Bear River Valley Recreation Area — Attraction in Petoskey

WARNING! They only care about the money. We showed up on this past Sunday with two family's. Four adults, four kids. We rented tubs and listened and signed forms. Went and paid and picked out life vest for kids. Few mins went bye and a young man loaded us up in the van with party going rafting. Took us to the drop off he said ten mins ride. We started unloadeding. Then the HELL started. He says man we only have 7 tubs. So he called let someone know that he was one tub short. He gets off phone and said the tub will be here in ten mins. Ok. How does this happen? But ok. So we waited. 10 mins, then 20mins, then 30 mins. Then we called to ask where is the tub? Sorry they said its on its way. Ok! Then here comes a van with more people to go tubing. Cool they have our tub. But no tub. And there washroom on rack. We ask the guy. Did any tell you to bring us a tub? No sir I'm sorry. So we called again and by this time we have been waiting for 40mins. They put us on hold then someone from subway pics up and said they couldn't help us. Then a van finally shows up with no one just our one tub. By this time its now been over 1hr40mins since we signed our contract. So we went down the river. But then we realized that there was so many trees down and danger areas not really for 7 year old kids to handle. No one said anything about that. So after we went in and asked why it took so long. Well we had to wait for the next van to fill up to bring your tub. REALLY! That's funny because out tub wasent on there. I asked to speak to manger she says ok all went upstairs. Then comes back to say sorry manger is not here. So I let her know i was expecting some kind of refund. She says I can't do that but i can call the owner. I said perfect. She gets on the phone for 5mins and then she tells us the owner say you aren't getting no refund of any kind. He says we brought you tub as fast as we could and it was not 40mins. I said yes it was We have phone calls to prove that. She then gets off phone and says to me. You are not getting anything back and it you do t leave right now he said to call the police. WHAT! I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. So she gives me my I.D. and we leave. I have never been treated like this in my life. I myself have owned a business before and would never have treated a customer like this. I hope that people read this and go else where and and support this man. And...

A favorite place in petoskey.. has a paved trail and dirt type trails too. Great walk and place to let the kiddos burn some energy! (: **Updated July 2020: used to take my kids nearly daily/few times a week, for the last 3 or 4 yrs but nowadays lot of the bicyclers have been very rude.. the other day, one almost ran over 2 of my older children then flipped us off shaking his head and just kept going.. he hit the brakes & left an 18 foot skid mark that's clearly visible he was going way too fast especially at a walking path on a big curve... he scared my daughter so much she started crying ! People need to watch out for animals and littles! & other people In general! Cause there is many of BOTH out there!! The department of public safety did get involved with this one so they're aware of what's becoming so common here, sadly. We dont get to go as often as we'd like anymore due to peoples negligence, acting as if they own the whole trail!... other than them it's a beautiful peaceful place to be. Animals are...

I can't really speak for what is is now, but as a child in the 70's - 80's this place was the bomb. Back then it was known as the Indian Trails, though by all means was not only racist but ridiculous as it was (on the east side) the old railroad... there used to be a great many industrial businesses along through there in the way back, and there used to be traces of them hidden in the growth. My favorite was the old dam... we used to skip school and go hang out there in the warmer months and swim the "chutes" as we called it, which was the main open causeway that had a much stronger flow that the river has now. It was coated in a thick layer of slimy green river weed that was extremely slippery and you would blast through it at an alarming speed. If you weren't careful you would burn your skin of on the concrete, and you had to be careful at the bottom because it would dump you out into a pool of rocks, concrete chunks, and broken glass. It was a great place to spend part of my childhood. Many...