The smell of a country breakfast wafts through the air, luring you out of your sleeping bag and towards the dining area. After a hearty All You Can Eat omelet breakfast, it’s orientation time. Here you’ll learn all about the techniques of rafting, safety and equipment. You’ll also meet the river guides and be divided into groups. Rest assured, each raft holds 6 to 8 rafters, so you will be in the same raft as your friends.
Our private campground is in a beautiful wilderness setting along the bank of the American River. We have a fully equipped kitchen, and modern bathrooms with hot showers, flush toilets and electricity. A camp store nearby stocks nearly anything else you might need.
In addition to giving you a fun and enjoyable rafting ride, we also believe in providing you with great food (All You Can Eat!) and many other activities throughout your stay.
By now you’ve been given a life jacket and paddle, so hurry up and slop on some sunscreen, because it’s time to go rafting!
For the first morning, you’ll depart directly from the river bank at the campground. The first few miles are easy, which gives your guide a chance to teach everyone how to paddle together. Remember, you and your companions are the raft’s "power source," so the guide’s goal is to turn all the people in the boat into one Lean Mean Rafting Machine! After some relatively easy rapids, giving you a chance to "get the hang of it," it’s suddenly...lunch time! You’ll park along the river bank, where an All You Can Eat deli lunch will be waiting for you. After you’ve had your fill, it’s back into the raft as you head on into... uh-oh... The Gorge! The gorge is where the real rafting begins! The canyon walls steepen, the river narrows, and the water moves faster and faster! But you’re a pro now, and you can handle the ups and downs and twists and turns of all the rapids.
You'll bounce along "Haystack Canyon" - a series of standing waves that will make you feel like you're riding the wettest and wildest amusement park ride of your life. You'll encounter "Bouncing Rock," where your boat will "kiss" the rock, then fall down a chute like a wet slippery slide. Every rapid has a name - some are fast, some are tricky. But all are thrilling in their own way!
Finally, at the end of the day, after you've had your fill of crashes and splashes (and let's not forget the many water fights you'll have with the other boats!), you'll end up at Folsom Reservoir, where you'll be shuttled by bus back to the River Runners Campground.
While dinner's being cooked, you'll have time for a shower, a game of volleyball, ping pong, or perhaps just some rest and quiet time. Then you'll be ready for a sumptuous dinner of steak, chicken, salmon, garlic bread, baked potato, corn, salad and an assortment of drinks and dessert. Vegetarians - no problem! And, as in all River Runners meals (in case we haven't mentioned it enough) it's All You Can Eat!
But the day still isn't over.
After dinner there's roasting marshmallows by the campfire where you will swap stories with your raft mates on the day's adventure.
And finally, before slumber time, you may just want to take a quiet stroll along the shore of the river, or look up and marvel at the thousands of stars visible in the nighttime country sky...
