What Are You In The Mood For?

• Be honest, you’ve worked hard for this vacation. Do you want to crank up the adrenaline, relax and enjoy a river from the bow of a boat, explore desert canyons and Native American artifacts or paddle your way through misty Canadian bays in search of killer whales? Do you want to relax around a campfire and sleep under the stars or would you like to experience a hot shower and linens at the end of your day—or perhaps you’d prefer a little of each? If you are traveling with a friend, child, and/or loved one, make sure you want similar vacations to avoid unnecessary friction.

Research Research Research:

• Do you need to hop a flight to your destination? A friend and former travel agent once told me she counted more than 200 different fares on a flight from NYC to London. Before I book a ticket, I check multiple search engines, often several times, (Hey, I am a Virgo!) including:  Kayak, Airfare Watchdog, ITA Software, Sidestep.
• Read. Google. Bing. Atlas. Library. Rent movies. It’s always fun to research the area in which you will be traveling. Though guides on your trip have tremendous insight into a region, you’ll appreciate your vacation even more knowing details about your destination before you arrive. You don’t want to miss any must-see sites!
• Be aware of your tour company’s booking and cancellation policies. Read the fine print and ask questions.

Compare Prices, Ask Questions:

• It is always wise to shop around and compare prices. When doing so, be sure to compare all the details of your trip and specifically what is included in the final cost. You may find a large discrepancy in prices between tour operators, just as you may find a large discrepancy in what those prices include. In my experience, you get what you pay for when it comes to selecting a tour operator. Check a company’s website to discover what you should expect with their adventures.

Know The Company You Are Traveling With:

• When selecting a tour operator, start by asking your friends and family for recommendations, and then ask the company for references, explore online reviews, visit their Facebook page, and ask other travelers about their experience with the company. CBS News Travel Editor, Peter Greenberg says, "And for Facebook, are there any benefits if you’re under 25? Of course. Not only is it a great place to share travel photos and anecdotes for all your friends, but it’s also a good resource to seek out advice and tips from other travelers before you go."
• For a list of more than 1000 adventure vacation options from the leading travel companies in the industry, visit www.adventurecollection.com.
• Is the company environmentally friendly? Booking with a company that has a responsible travel statement and/or policy posted on their website will not only ease your conscience, it’s a wise choice.

Book Early for Best Trip Choices:

• Popular trips, such as rafting through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River or down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho with O.A.R.S. tend to sell out early. You deserve the vacation of your dreams, so when you’re certain of your vacation days, book your trip as soon as possible.

Travel Insurance:

• Most major travel arrangements include cancellation fees that are applicable regardless of why or when you might need to cancel. In most cases, travel insurance covers non-refundable payments should you have to cancel your trip at the last minute due to illness or injury. Always ask questions and read the fine print before purchasing insurance.

What Should You Pack?

• What to bring on your vacation and what to wear is as varied as your adventure options. Your gear will depend on your trip choice, the time of year, temperature and the weather for your trip.
• Most tour outfitters will supply you with a detailed packing list compiled by their experienced staff and guides that has been honed over many years, trials and tribulations. Trust their suggestions!
• If you are on a multi-day whitewater rafting trip, it’s best to take extra rain gear and warm clothes. The gear doesn’t weigh much, and if you don’t use the gear, it hasn’t taken up much space. However, should you need it, you’ll be glad you have it!

Are You In Shape?

• Are you planning to hike into or out of the Grand Canyon; paddle Class IV rapids; hike, sea kayak, raft or ride horses all in one vacation? If you are planning a trip that involves a lot of hiking, get out on your local trails and use them as much as possible. If you do not have access to trails or hills, hit the gym or try running or walking up and down bleachers, subways or stairways.
• O.A.R.S. adventurers range in age from 4 to 84 and older. Although there are few prerequisites for joining their trips, being healthy and reasonably fit certainly makes your experience more rewarding. Leave the motto “no pain, no gain” at your local gym and enjoy your vacation! 

How To Find Travel Deals:

• Sign up for regular email or e-newsletters from your favorite adventure travel companies—you’ll be the first to hear of their specials.
• Join Twitter and follow folks who regularly tweet travel deals—such as @TravelEditor, @KAYAKdeals, @PerrinPost.

Go With The Flow:

• Outdoor vacations are an adventure travel company’s specialty, and they work hard to provide their guests with a positive travel experience. Although your outfitter will do everything it can to adhere to its planned itinerary, sometimes ‘things happen.’ You’ll enjoy your vacation much more when you are able to take a deep breath if something unplanned happens.
• A company such as O.A.R.S. will work with you should any part of your trip under their control not meet your expectations.

One decade later, sitting in a sleek dory, The Yampa, we rounded what had to have been bend #473 in the Colorado River, when long-time O.A.R.S. Grand Canyon guide, Bronco, stated matter-of-factly, “Keep your eye out on the cliffs on the left, about a third of the way up. Bighorn like to hang out there.” He spotted them immediately and directed our untrained eyes to the small collection of nearly invisible sheep.

In a recent article titled, Why We Travel, Jonah Lehrer suggests, “We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything. Several new science papers suggest that getting away is an essential habit of effective thinking. When we escape from the place we spend most of our time, the mind is suddenly made aware of all those errant ideas we’d previously suppressed. We start thinking about obscure possibilities—that never would have occurred to us if we’d stayed home.”

Experiencing wildlife on their turf, dropping a notch on the food chain, feeling the hair rise on the back of my neck when a bear bluff charges—all these experiences remind me to reprioritize. Stepping out from behind my desk, into the wilderness, restores balance. The bills will get paid. I will fall asleep despite the neighbor’s barking dogs. That magazine editor will get back to me… eventually. The pressure of replying to those seemingly endless pending email messages dissipates as I watch graceful movements of a wild animal.

I’ve bobbed with Blue-Footed Boobies and snorkeled with dozens of sea turtles, penguins, sharks and rays in the Galápagos Islands. I’ve seen grizzlies and black bears peacefully coexist on the banks of a British Columbia river, fat and sluggish from an abundant late season salmon run. I‘m planning a trip to Canadian Arctic to witness the largest migration of mammals in North America—the Porcupine Caribou herd—on a Firth River expedition. After having recently interviewed O.A.R.S. traveler Janet Walker, I know I’d also like to return to Peru to experience the Tambopata River and the world’s largest clay lick—possibly even spot a jaguar!

Have you envisioned whale watching in the warm waters of Baja or spotting whales from your sea kayak in British Columbia’s misty fog? Wouldn’t you like to stand on an Alaskan glacier and search for mountain goats, bighorn sheep, grizzly or black bear? Would you like to introduce your family to wildlife with experienced guides who will share their vast knowledge of local wildlife habits, the area’s history and lore—and who will keep your children engaged?

What are your wildlife viewing dreams?

Janet had already been to Peru twice before embarking on her O.A.R.S. Tambopata River trip. (She had not yet traveled with O.A.R.S.) I asked her if there were any specific factors that helped her decide on this particular Peru adventure. Her answer? “The clay lick and the trip’s remote location.”

Clay lick

Janet had previous whitewater rafting experience, (as did everyone in her party) having rafted the Franklin River in Tasmania and the Arctic’s Alsek River, as well as several 1- to 4-day jaunts. She commented, “O.A.R.S. guides are the only ones who have not thrown me out!! My scariest experience was the top of the Nile in Uganda with another river outfitter. I thought the Tambopata River’s rapids were fun. However, we had good weather so it may not have been as excitingly dangerous as I think this river can be.” (Who doesn’t love her sense of adventure?!)

She found the O.A.R.S. guides to be extremely competent, and she revealed all three of trip’s guides were skilled and spoke English well.

Expedition leader on the right

I asked Janet to share any special highlights of her trip. She replied, “We started with an aim per day and always reached it, such as seeing a cock of the rock.  (I actually only caught a glimpse as I was in the second car, but it’s the closest I have been after several hunts.)  Wildlife is my thing, so I loved the clay lick, seeing tapir, capybara and otters, and the tracks of jaguar around several camps. The river was also really remote and we saw scarcely another soul – certainly no houses or other boats.  The land section was very interesting too.”

Jaguar spoor

Asked if she thought this is a good trip for people interested in bird watching, she replied, “Certainly.  With waterproof binoculars travelers could lie back and bird watch all day. I think Columbia and Peru have the highest number of bird species in the world.”

Ms. Walker plans to join O.A.R.S. for another trip one day. I certainly hope she does – I truly enjoyed her photos, stories and adventurous spirit! For an entire series of photos, visit our Facebook page.

His department will begin experiments testing if manmade floods — flowing into the Colorado River — will better protect wildlife and archaeological sites. The floods would be released from the Glen Canyon Dam and could cause a buildup of sandbars and beaches along a 277-mile span of the river in the Grand Canyon.

Man-made floods are an attempt to restore conditions that existed in the canyon before the Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1966. The dam traps sediment formerly carried by the Colorado River, leading to the erosion of beaches in the Grand Canyon downstream.

James Kaiser photo

Anne Castle, an assistant secretary in the department, told water managers at the Las Vegas meeting that experiments with floods have shown they need to be frequent to do their work.

"We’ve put in place a comprehensive science program designed to figure out the complex processes at work downstream of Glen Canyon Dam," Castle said. "We’ve learned that one of the best tools we have to benefit resources in the Grand Canyon is short-duration, high-flow releases."

Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam has stopped 90 percent of sediments that offer a sustainable habitat for plants and animals. Several endangered species of fish have also declined.

Environmental groups have been pushing for more frequent floods, while water managers and operators of hydroelectric dams say they disrupt operations.

*This post was created from a compilation of news source, including UPI, AP and The Arizona Republic.

The Wilderness Society and its partners won a recent lawsuit that not only granted temporary protections against oil and gas leasing in Utah’s Red Rock country – it has prompted the Obama Administration to revise Bush-era oil and gas leasing guidelines, which could mean long-term protections for millions more acres of wild lands in early 2010.

The American Petroleum Institute and Independent Petroleum Association of the Mountain States have launched a misinformation campaign to try and stop the policy improvements. One of their reports even insists that such decisions about our public lands should be made solely by big oil and gas companies.

Currently 47 million acres of public lands, an area larger than the entire state of Washington, are leased to oil and gas development. The environmental impacts of this accelerated leasing program are many. Rural communities such as Pinedale, Wyoming, once famed for their air quality now suffer big city pollution. Water quality in many areas is threatened with pollution from the chemical compounds used in drilling. Hundreds of thousands of wilderness-quality lands have been leased and drilled, and wildlife habitat has been degraded.

The Wilderness Society is asking for tax-deductible donations before midnight December 31 to meet their goal of $150,000 to fight back against the loss of public lands to oil and gas exploration and development.

The Wilderness Society’s mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for wild places. Since 1935, They have led the conservation movement in wilderness protection, writing and passing the landmark Wilderness Act and winning lasting protection for 109 million acres of Wilderness, including 56 million acres of spectacular lands in Alaska, 8 million acres of fragile desert lands in California and millions more throughout the nation. It The Wilderness Society’s calling to protect America’s wilderness, not as a relic of the nation’s past, but as a thriving ecological community that is central to life itself. To meet their goals, they use science and collaboration with communities and conservation groups to bring about sensible policies and positive change in land conservation.

What do you think?

Well we have had an exciting couple of weeks here in the Fiji Islands.  Mostly because we had our first tropical depression hit the islands.  I am not talking about a mass movement of sad people, but a cyclone. What is a cyclone?  Technically speaking they form when the energy released by the condensation of moisture in rising air causes a positive feedback loop over warm ocean waters!  What does that mean? Well big winds and lots of rain! But for a more technical explanation I am going to quote Wikipedia.  

“A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and flooding rain. A tropical cyclone feeds on heat released when moist air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapour contained in the moist air. They are fueled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor’easters, European windstorms, and polar lows, leading to their classification as "warm core" storm systems.”

So what does that mean on the ground? Well being my first storm I have to say it was awesome.  Jeff Hommel  (Rivers Fiji Operations Manager) and I spent the afternoon checking in on the families that help support us, i.e. guides and drivers.  Driving through blinding rain, downed trees and power lines we headed up the Coral Coast to make sure everyone was safe and not in danger.  While looking for our driver Nareesh (he was already gone to higher ground) we evacuated Fijian family from their house that was about to be blown apart. As we packed the nine of us into the Rivers Fiji Landcruiser and headed to safety we were dodging roof sheet metal flying through the air! We had to get them to a cousins cement home.  We did, they were grateful and invited us in for a bowl of grog. But better judgment said we should get home, the eye of the storm had not yet reached our part of the island.  

As we sat and watched the rest of the storm and ventured outside to feel the fury of 150 km/hr wind, the crashing surf, the falling trees both of us could only imagine what the countless families that we didn’t help must have been going through.  But this Island Nation is resilient. The next day as families began the clean up, waves and smiles were exchanged, radio’s played on and people just picked up and kept going.  Mick was a category 2 cyclone, but a wet one.  Our rivers here swelled!  We went to clear the road to our put in and after a couple of hours cutting down trees we arrived at the put in to witness where the water had been the night before!  Amazing it was! The high water line was easily 25 meters above where the water had been the night before.  

And now the clean up is almost over, people are right back to there normal routines. We are back on the river and watching the guests faces struck with awe.  The beauty of the Upper Navua, which somehow missed the wind, is still the virgin rainforest that drew us here back in 1993.  And one more thing for the whitewater enthusiasts; you may have experienced high water on the Tuolumne, or perhaps the Salmon, but you need to see post cyclone water on the Upper Navua!

Signing Out in Fiji,
Moce!

James

P.S.  Check out the O.A.R.S. Whitewater Facebook page for more details of Fiji!

O yau o James, and over the next couple of months I am going to be reporting on Fiji and the O.A.R.S. experience.  My goal is simple; Provide an inside glimpse of the Rivers Fiji daily adventures and the people that support them. Now that is a daunting task, considering the fact that I am a newly arrived visitor to this island nation. But I am sure with help from my friends here and all of you out there that you can help me on my way. So what exactly will I be writing about?  Everything that I come across, from kayaking down the Luva, Rafting down the Upper Navua, Visiting our partners like the village of Nakavika, and hopefully any little adventures you want to send me on. That’s right! This is going to be an interactive record that you will help with. Do you want to know how fresh water eels are caught? How about the pounding of Kava, Perhaps how traditional tattoos are given (Please don’t ask me to get one, I hear they are very painful) I have a couple of tools with me to help capture these details of life here, a handy video camera, a still camera and my laptop.  So if you want to send me on an adventure, just make a suggestion and we will find out where it leads us.

Along the way I will try and give you little tidbits of information, like the fact that Tongans used to visit the islands in order to get feathers from the endemic red-breasted musk parrot. Or the fact that pottery shards dating back to 1290 BC have been found in the Sigatoka valley, just up the coast from our office.  Fiji is an island that holds daily discoveries, and I hope you will enjoy the adventure along with me.

Au sa liu mada (see you later) James

Tyler Wendt; Operations Manager
I’m thankful for my lovely wife and our home in Murphys, California. I’m grateful for the opportunity to live and work in this beautiful part of the world, surrounded by my family and a great group of friends and coworkers. And I’ll be thankful for the winter when it finally arrives and for the melting snow come spring.

Steve Markle; Marketing & Partnerships Director
I’m grateful to have a job…with a company that has mastered the recipe for providing intensely meaningful travel experiences. I appreciate that I am part of a company of caring people…who support each other and have managed to endure an economic downturn that could have just as easily sank the ship…I am grateful to all those who support my efforts to do my job well.

I’m thankful for all the opportunities for travel that have come my way and for the chance to occasionally share those travel experiences with my beautiful wife, family and friends.

I also often think just how lucky I am to live in the California Sierra, where the weather is almost always perfect, the landscape is world-class and the people are real. Oh yea, and bring on the snow!

Matt Zeugin; Information Technology Director
I am thankful for the many blessings I have received in life including my family, my friends and my job.

Carrie Aronson; Idaho and Private & Charter Trips Manager
I feel I have so much to be thankful for. This year alone I have been pretty healthy (minus a burst appendix). I purchased a home near the O.A.R.S. headquarters, and my husband and I spent many weekends planting additional trees. I shared 18 days in the incredible Grand Canyon with my wonderful husband, who happens to be an O.A.R.S. guide. Also on that trip were two very dear friends from Australia and an amazing group of O.A.R.S. guests. I continue to enjoy many friendships, and though my friends are scattered throughout the country and overseas, we maintain our friendships and unconditional support of one another. I will be leaving soon to spend a couple of weeks with my beloved Dad in Australia over the holiday season. On top of everything else, I have a great job with an awesome company! My cup runneth over… I am a fortunate person and have much to be thankful for indeed.

Lauren deRemer; California Adventure Consultant 
I am thankful for our national parks, and after an unforgettable journey in the Grand Canyon just a short while ago, I am indeed grateful for FUDs. This past year brought me to the Sierra Nevada Foothills to work for an amazing family-owned company – O.A.R.S. Management and co-workers have taken me under their wing, placed their trust in me and have allowed me room to learn, grow and experience the many natural resources located so close to home.

Mikey Wier; O.A.R.S. Special Projects Videographer, World-Class Fly-Fisherman & Snowboarder, Patagonia Ambassador
It almost goes without saying that I am thankful for my family and friends who continue to support me with unconditional faith. I know how fortunate I am to live in California, with year ‘round superb weather, beautiful rivers in which to fish, to raft, to hike their banks, and to listen to their soothing sounds.

What are you thankful for?

Safe and Happy Holidays Everyone!