Tales from the Crypt ~ California Rafting

South Fork American River ~ Surfing the Chili Bar Hole

Our California rafting trips are in full swing.  On Saturday, we had various lively groups on South Fork American River. The crew is jelling nicely. Though on Friday, we had one mishap. 

A party of 2 were left behind at the campground and missed the shuttle. They had come all the way from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had them placed with another group from Wisconsin. I answered the phone call that morning way past the designated meeting time. And, when I realized that the couple had missed their trip, I panicked. I felt sick to my stomach.

The crew said they checked in the other guests at the designated time at our kiosk. The waylaid guest had walked around the campground looking for the crew; never seeing the kiosk or WET. They parked at the top before you entered the campground. The headguide and the client just missed each other. Just missed the pick-up by moments... by a set of circumstances that waylaid the guest's trip.

Our SF driver picked up the missing guests and drove them to the put-in. They made their trip! And... a fun time was had by all! Yes! 

I love rafting. And when we can't give a client the whitewater trip, we were all very upset. Especially, when something this dumb happens. The guest was so cool. He was a former paddler from California. We've invited him back as our guest the next day. His gracious understanding just emphasizes why we're in this business. The people who love rivers are just that... the most gracious and wonderful people that you'll ever meet.

Ok... the rest of you... let's go! Let's go rafting! 'Cause, We Got Whitewater!

• South Fork American everyday except Tues, Wed
• Middle Fork American everyday

Over and out... Tales from the crypt.
~ EL



Written by staff member, EL.
Photo by W.E.T. River Trips 

Memorial Day Weekend

In just a few more days, California will be celebrating Memorial Day weekend. Weather has been beautiful, cool and inviting for those of us who love the outdoors. With the crazy weather we have experienced lately, it's a miracle that we have whitewater this season.

California Whitewater Rafting with W.E.T. River Trips

Rivers are in our veins. Pulses through the arteries and strips clean our souls. We love rivers. We love them so much that since 1978, W.E.T. River Trips has rafted the entire Western United States on every river out there. But, we speak of now. And, now, the rivers are mostly lower due to a lack of snowfall. Only a few chosen rivers are running this year.

A LIST of RIVERS:

South Fork American: class 3-3+, ideal for novice, families, youth groups and events
Middle Fork American: class 3-4+, ideal for athletic novice or experienced paddler, older youth groups, bachelor groups, team-building
Klamath River: class 2-3, ideal for beginners, novice, families, youth groups and events
Call: 888.723.8938 for reservations


The rivers will have good flows; remarkable as most other rivers will not. If anything changes, there will be some clues to look for based on past year's experiences.

Check the flows daily. Look for patterns in the release schedule and compare with historical data. If you get a series of drastic highs and lows outside of the realm of release schedules, then you might hesitate until you have a dialogue with the rafting company. Call them and ask questions. Email them and ask questions. Have the dialogue and really listen to their responses.

Whitewater rafting is a complex sport. The requirements can be minimal or a mind-boggling litany of lists for group trips. In spring, you have to wear gear. Colder weather means whitewater gear which includes a wetsuit or a dry suit. Warmer weather means bathing suits, shorts and tennis shoes. And, that is where we are today. Memorial Day weekend coming up next in Sacramento! Only 45 minutes to the whitewater!

As the rest of you take part in the hilarity of partying, I will personally be thanking and sending prayers to my dad for his military service for our nation. Thank you, Dad, for giving me the life I have now. And as I enjoy rafting on the river this year, I will be blessed with friends, great food, and the our beautiful community, planet earth. 

Call 888.723.8938 for reservations.
Visit our online store raftwet-store.com to purchase rafting trips.
Have a great summer!

W.E.T. River Trips since 1978 "We Got Whitewater!"

Written: ~ EL
Photos by: W.E.T. River Trips
WET River Trips was founded in 1978 in California

WET 2014 Rafting Trips

One of the long term goals for W.E.T. River Trips has been to introduce the beginner or novice towards whitewater rafting and the great outdoors. Doing this has been difficult as the river rafting public has many outdoor adventures enticing their every want. From skiing, snowboarding to surfing, paddling to hiking, climbing; there are a lot of activities that have traditionally fed our public's imagination.

"I can totally do this black diamond run..." or "Dude, let's hit this gnarly surf..." or "Bang! I almost lost my toe-hold... or "Class 5! Extreme drop..."

There is a lot to do. A lot of stuff in our lives that take us away from our daily chores and work. There is a lot of things that occupy our mind. Do we really have time for fun?

Well... I say we have to make time for fun. We have to make the effort to include the outdoors into our lives. We can not allow our guests to sit in front of a desk, a tv, a computer, a cell phone or whatever interface they invent for us all... we can not do that day-in and day-out.

We risk our health. We risk our well-being. We risk our mental health, too. Our bodies need to exercise. We need to feel that warm sunshine or drizzly rain on our bodies, and we need to feel that we can conquer those nasty fears that plague each and every one of us.

This year, we want to encourage those of you who need an outside break. Yes, we know many of you do the one-day trip with us on our rivers. But, is one-day enough? You drive up from Bay Area or Southern California; then you meet us in a rush; then you go rafting; and at the end, you go home. Great day? N'est-ce pas?

Ok. Now, imagine this. Take your time and choose a date. Organize a 2 or 3-day rafting trip. The American River whitewater has many options for 2-day, 3-day or 4-day trips. And, American River is ideal for beginners to novice whitewater rafters.  You will achieve "River Time." That's when 'time' disappears and that watch becomes totally unneccessary.

Or, choose a longer trip on the Klamath River. Go north! Klamath is one of the longest undammed rivers in the West. Also ideal for families, family reunions, and youth groups such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and more. Klamath is a very popular river run for youth groups. We have (2) programs that highlight this special river. Boy Scouts and our 'The Long Strange Trip' have given us many new paddlers!

All I am lamenting about is the lack of committment from so many people towards nature, outdoors and rivers, oceans, lakes, etc. These are precious gifts. Let's enjoy them!

See you on the river,
W.E.T. River Trips
Our entire staff!


Written by: W.E.T. River Trips
All photos belong to WET River Trips
Photos in Flickr, Google+ and Facebook
Buy now!

WET River Trips Website for 2014

Back to the website... finally. Yes, everything on the internet has changed, much to our chagrin... but, we look forward to connecting to our community and our friends who have made such an impact on our company, W.E.T. River Trips, with a brand new website.

We are doing business next rafting season a bit differently. We have things in place now that prevent us from breaking our own rules. Yikes! Yes, systems are ruling the roost in 2014.

Anyway, back to the website (really?), that cumbersome, gigantically created stinky site using several systems including PageMill, Adobe, Macromedia, Adobe again, then hand-coding, and now networks (waves to all the big networks out there in the universe including Google).

First things first: images

How do ya like this one?

Middle Fork American Tunnel Chute rapid w/ W.E.T. River Trips

Do you wanna see this on the website?
Say YES or NO about this October 2013 post from our California Whitewater Rafting blog by visiting us at our WET facebook page: http://facebook.com/wetrivertrips and comment a YES or NO.
Thanks for your help peeps...
I want the rafting community to help us create the website we know we should have... carry on with your day after you vote.


Photo by: W.E.T. River Trips on our WET Flickr site.
Will Google ever like us again?

It's raining/snowing again, finally! We will be posting a bit more regularly...
Oh, yah, before I forget... we are taking group rafting reservations now.
Call us in morning from 9 - noon for group information: 888.723.8938

And, Happy Halloween!

Rafting for Groups

The calls are coming in requesting pricing for group rafting trips. The scouts, families, bachelors, companies and friends are calling for the yearly fix of whitewater rafting. We don't sell sorrow; medicine for illness or a service to make you lose weight. We don't sell drama; fixing your car after an accident or counseling you during a divorce. We don't sell a vice; providing you with tobacco, alcohol or gambling.

We sell joy, happiness and adventure. We sell a personal journey. Our trips make you feel good without compromising your beliefs, religion or way of life. You come to us to share a joyful time in your life. We provide the means to do just that safely.

Not many of us in business have this privilege of selling you a dream or personal challenge. The ski industry does that, whitewater rafting companies do that, and most of the adventure travel industry do that everyday somewhere on this earth. We are the lucky ones.

The profit margin is low, but the joy we feel when you share your words, your photos or your friends and family with us is the greatest reward that any company can receive. And, we want to thank you all for that. Now, here's to 2011 and a great whitewater rafting season!

W.E.T. will be on the water on March 4th / Friday. Both rivers will be available at that time; South Fork American and Class 4+ North Fork American Chamberlain Falls run. Come on out... wetsuits are on us!

W.E.T. River Trips

RAFTWET.com

1.888.723.8938

Note: More videos can be found on WET Youtube channel

http://youtube.com/wetrivertrips

Share them!

Email Sucks

I hate email. (Come on everyone... ya know you hate it too.) Email sucks and everyday it gets worse and worse. And, I am not just talking about spam. Spam is easy. I filter it out with my ISP tools. And, poof it's gone. Most of my friends just text me via cell phone (... don't get me started on text messages... argh!) and I retrieve that easily and answer quickly.

No, this is about email and doing business with email. And, yes I know about WAVE. I am not sure that would have streamlined this situation because words can be misunderstood no matter where it is. But, the majority of us are still using email to conduct business. I hate dialogue using email. I hate it. Half the stuff doesn't make sense because it's in a conversation that refers back to past emails that I can't remember. So you end up saying, "Wha?!?" And, the recipient says, "Huh?" and so on and on.

For the last 3 days, I have been having a dialogue with three members of my company. A situation came up where 3 managers were in miscommunication. Three different individuals with three different perspectives and three different solutions. None of it made sense to any of us. No matter how we communicated in the email, we kept misunderstanding each other.

We emailed our conversations in paragraph form. The worst. Who can read a block of words when there are 300 other emails in the inbox. Then we emailed in list form. A bit better. At least it was easier on the eyes.

Then we started calling each other to explain the emails. Then we asked each other to confirm in email our verbal conversation so we could make sure that we were all on the same page. There were still misunderstandings. I thought it would never end. Three days of back and forth. Finally, we all gave up. Now, I know why we do the team-building rafting thing. It helps us to have a release from this craziness.

I am ashamed to say that I started ignoring the emails. Somehow, the email got deleted. Somehow, it never arrived into my in-box. Somehow, it was lost in the loop never to be found again. Ohhhh, yes, I finally resorted to deleting everything. It was email madness, and I could not stop myself. (Whew... it was only a dream...)

But, I did ignore some of the dialogue between us three. It just got ridiculous. So we all went back to our own perspectives, and the job got done correctly without all the minutiae and dissection. We are in our positions because someone trusts us to do our jobs right. So, that is what we did and forgettaabutta rest.

Note: These guys need to go on a river trip. Go outside! Get on the river and do a whitewater trip! Connect with yourself and Mother Nature. California rafting trips is in your back yard...

WET River Trips 1.888.723.8938 for help on office psychosis... hee hee.

Thanks to google images, www.spring.org.uk and wet river trips for photos.

SPRING BREAK!

We got a great snow pack in the Sierras. Skiing and snowboarding have been a blast this year with many days of fresh powder. Now we move into spring California weather where both are possible in one day! That's right, Spring Rafting is here and you can paddle the river and hit the slopes afterwards. Lots of possibilities for Spring Break!

From 2010-02-16

College student discounts are available here at WET River Trips. A great package on the river is a One Day American River trip w/ lunch on the river, dinner that night and camping at the campground that same evening. We provide everything but your toothbrush and sleeping bag. The next morning, you can hit the slopes at Sugar Bowl or Sierra Tahoe just a 1.5 hours away. Buy your total package on the web.

march 20, 2010 spring rafting

Here are your resources for your Spring Break:

RAFTING :::::

Rafting trips : http://www.raftwet-store.com
Student Discounts : http://www.raftwet.com/MFNF.html

SKIING :::::

Sugar Bowl : http://www.sugarbowl.com
Squaw Valley : http://www.squaw.com

Sierra Tahoe : http://www.sierraattahoe.com

Kirkwood : http://www.kirkwood.com

ACCOMMODATIONS :::::
Local campgrounds, hotels & B&B near the rivers : http://www.hotels.com

Call WET River Trips for available trip dates 1.888.723.8938.



We can advise the best river and the best packages for your spring break trips. Come on down UC Berkely, Stanford, USC, UOP, CSUS, Cal Poly and the rest! Let's gooooooooo!