Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe — Local services in Bend

We came here from out of town to float down the river on a tube. This ended up being very nice despite the Tumalo staff. Our experience began when we walked into the store and asked to be set up with a tube to use. The girl behind the desk efficiently gave us the liability paperwork and then when we handed it back, we had to get her attention to ask what to do next. She told us "just go out back". We then had to interrupt a staffer's personal conversation in order to get a tube. When we asked what to do, he told us " just go out on the river over there". We then asked where we would get out and how to get back. At this point, he asked if we had extra money for the shuttle. No one up to this point had told us that this was an additional all charge. We had assumed that this was included in our fee as with other similar companies we had used. At this point, the guy who was helping us noted that he didn't think the shuttle was running and checked with a buddy who confirmed hat it doesn't run until July. It was the beginning of June. When we asked what other people in our situation were doing, this question had clearly never been asked or considered, and no solution was offered, just "I don't know, I guess getting people to drop them off". We asked if we could just have a map and figure it out ourselves since one was not provided when we originally signed up. He walked us over to a large map sign and proceeded to LOOK FOR landmarks because he was not familiar with the map. The final decision after a long, ridiculous exchange was that we would walk 1.5 miles while carrying our tubes and then float down the river back to the store. We did this, and had a nice float. My experience would have been much more pleasant had I just bought a float from the nearest drugstore and checked a map...

If I could give, Jeff, Hank, Clayton and the entire Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe team ten stars in this review, I would! I joined their San Juan Islands Kayaking Tour for four days a few weeks ago and I had an experience of a lifetime!

First off, Jeff, Clayton, and Hank had all of the planning and details of the trip so well covered. I knew what to expect, where to go, and when to be there. We met at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal and they had already set our a great breakfast with hot coffee while waited for the ferry over to the San Juan Islands.

Once we took the ferry ride over to the Islands, they had all of the kayaks, paddles, and other gear ready to go to start our four day paddle trip. We packed up all of our belongings into our kayaks and set out paddling for our first night's stay on James Island.

The water, islands, scenery, wildlife, and marine life were all spectacular and beautiful. The pace of paddling was perfect and the Tumalo crew was quick to help with tips on paddling form or posture if needed.

When we got to our first island to stay the night, we discovered how great of cooks everyone is on the Tumalo team. We had a really tasty meal of seafood pasta our first night that blew us all away in how good it tasted.

From that night, we continued to have four amazing days of paddling around the Islands, staying at beautiful campgrounds, eating amazing food, and having a blast with the entire group.

If you've ever considered doing a sea kayaking trip in the San Juan Islands, I can't recommend the Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe tour enough. If you go next year, I'll probably...

Some friends were in town visiting from back east. They wanted to kayak with me and we rented from Tumalo Creek. One of my friends had issues with the seat back and Aaron adjusted it right off. After 30 more minutes paddling he had issues and turned around. Urging us to continue upstream, we left him and he returned to find no one there to assist him. No amount of yelling got their attention and he was unable to exit his kayak safely to look for assistance. So he paddled around aimlessly nearby the dock. Perhaps Tumalo needs to install a large bell with a rope so folks can alert the staff for emergencies. The 2 of us returned to the dock area near the time, others were there also needing help but there was no one around. So one of us called them on our cellphone. [The friend with the bad seat back didn't take his phone on the water, as he didn't own a drybag] Aaron came out and assisted us all out of the water. We told Aaron of the issues our third person had and how he tried to get help. He said to go inside and he'd get a partial refund, prob $20. We did that & he got just a $10 rebate. But he lost out on the trip and was unable to paddle much at all. We were very disappointed at the lack of empathy for his losing out on the paddling trip, as well as the inability for any of us to alert staff except by telephone. Please look into another method to contact the staff indoors. [I have usually seem staff sitting out on their back deck checking the water for boaters to return, but not...