family

A family rafting trip on the Middle Fork American River… Scott (Dad) and his two sons.

We definately had a great time! Beautiful day, great rapids, wonderful guide (Tasha), made an awesome trip that we will remember for a long time!!

This is my second time with your company and I plan on making another one probably next year for sure. The first trip was with friends at work and there are a lot that want to get another going. I will contact you
(AO rafting) when we decide date and which river.

Very positive feedback and I will recommend you to anyone looking for a rafting company!

 Scott

A Family from Martinez, CA couldn’t decide which trip to do for their first family rafting trip.. so they chose the South Fork / Middle Fork Combo on August 11-12. The consesus is….

It was AWESOME!!!!

Both days were fantastic!

The guides were professional both on South & Middle forks - they were concerned about our safety - they both continued to evaluate the
participants and tailor the ride to meet the needs both expressed and desired of thr group. I felt energized & challenged!

The food was fabulous - the cooks were cheerful - even at 5 am! The camp site was great. I would highly recommend All Outdoors Rafting & I have!

Thank you for an awesome trip.

I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed our trip. I was scared to death to go on this trip, but I had such a great time. Joe was the best guide! He was very knowledgable about the area?and really explained what was coming up so we would be prepared. I did fall out of the raft and was terrified, but I think I took it very well considering my fear of water!! I got talked into this experience with a lot of trepidation, but I may be hooked. I haven’t stopped looking at the photos and the AO videos on the website.

Thank you Joe and thank you all for a great day,

Lee Anne Masin