Whitewater Rafting Adventures — Attraction in Nesquehoning

Before I booked this trip, I wish I knew there were no guides on the rafts. I have never experienced this on a rafting trip before. There were two guides on kayaks, one in the front, directing the group, and one all the way in the back. It was a full busload of people, so if you had an issue you had to wait for the guy in the back to get to you (and he was the only one dealing with issues, causing the front guy to frequently have the rafts in front pull to the side to wait for the back groups). We'd done a prior trip elsewhere (not in PA) and had an amazing time, so looked forward to even more time on the water here. The EZ trip is basically a long haul through an area with lots of big rocks just under the surface. Without close guides to steer around them, people kept getting stuck on the rocks. When another boat was stuck, we didn't have time to steer around it and collided. I thought we'd bump them and push their boat off, but instead, it knocked three of us out (me, husband, 7 year old), and sucked us all under the boat (also knocked several people off the other boat). It happened so fast so I don't know how it all went down, but I was able to grab onto my daughter and pull her to me (and she was sucked under again, despite her life vest, as we navigated over another rock, the one that's causing my foot to be in the air in the photo; thankfully I was still holding her and grabbed her to me). It just so happened that the camera person they have along the route caught us after ejection. When I spoke to the rear guide after the fact he said he'd taken many "involuntary swims" in that spot, and said that while the water sucks your under, it quickly spits you back out. That may very well be true, but it was so stressful in the moment and I cannot even think of how awful it would have been had I not been holding onto my daughter the whole time. I never saw him while we were in the water and I was trying to keep my daughter safe. That rear guide was very nice, but he's only one person. The front guide seemed annoyed to be there. When they gave out life vests, there was no assistance in getting them correctly tightened. I'm so glad I'm extra cautious and that my daughter's was tight enough (the life vests offered by the other company we'd used were much more substantial, and they made sure everyone was properly in it, and specifically mentioned making sure to pull up on the shoulders to test tightness and the risks of slipping out of a life vest). We saw another group apparently run by a different company also going without guides in the boats, so its apparently not unique to this company (though I don't know if they had more in kayaks). Again, I just wish I knew this before I booked. Their website makes frequent reference to guides and safety. Two guides and that many rafts just...

Very poor service! Unorganized!

I went to white water rafting to day. There was a big group. So, I understand that it is difficult to keep things organized with such a big group. But, I think, they should at least try to be organized.

We arrived at 9:20am. After arrival, their staffs did not tell us what to do and left us there wondering. We finally figure out what to do. Then, we kept waiting and waiting and waiting. With all the waiting, we did not even get on the boat by 11am.

Well, I can understand the difficulty of handling a very large group. But, being in this business, they better know how to.

During the waiting, I went to buy something for my daugther from their shop. The staffs there were terrible! Three staffs standing there. While one of them was serving a customer, the other two just did nothing to help the other customer (i.e., me) waiting there. It was the time our group getting to the briefing. They know the urgency. But, they just stood there and did nothing.

OK, I know they are busy!

So, I went away getting back to my group. After the briefing, we have a few minutes before getting on the transportation. So, I was hoping I could go and buy what I wanted to buy. This time, there was only 1 staff. There was another customer there already. So, I was waiting patiently though I only have a feww minutes. But, then, another customer came in and walked right to the staff and pay for the shoes she wanted to buy. The staff may have wanted to tell her to wait. But, the staff did not get the chance. That latest customer said the transportation was waiting for her. The staff then just took the money. By then, I said, "Hey, that same bus is waiting for me too." But, the staff did not budge. She even turned away to avoid my question. By then, I was really upset.

Being in this business, they should know how important it is to keep everyone doing things in the right order. However, what this particular staff did was exactly the best thing to encourage people not following proper order.

I have to say. For the rafting itself, I enjoyed the time today. But, regarding their lack of organization when handling a large group of people and regarding their staffs in the shop, I have to say "POOR", "VERY POOR" and "VERY...

So they claim a dam release (the company has no control over this), yet the water was still barely a foot deep in some sections of the river. That made some of the stretches of the river quite boring... basically getting stuck on rocks and using the paddle to push off from the bottom of the river to free yourself...ie: not white water rafting.

The Rafts are in good condition, however they make you travel in a group of about 12 rafts with 3-4 guides on kayaks on the river guiding you. This poses a problem as many of the rafts will contain very inexperienced rafters and the guides make you wait for everyone to catch up at certain points. Our trip was suppose to be 4 hours long, and it ended up being over 6 hours because 2 stupid raft groups had no idea how to paddle / free themselves when they get stuck on rocks. We ended up waiting more often than riding rapids unfortunately.

Besides that, my biggest complaint would be that they don't properly train their new employees. We had a guide, who's it was their 2 day on the river and she was guiding the front. Not only would she bump into us (we knocked her out of her kayak once), but she would often tell us the wrong path to go through the rapids. Eventually we just stopped listening to her and trusted our instincts which served us much better. They certainly need to do more runs with new employees before they guide people down the river. The more experienced guides were very personable and skilled on the river though and would recommend them anytime(Alex and Andrew were their names).

Bottom line: If you've never been rafting then this is an easy river to try out. I would classify it as a class 2 at best. If you've been white water rafting before, then this is a river to avoid as you'll just be disappointed and perhaps frustrated with the...