Fall City Floating — Local services in Snoqualmie

This company should be put out of business. Not only is their business model and pricing scheme a racket, they are also grossly negligent. I went with a group to Fall City Floating on June 27. As soon as we pulled up, I knew it would be a nightmare. The company had wildly overbooked their reservations-- causing customers with reserved shuttle spots to wait over an hour in 100+ heat with no available water, no shade, and no communication from staff. One of our group members made a reservation for a tube, only to be told that all the tubes were already rented out. He was forced to purchase an overpriced, dinky tube from them that continuously deflated throughout our float. While in line for the shuttle, I witnessed a woman nearly collapse from heatstroke. After over an hour, we were finally loaded onto a van. The van had no AC and we were made to sit in the baking car while the driver loaded the trailer.

In the van, we listened to a barely-audible safety advisory that informed us to stay right of the orange buoys and notified us that we would be provided with "paddles" for our trip. We then found out that these "paddles" were actually frizbees and that the company was out, so that we would not be receiving any. Luckily, I am a confident swimmer so I was able to hop out of my tube and swim our group away from hazards during the float. Despite the horrible start, my group had a lovely float-- this is credit to the natural beauty of the area, not Fall City Floating. Our enjoyment came to an abrupt and frightening halt when we encountered a poorly-marked hazard near the end of the trip. There was a large stump/wooden pole in the water near the right bank. It was marked with a single orange tie and came up very suddenly. We did not see it until it was too late. I find it important to mention that: 1. nobody in my group was reckless, inebriated, or otherwise indisposed and 2. this hazard has been written about in many, many other one-star reviews. In any case, we attempted to steer right of this hazard, as we were instructed. We later learned that we should have stayed left and that any attempt to stay right of the pole would result in us being pulled into it by the current. I don't know how we could have known.

I was outside my tube at the time that we ran into the hazard, as I had been attempting to steer my group. I was immediately pulled into the stump by the current, bashing my leg. I was then dragged under the current, with my head trapped under my a tube. The water was freezing and the current powerful; it can take mere seconds to drown in conditions like those. By sheer luck mixed with a healthy dose of will to live, I was able to push the float off and get my head above water enough to be hoisted onto my tube by my friend. Everyone in our group was separated. Multiple people had been thrown off their tubes and sustained injuries. It was truly terrifying. We also lost items that are now polluting the over-crowded river.

Fall City Floating's end point was just a few yards away from this hazard. The staff was watching as the sherrif's rescue boat stopped to collect our group members from the water, informing us that "we have been rescuing people from that pole all day." The staff had been seeing this happen to other groups for hours and had done nothing. The end point for the float is poorly marked and in a section of the river where the current is strong. I watched as people struggled to walk to the shore, being pushed over by the current and carried downstream. When I got out of my float to walk ashore, I quickly realized that I would be unable to get over without help. I had no shoes, was exhausted, and had bashed up my feet on the rocks. The staff was just standing there yelling at me and our other group members, "You can walk!" This after they just witnessed us nearly die. They showed little to no concern for us or any of the other floaters-- some of whom were clearly in serious distress.

I shudder to think what could have happened had our group included children. Fall City Floating is going to get...

The staff are friendly and they've got a good and efficient operation with enough drivers to get you up to the drop off point without having to wait too long.

But, if this business damages your stuff, they have no procedures in place to make a record of it, and yet if you point out later that they damaged your stuff, they won't trust your word for it. They can't have it both ways.

Details: When the driver put my inflated tube into the trailer of their van, it poked a large hole in the side of the tube, which we discovered when we got dropped off. Our tube was obviously deflated at the drop off point and there was a half-inch sided hole in it where it made contact with the gate of the trailer. Luckily a friend had a patch on hand, and the driver of the van had a pump and we were able to get our float inflated and get on the water. very glad that the van had a pump, kudos to the business for having this on hand. Hours later, after the float, I figured I could talk to the management about the damage to the tube: even though I was able to patch it up I'd rather my tube didn't have an unsafe hole in it. I hoped they could either replace the tube or offer me a refund on the shuttle ride or other supplies that I'd bought from them. But after a while the employee I talked to came back to tell me there's nothing they could do other than give me another patch, because there's no way for them to know whether the hole was there before it was put in the trailer, which of course is an accusation that I could be lying (after I brought them a ten person party and hundreds of dollars in business). I had expected that the driver would have notified a manager that they had accidentally damaged customer equipment, but apparently not. So, I was left with a damaged tube.

So to repeat: If this business damages your stuff, they have no procedures in place to make a record of it, and yet if you point out later that they damaged your stuff, they won't trust your word for it. They can't have it both ways.

If you are planning to tube on the river, I'd recommend not trusting them with transporting your tubes!

On a different note, the late-July day that I floated here the water was very slow, and the float time was expected to be 5 hours. Even with paddling to keep moving, the float time was 4.5 hours, a couple hours longer than I wanted. The water was also so shallow at points that we needed to get out of our floats and carry them over the slippery rocks a couple of times. Strongly recommend going earlier in the season when the water is faster and...

Their website is poorly laid out and confusing. My husband paid for the shuttle and a rental for the two of us but apparently we didn’t reserve an inner tube so he had to buy one. They are super flimsy. His kept deflating and another customer had to go back in a long line for the store because the one she bought had a hole in it before she even opened the package. They had sold tickets to more people than they could handle and the lines were insanely long. They ran out of life jackets but luckily my husband and I managed to get one. The rest of my party did not. The river was nice and relaxing until the very end where the current is much stronger. There were two logs sticking out of the water on the right side of the river that had some orange tape around it. We had been told that we needed to stay to the right side of the river and that the beach at the end was on the right so we didn’t think much of it. By the time we realized we needed to go around them the current quickly picked up and we were slammed into the logs. It is not an exaggeration to say that we almost died. I had to let go of my float so the rest of the group could untangle themselves. The rest of the group were rescued by the sheriffs department that goes by. My friends were told that we were not the only group that had lost it on the logs. My husband and I were able to float farther down using our life jackets but got caught in a current that acted like a swirling whirlpool so we were struggling to get to the beach. He was saved by another person floating on the river. She was able to guide me out of the current and I swam by myself the whole way. My legs were very tired and when I finally reached the beach at the end, the most help I got was in the form of an employee yelling at me that I can stand there. Mind you I had almost drowned moments before, my legs were tired from swimming, and the current in the area was still strong. While we all lived, we are suffered some form of injuries ranging from scratches to deep purple bruising and damaged Achilles’ tendons. The company does keep you informed of the risks on give you some safety rules but they could do a lot more to ACTUALLY keep people safe. They should start requiring that everyone wear life jackets, book less people so that everyone has safety equipment and staff isn’t stretched thin, and properly label ALL hazards with buoys. What should have been a fun day on the river turned out to be very traumatizing and Fall City Floating...