California whitewater rafting with one of the oldest rafting companies in the Western United States. California rafting on the most popular rivers in the West. Our official company blog...
The weather is changing in Caifornia and today the sky is gray and ominous with the impending storm. Yes! Outdoor enthusiasts look at this weather and we start thinking about skiing, whitewater, rafting and anything on the water.
California's outdoor recreation depends on storms for optimum fun during the respective seasons.
We love the weather!
Start planning your group rafting trips now because it looks like Mother Nature is about to bring us our wishes come true.... just in time for ski season during the Christmas holidays!
And that white stuff? The frozen crystals of water laying its mass over the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains will turn into that whitewater rafting that all of us river runners will enjoy the most!
During this holiday season, grab some gift certificates, plan your bachelor party or just grab your friends and plan a group trip for 2010 on California's finest whitewater rivers! Woot!
W.E.T. River Trips is an old rafting company out here in the west. Our guide school is legendary for training serious professional guides. For this year, we start our program the first week of March. Brrrrr. Actually, March is usually a great month with intermittent weather ranging from brilliant blue skies and sunshine to days of rain. (Come on now... professional guides don't whine about the weather!)
We start early so that when the bulk of the rafting season begins for our guests, you will be bomber at your paddling skills. Deposits and payments are being collected now. Our manager will have overlapping sessions from March through June. But, he wants to limit the numbers to 12 per session. This way you will have a more one on one experience as you mentor with our seasoned guide instructors.
Here is a list of old posts from the past that may help you with making a decision on who to train with and who to approach. Our prerequisites for training with us are on our main website at raftwet.com. Guide School information will be found there. But, take a read on these past funny posts and you will see why our guide school is legendary among the best professional guides in the world. (Yes, we have a lot of fun while you train to be best of the best on the A-List of whitewater guides.)
Now you can see that we have a blast on our white water guide school and early season spring rafting trips. There are so many stories and we want to share that experience with you as the newest member of our guide crew. Bring it on with a great attitude, healthy mind and strong bodies and you will exceed your wildest expectations.
Oh, don't get me started! I love this river. South Fork American is a jewel of a river in California, USA.
Gold rush history surrounds this river rafting trip with glimpses of the old West. Gold panning is still done by many miners and enthusiasts.
Golden poppies surround the hillsides in the spring. This should be your first whitewater trip. User friendly but absolutely thrilling, many group rafting organize their activities for this whitewater trip.
Group discounts make this rafting trip affordable. Whitewater outfitters provide everything, so it is simple for the guests.
California is blessed with not only incredible weather, magnificent mountains and beautiful oceans, but the rivers that flow in the Sierra Nevada are the magnet that attracts paddlers from all over the world!
Mid- September is here and most of you are settling into the early fall season. This is my favorite time of the year in California. Mild weather (only 80 degrees!) and beautiful sunny skies remind us of how lucky we are out here on the west coast.
California... the Spanish name resonates with the history of gold rush towns and the wild, wild west. Yes, it is an expensive place to live. The trade-offs are many. Crowded cities with lots of traffic, homes that cost a half a million for just a basic 3-bedroom, 2-car garage house. For a newcomer, California can be overwhelming with multiple cultures and languages. The diversity here is rich.
We have every food from every place on the planet. Celebrations mark the calendar from every country. There is not a weekend that goes by that somewhere in California, someone is celebrating their own culture or national pride.
We celebrate daily on the river with our international guests. Predominately Asian, Eastern Indian, Middle Eastern, European, Mexican, Australian and South American, the guests come to play on the river with us.
We share the same love of the natural settings on the river. Some of their cultures love the river with a status of god-like reverance. We share that with them as we paddle whitewater rivers. We all love rafting! And that's a unifier no matter where you come from. Come share the river with us on the South Fork American or Middle Fork American... we will be American River rafting in California until Oct 4th.
Here we gooooooo! It's Labor Day Weekend and what are ya gonna do?
It's not too late to grab a Middle Fork American Tunnel Chute run this Sat or Sun. A few spaces left folks for one of the deepest canyons in the state and an awesome whitewater rafting. Wait until you see Tunnel Chute rapid... double wow!
And for those who have families with younger children, we recommend South Fork American. SoFo is a fun splashy whitewater trip suited for beginners, novices and intermediates. Lots of fun on the water will cool you down.
Labor Day is a holiday in the USA that was originally created in Canada based on labor disputes in the 1870's. We adopted the concept waaay back in 1882. The first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City.
So, we celebrate this weekend. We play hard. We play in the water. The late summer in California is hot. No question about that. We are melting in the valley; sweating in the foothills. You need to be around the water.
Some go to the coast. Others go to the river. I am going rafting on Labor Day weekend on the most popular rivers in the West!
There are two rivers running right now in California. The whitewater rivers of South Fork American and Middle Fork American are flowing from reservoirs with a release schedule that offers premium rafting for the end-of-the-season-last-hurrah.
Middle Fork American will be offered everyday until Oct 3rd. And, South Fork American will be scheduled until Oct 3rd. Get it this weekend before summer is totally gone.
All one day trips with lunch is priced at $99/person. Period. Out the door. Add a few more bucks for a total package for the Labor Day weekend. If you have a group of 12 or more... call us, and we will add more amenities to your trip, such as free camping, free tent rentals, free showers, free meals, etc etc... yah, it is the end of the season and the deals are pretty awesome...
Staff in office post : W.E.T. River Trips = http://raftwet.com
The music scene is really hopping... like bunnies. Big fat bunnies. Big fat fluffy bunnies. DanDan wrote this little ditty a bit a go ... and the kool team is up in Portland with Mayyors and the Ganglians at the Portland Music Festival... wonder how it's going...
"I went to the Vox Gallery the other night and saw Wolf Eyes. It was loud! Wolf Eyes is a noise band from Detroit, Michigan, USA who has released well over 500 things on various labels with the main one being American Tapes. Other bands that are lumped into the same category or genre of music are Yellow Swans, Axolotl, Hair Police and Black Dice.
Afterwards, I went to my friends house. Their names are Daniel, Kandice, Tony, Kyle, Alex, Teddy and Alexa. They all love music and they play it all day on all 3 levels of the house. (Notes: the poor neighbors...) some really great bands jammin' under one roof such as Pregnant and What's Up.
They are making music that is so innovative that it goes beyond genres and classifications and into a whole new world of laptop-lullaby-psychedelic-blissed-out-sphinx-on-a-surfboard-style jams of eternal mind, body and soul. Pregnant just released an album on Lost Lamp Records called Beautiful Moon.
ONE TIME, at the same house, I saw a great show. It was Psychedelic Horseshit from Silt Breeze label and Fabulous Diamonds and Ganglians and Mom. It was so bone dog! bone dog! This show was the sloppiest of all hippie punk; slurred vocals through break, through a window of cheap beer and too much hair.
Old dudes in short shorts with shorter songs... handing out free 7" records and nobody even wants them. On the other hand, Ganglians rip a jankle pop-style and use reverb to the max. It is about as pretty as MOM's chicken feet throwing while smashing a raw egg on your face and singing through an Alvin and the Chipmunks style vocal effect to old 60's surf dance and kids songs mania. Whew!
Pschedelic Horseshit are from Ohio, I think. Check it out on Silt Breeze label, because if you don't you are a fool and you will never get to hear this band in the good early stages before they sell out and start opening up for death cab for cutie. Fabulous Diamonds are cool tooo. Check them out. They make music for rainy days in my opinion, at least, and I once heard someone label them as goth. I'm not too sure what that means, I always thought that goths liked minimal techno. Hehe.
At this very moment, I am at the house that I have been talking about this whole time. I am using Kyle's (from the Ganglians) computer to type this shiz.
I AM BLIND I AM TIRED (tired... I am the definition of tired, dude!)
ALEX JUST PUT JENS LEKMAN ON THE HOUSE STEREO REALLY LOUD, IT IS FUNNY.
Death Sentence Panda are f*ing vicious female-fronted radness. They are going to be playing a show in Sacramento with Sactowns own Mayyors, Sucks and the newest all-girl band on the scene, FATTY ACID featuring every girl that I know including my girlfriend on drums. They are a super punk puzzy dance with no breaks and no practice. They sound great, and it makes me feel like a wussy." DanDan WhiteLite ~~
July came and is slipping away quickly. The month was incredibly busy with guests driving and flying in from all parts of the world. We truly have become an international rafting company devoted to water recreation in the outdoors. W.E.T. River Trips has morphed from that small two raft company to a company that can accommodate hundreds of guests per day. Our focus is still education... educating our friends and guests to the importance of our precious resource; the river.
... small voices united are more powerful than any one person...
The river is our best friend. From that flow, we have water draining towards the valley towns and reservoirs, the delta, the ocean and into our eager hands where our state mismanages and pollutes this very precious element. So, we try our best to educate against water waste, pollution, diversion, and we help to promote sustainable resources to help save the water in California.
We do this in a benign way... without shoving brochures into your mailbox or sending you spammy emails. We take you whitewater rafting. Then, you fall in love with the river just like we did. And because you love the water, the river, you become its friend... and maybe, you won't vote for the politician who only talks about damming rivers... and maybe you won't vote for an amendment that would cause the river to be diverted... or maybe you will teach your children to not throw garbage into the river and waterways.
We teach in a gentle way. Those of you who have been "taught" are becoming advocates for these rivers, too. You will tell others how wonderful the whitewater rafting experience was and how you never knew that such an incredible experience was just waiting in your own backyard... just a couple hours away.
As we go through life as rafters and paddlers, we know we have been granted a special time in our lives to experience what Mother Nature has created. All we ask is that you respect, revere and love the water as much as we do. Happy paddling friends, and we will see you soon on the river!
The Tahoe Paddle Fest is coming on August 1st - 2nd! This free festival encourages children, teens and adults to participate in healthy, sustainable outdoor activities and paddling sports. The Tahoe area is home of Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada, an indigenous people from this locale. The Washoe Tribe is an event sponsor of this fun festival.
This first annual paddle event will highlight non-motorized watercraft with a nod to the indigenous water craft that might have graced beautiful Lake Tahoe long ago. Watercraft from indigenous cultures to modern times will include dugout canoes, standup surf paddling and outrigger boats. Racing these crafts will be another highlight to the weekend.
Tom "Pohaku" Stone, University of Hawaii professor who is an authority on Hawaiian surfboards and outrigger canoes will also serve as a keynote speaker.
Promotion of safe boating and the importance of checking for the invasive mussels that could destroy Tahoe's sensitive ecosystem will also be encouraged. Tahoe Basin and Educational partners are providing free demos or educational outreach for this event.
Tahoe Paddle Fest is located close to several paddling rivers including the world famous American River trips. Both California whitewater trips on South Fork American and Middle Fork American are within 1.5 hours from the Tahoe area. Close enough to paddle the white water river while enjoying the displays and exhibits from the festival.
Contact Tahoe Paddle Fest for more info or call them directly at 530.318.7599 to reserve sponsorships or exhibitor booths.
See you on the water!
Thank you to Tahoe Paddle Fest for this summer update! Thank you to Ecomentum Green Marketing for cool surf pic of Prof Stone!
Our avatar in the virtual world of Second Life did a recent blog about the King Tut exhibit on the grid. The premier builders, Rezzable, creators and artists in the virtual world had presented a beautiful interactive site showing the tomb's contents and of course, the boy king himself. I saw the pictures that the avatar posted on the King Tut blog about the sim and quite frankly, they were a stunning representation of the real life exhibit.
This weekend, June 27, 2009, the real exhibit comes to the De Young Museum in San Francisco. This is a much sought after ticket and the wait was almost unbearable for those of us who love history. Imagine... being able to actual see the tomb's contents and King Tutankhamun.
Many travelers and vacationers have included this event as a must see. We have included a package that will help to make the history visit even more fun! If you have a ticket for the exhibit, call in and we will offer you our Pharoah's Discount this week.
Just say "Pharoah's Discount" and you will receive a $99/person white water trip on any American One Day River Trip we offer. That includes lunch, whitewater trip, shuttle, guide service and all river rafting gear. Travel with us on the river and visit the historical gold rush sites in Northern California. What a great way to top off a history weekend!
de Young Museum 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive Golden Gate Park San Francisco, CA 94118 415.750.3600 http://www.deyoungmuseum.org
Recently, I was speaking to one of the younger members of the blogging team. He writes about the foibles of his youth and how he resolves the pending issues of the day. I gather that his life is full of adventure as each day unfolds to bring either good tidings or sorrow. He is young and full of spirit. The decisions he makes daily are hard. There are so many temptations, so many wrong things that can happen. The one constant in his life is his family, his good friends, his music, his art and rafting on rivers.
Was life this hard when I approached it as a young adult? Yes, it was. Sometimes, I didn't think I would survive. I was always worried about money. There never seemed enough funds to cover the daily living cost. I can remember eating top ramen noodles because it was dirt cheap and satisfying. I wonder if "they" eat that, too...
He said to me that sometimes he wished that he could just go back to the warm embrace of his family... have mom do his laundry again... have dad slip him a twenty for gas... and waking up in a bed with clean sheets. He said he never imagined how much he would appreciate all the little things that mom and dad would do for him. He missed it very much, but he knew that he couldn't go back. He knew that he was an adult in a sometimes, childlike mind.
I imagine how difficult it is to ward off the temptations, the bad friends, and to make critical decisions to launch himself into full adulthood. He told me that his music and being outdoors on river trips was his greatest joy. He will be on our rafting trips this weekend enjoying himself with his friends. There, he can forget for a while, the seriousness of life and just enjoy what Mother Nature brings.
