Celia Oblinger wrote:

snip description of rafting trip

Does anyone have any comments about this scenario at all????

Your experience sounds very similar to my first [and decidedly *last*]
rafting trip in West Virginia.

A marginal guide with absolutely no regard for the safety of his crew,
the most cursory safety training, and no forewarning that half of the
rafts dump at the very first rapid. (I was informed about this last
piece of info *after* the trip, not before.)

I have no problem with experinenced boaters with the proper training and
experience shooting class V water. But rafts full of clueless tourists
don't belong there. (and neither do I)

The problem with the commercial rafting operations is that they treat
the tourists like so many sacks of potatoes. If the sacks bounce out of
the rafts, the guide rounds them up and hopes he can find them all and
that they're not too damaged. And if the sack gets hurt, well it's the
sack's fault not the guide's. What's amazing is that they don't kill
more people than they do.

Anyway, you can read my account of the trip (three years ago! wow.) at
http://www.google.com/groups?UTF-8&c2coff=1&selm=3B253A71.59F936A9%40mailandnews.co m

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//-Walt
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