Guest Letters & Trip Feedback

Feedback from a family from Arizona who joined a Middle Fork American 2-Day Trip while vacationing in California.

Hi Lenka,

We just got back to Arizona and we had a fantastic time on our rafting trip. Ryan (Horse) was our guide and he was great–very knowledgable about the river, took the time to get a sense of how adventurous we wanted to be and provided us with really great experiences. The food that Kelly, James and Ryan cooked was REALLY good. They even had our favorite french vanilla creamer for our coffee in the morning! They also put some candles in the brownies for my husband’s birthday and sang to him. It was very nice.

We had so much fun that we are planning to do the trip on the Tuolomne river next summer with our friends that came with us this time. Ryan recommended this river for our next trip with All Outdoors. There really isn’t a single thing that we felt could be improved. It was perfect.

Thanks so much for checking in. We really enjoyed it.

Stacie

Feedback from a group of friends out of Southern California who joined us for a 2-Day Middle Fork Rafting Trip

Hi Roxanne,

I want to let you and everyone at All-Outdoors know that we had the greatest time on the Middle Fork of the American River this past weekend. All the guides on our trip were superb! We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Our Guide Kory was the best! He took the time to let us know what we would be up against next as well as giving us a little history of the area. And you Roxanne, were absolutely great to work with and I appreciate ALL of the help and attention you gave to my group.

Your boss was also great! Not sure of his name, but the time you and he took to try and get our last guy on the river was phenomenal! Thank you SOOO MUCH!

The food was positively GREAT! I don’t know exactly how the guides have the time to cook and serve up much quality food, but it was the BEST!

All-Outdoors is one class organization that we will definitely be booking with again! I have NO complaints about the trip at all…………….. not one!

We had such a good time we were talking about our next trip before we even got off the river on Sunday. I will be contacting you next spring for sure! We will probably have an even bigger group and we can’t wait! This just might be the best vacation we have all taken in a LONG time!

You can even check out our picks here if you like:
http://gallery.me.com/john_lyles#100089

Thanks again Roxanne! Can’t wait to talk to you next year!

John L.
Mission Viejo, CA

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