I have been on a few guided white-water trips in the past. By that I mean the kind where there are six passengers in the boat and an experienced guide who is doing the steering. Everyone wears helmets and life jackets, and paddles like crazy when you come to a class-III or class-IV rapid. It is terrifying in a fun way, but you have five other new best friends in the boat screaming with you. I was excited about our upcoming trip until my husband pointed out one major difference at this place… there are no guides. That’s right, the rapids are smaller, but you are on your own.

Cache Creek is the outflow of Clearlake, Ca. and flows into the Sacramento River. It rarely dries when many other rivers in the area do, and drops about 20 feet per mile, making it a really fun run. Because most of the rapids are categorized class-II with one class-III, the two commercial companies of the area do not offer guides in the boats. They give you a 30-minute talk before you head out on how to get unstuck should your boat lodge on some rocks and what to do if you find yourself in the water. Then you are provided with a boat (either a raft that accommodates 3-5 people or a two-man inflatable kayak), a paddle, a life-jacket, lunch, and a smile. During the safety talk you are warned of where the hardest rapid is, and told that a staff person will be pointing to where your boat ought to be to approach that rapid (as pictured). Staff are also stationed at the bottom of the two trickiest runs to pull out swimmers who may need assistance. You are given about six hours to complete the run (which took us three hours including stops) before food is provided and later, some nightly activities.

We pulled up to the parking lot on Saturday morning to learn of  another big difference. Unlike past rafting trips I have been on where you get to know the other 18-24 rafters pretty well, here there were about 500 “new best friends” joining us on this trip. It was a light weekend, according to the guy directing traffic. Often there are up to 800 people. I do give props to the staff, they were efficient at managing such a large crowd. After signing your living will – I mean your waiver – and loading your camping gear onto a truck, five or six buses shuttle folks to the drop off point where you receive some saftey instructions and your equipment. 

The website says not to bring alcohol, as “booze and rapids don’t mix”. Common sense says neither does alcohol and the nearly hundred degree weather that we had.  Regardless, this was closer to a rave in the woods than the trip of  “solitude and serenity” as described on the website. I should have guessed with descriptions of night activities such as ”dancing at the camp disco with bubbles, foggers, lasers, spinner strobes and cages”.  They also list volleyball and horseshoe as activities, but I never saw any of that. I don’t mind a party, but there were people who could barely stand up before dinner. I later learned that the ambulance siren I heard while on the river was called because someone from our group had passed out along the run. 

I mention this for a few reasons. First, if you are bringing your family here (under 12 not permitted) you may want to know ahead of time what the scene is like.

Secondly are my concerns about safety. Having several bus loads of drunken rafters heading into the water at the same time was pretty sketchy at the first few rapids. My husband and I tried to put in early, but still had rafts piled on top of us as we tried to free ourselves on the first set of rocks we encountered. I think had the staff got involved in spacing out the boats as they launched, there wouldn’t have been so many problems right out of the gate.  (The congestion seemed to work itself out further down the river, but with two businesses running about 500 rafters each, there were more than a few pileups.)

I rarely saw or got any directions from guides along the route.  Knowing that a large percentage of their clientele are inebriated and/or inexperienced at maneuvering a boat, I would have felt better knowing that at least someone was  nearby to assist when needed, aside from those points nearest the two toughest rapids.  Twice I saw rafters, floating without their boats, who needed help getting situated again. No staff person was around. At the end of the run I got caught in a current that pulled me under the water for a much longer amount of time than I am comfortable with. This scared me so much that I opted to go home before the second day’s repeat of the same run. There were plenty of boats that dumped at that spot, but still no staff nearby.

I acknowledge that I am not someone who enjoys the thrill of being scared all that much. As I stood at the beach after returning our boat, I heard more than a few people talk about one part of the run or another that scared them; getting trapped under a boat, getting caught in a fast current, etc. Maybe this is what brings them back year after year. Not me.

This run is supposed to be easy and interesting enough to be approachable for novice rafters. This may make it an attractive idea for a fun weekend. For the price you get quite a deal;  boating equipment, staff to shlep your stuff to a campsite, meals and entertainment. I can see how coming with a group of friends can make for a really good time. My advice is to be sure you have some good (sober) swimmers with you.  Maybe even make some friends on the bus and go down the river together. At least with another boat nearby you will have a direction to swim.

Today is Spotlight Thursday at Trekaroo. Check out their site for more travel highlights.

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