Adirondack River Outfitters Hudson Rafting Base — Local services in Town of Johnsburg

Family trip, two parents three children. Our youngest was 6yrs 9mons old, which is 3 months too young for the 7yr minimum requirement. As parents we alone made the decision to bring him. Our guide did not know the age of our youngest until ~ 1/3 way down river, and did stress to us how he felt he was too young for the trip.

Pros:

Bus ride was short. Huge advantage when it’s hot outside and half our party suffers from motion sickness.

Guides made sure vest and helmet safety gear was checked and put on correctly.

The lunch tasted good. No dairy or meat to worry about.

Organized parking with staff member to help.

Our youngest was scared the first half of the trip but became fearless during the second half. Our guide was very experienced and good at making, the first half of the trip, safe and low key for our youngest.

Cons:

Our guide yelled and swore at my husband, for accidentally paddling the wrong way, about 10mins into our trip.

At lunch stop all but one of the guides disappeared leaving the rest of us waiting after we were all finished with lunch.

When all the guides returned after lunch, our guide seemed much more relaxed, possibly because as he said, the second half of the trip was less intense and dangerous compared to the first half.

He suggested we release the air from the center seat supports to lie down and relax.

Our guide lied down as well given us free range to steer and paddle ourselves as a family, this was nice, however, releasing air from these middle sections left us without center seats for our children and foot holds to anchor us to the boat while paddling, for the rest of the trip.

Our 11 yr old and myself fell in the water directly due to not having these support holds for our feet. We did not get hurt at all and falling in can be fun.

It would have been nice to increase our overall experience and get our children excited about nature if we had been provided with education about the area, plant life, general rafting as a hobby/sport, and/or rafting techniques.

Our guide did share knowledge about some of the insects and egg larvae markings on the rocks.

We asked our guide about a building we saw through the trees and our guide was able to explain its history in detail. Clearly he knew a lot about the area that could have shared...

Outstanding experience. My family of four went to the Hudson location. We were all first-timers. My wife and I and our two teen sons absolutely loved ARO. Our guide, Mad Dog, made the trip even more special. He was knowledgeable, funny and just a great, down-to-earth person. The other guides were very helpful as well. It's very obvious the team at ARO focuses on safety and fun for everyone. The river was a level 3 (intermediate) for the most part. On the bus ride to the launch, the guides explained exactly what to do if you or someone else on the raft fall in. Remember, everyone is wearing a life jacket and helmet provided by ARO. We had 8 rafts in our group and only two people fell off in six hours and both times they were quickly helped back in. The trip is amazing. The river has stretches of intense rapids followed by some breaks in the action. The scenery is classic Adirondacks - mountains, rock ledges, hemlocks and wildlife. Swimming is allowed on two different sections - the rafts stop for a break for the folks that want to take a dip. The lunch provided halfway through is a tasty wrap made with peanut butter, honey oat cereal and honey and some lemonade. The smiles on my son's faces made my weekend. What a great adventure. When you are finished and back at the main lodge you can have a barbeque dinner, browse the gift shop and even buy some professional photos of your group that were taken on the trip. The photographers put all the pictures on a zip drive. You can buy everything for about 45 bucks. Definitely worth it. I highly recommend ARO. Great company and a fantastic river adventure. This is outdoor recreation at its finest. We will be...

Came to the Adirondacks in April 2024 to raft the Moose River with ARO. Alas, the morning of, while in my motel in Old Forge, I got a call from ARO saying the Moose was too high to run. So, I made the hour-and-a-half journey from Old Forge to North River in snow flurries to go raft the Hudson River Gorge at very high water (definite Class V). Got into a boat with Eric, who was an excellent guide. Others in the party were Islanders fans (I am a big Rangers fan, and our teams were playing later that day--Rangers won in a shootout), but they were enjoyable to paddle with and we worked well as a team. Temp was somewhere around 37 degrees Fahrenheit in both the air and the water (though the forecasted snow ended up being all rain/freezing rain). Of course, this would just happen to be the day--after successfully rafting four other Class V whitewater rivers in much warmer weather and water without a single incident--that I would take a swim, and on the longest rapid of the day at that. After floating about 1/3 of a mile down the river (and somehow staying warm and holding on to my paddle the whole time), I was brought very professionally to safety by their crew before the end of the rapid. After a scheduled break, I got back in my boat and was able to continue paddling (even got to be a lead paddler). Good food and refreshments upon return to base. Had a great time despite the swim, and I look forward to coming back next year to paddle the Moose with ARO (will review that on the Old Forge page once that happens; not planning on another swim though). Highly recommended to everyone fit enough to paddle Class...