A bit of feedback from Mike C of San Francisco on his Middle Fork American River rafting trip…

Hi,

I would like to start by saying thank you Lenka and to everyone at All Outdoors. I would love to post a comment about our trip.

To start off I’d like to mention that All Outdoors is the most professional, exciting and helpful company I have ever dealt with. My experience with All Outdoors started off with very little notice. I decided I wanted to go rafting less than 24 hours before my trip. Lenka was handling my booking, she was very informative and quick to accommodate my request. We booked our trip with no problems and immediately tried to rent a car (a simple task, or so I thought). All car rental companies within 20 miles were booked out and everyone I new that could lend us a car happened to be out of town. AHH WHAT NOW? There is no refund for our trip on such short notice. I call Enka and explain my situation. We ask if we can change it to the following Monday. Within 20 minutes Lenka has us booked in and to my surprise (because of our specific situation) we are not charged for the change. Well All Outdoors you had me at hello. This alone would have been enough to bring me back time and time again to this fantastic adventure sports company.

So now for the trip itself, I print off the directions and have no problem finding the meeting location. As soon as I exit my car there is a friendly hello and a firm handshake combined with fresh mountain air beautiful scenery and an air of excitement around me as the rafts are prepared, and so begins our trip.

After a short ride down the mountain and a brief humorous introduction about safety we reach the river. The boats are loaded and my roommate and I have an idea who we like to be our guide (Louis) and of course this request is met (another point scored for A.O.). We get a little briefing and hit the river. We happen to be in the front, our guide is leading the pack SWEEEEET. Louis is going over the basics and explaining that the first big rapid a class 4 Tunnel Chute. A few tweaks here and there to our rowing and we blast down the river. The whole trip is brilliant, Tunnel Chute definitely being my favorite rapid. We get a nice break with some level 2s’ and 3s’ before lunch, during which Louis tells us all about the river during the gold mining days and how to read the water, mixed with some surfing (something I highly recommend if given the opportunity) we finally dock.

After lunch and a short swim we blast down the remainder of the river before docking and returning to the bus. I have rafted the American River once before and can say that Louis was the best guide we could have hoped for. He managed to combine a feeling of being safe with the all the excitement one would expect from the river and a knowledge of the area that left me feeling enriched by my trip.

Whenever I raft in California I will only raft with All Outdoors and will always request the same guide. If you are looking to experience the great outdoors and want to throw in some excitement try the Middle Fork of the American River and more importantly book your trip with All Outdoors. You would be a fool not to.

Once again thank you to the whole team and hopefully I will see you guys in about 10 days.

Sincerely Mike