Make sure there’s a river in your grandchild’s future… http://vimeo.com/4531603

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Although O.A.R.S. does not offer whitewater rafting trips to the Galapagos Islands, they do offer 11-day sea-kayaking trips, 10-day multi-sport trips, as well as 10-day sailing trips to these enchanted islands.

If you are fortunate enough to be one of O.A.R.S.’ Galapagos Islands vacationers, you can be instrumental in protecting the area’s priceless natural heritage!

The Galapagos Islands face serious threats to their unique biodiversity. In 2007, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre placed them on their list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.  In response these threats, the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association (IGTOA) has launched a new education and funding program to help meet the challenge of lasting protection for the islands.

The program is designed to help travelers understand the serious issues facing Galapagos, and how travelers themselves can be part of the solution. Visitors to the islands can provide critical financial support for scientific research and conservation and follow best practices during their travel.

An important part of the program is a series of six videos, produced by IGTOA for prospective travelers. A documentary video, "Challenges Facing Galapagos," uses interviews with scientists and conservationists to detail specific threats, which include an invasion of alien species of plants, animals, microbes, and humans. The growth of tourism and permanent settlements threaten to overwhelm conservation efforts.

Four other videos show best practices for travelers during their visit to the islands and sound environmental practices their boats should follow. Travelers are encouraged to be the eyes and ears for conservation and report problems that they see during their trip.

The videos are available to travelers who book trips with participating IGTOA members. O.A.R.S. is professionally committed to the cultural and environmental well being of the places they visit and where they operate.  O.A.R.S. supports IGTOA.  Travelers can learn more about participating companies by visiting the IGTOA web site:  www.igtoa.org.

Travelers who sign up with an IGTOA member that participates in the funding program will be asked to make a voluntary donation. A significant portion of funds raised goes to the Charles Darwin Foundation. Startup funding for the program has been supplied by Conservation International.

The Galapagos Islands, which Charles Darwin visited on a voyage as a young man, were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The Galapagos Marine Reserve was added in 2001. The islands are home to plants and animals found nowhere else on earth, including giant tortoises, from which the islands get their name. They lie about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.

IGTOA is a nonprofit association of travel companies, conservation organizations, and other groups that are dedicated to the lasting protection of the Galapagos Islands and the surrounding Marine Reserve. It has members worldwide in the U.S., Ecuador, Canada, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand.

The launch of the videos and the new funding effort by IGTOA coincide with several important anniversaries in 2009: the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth; the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species; the 50th anniversary of the Galapagos National Park; and the 50th anniversary of the Charles Darwin Foundation.

International Galapagos Tour Operators Association

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What the ?#%$#@!?!  Can it be?  The unofficial start of summer… Memorial Day Weekend?  Wasn’t it just spring?  Weren’t the O.A.R.S. California whitewater rafting guides just out on their training trips?  Weren’t the California hills just lush green with swaths of orange poppies?

If you need any last minute ideas for the Big Weekend…

Here in Northern California, the three major Mother Lode mountain passes are all open for the season:

• Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park’s high country (that’s where you’ll find me)
• Sonora Pass, up Hwy 108 and through the Dardenelles, past Kennedy Meadows
• Ebbetts Pass, up Hwy 4, past Calaveras Big Trees State Park and the North Fork Stanislaus River.  This might be the final weekend to raft The Stan on a commercial trip this season!

We’ve got trips lined up for the Merced River, just outside Yosemite Valley.  If you’re thinking about rafting this river this year… now is the ideal time to combine a Merced River trip with a visit into Yosemite Valley – the waterfalls are cranking!

Word from Idaho is they’re experiencing big time snowmelt, with river levels raising to 71,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) on the Main Salmon River and over 7 feet on the Middle Fork Salmon River gage.  This is good news for upcoming trips, as the highest flows will be over before trips begin: the perfect scenario.  The wildly varied weather in Idaho is likely to mellow out now as June approaches leading the warm and then hot summer weather.  The Main and Lower Salmon River canyons will be beautiful with freshly washed sand beaches as the water subsides.

Well, here’s hoping you have a wonderful and l-o-n-g weekend away from the desk and phones, computers and office gossip.  Wherever you find yourself, be safe, drive with caution, be kind to other drivers, breathe deep and appreciate our planet’s natural beauty.

See you on the river!
 

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Spirit of the Stanislaus Event In Angels Camp  ~  Sunday, June 7th  ~  Activities Begin 2:30 p.m. 

To mark the 30th anniversary of the filling of the Stanislaus River Canyon, which flooded a unique limestone river canyon that used to attract over 70,000 whitewater rafters, hikers and other visitors every summer, the “Spirit of the Stanislaus” event  is planned for Angels Camp, California, on Sunday, June 7. 

The event will be held at Utica Park between 2:30 and 6:00 p.m., with live music, food and beverage vendors, speakers and a raffle to benefit Friends of the River (FOR), one of the event’s official sponsors. An evening showing of historic and contemporary river films, including the recent IMAX film “Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk,” will conclude the day’s festivities, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The grassroots effort to preserve the Stanislaus River spanned the 1970s, and included ballot initiatives, lawsuits and court hearings, public information campaigns and congressional legislation, all of which contributed to the founding of Friends of the River in 1973. The movement was brought about by the construction of New Melones Dam, whose reservoir waters inundated the Stanislaus River canyon despite strong local opposition.

By 1979, tens of thousands of volunteers had been drawn into the struggle to save the Stanislaus. The fight culminated when Friends of the River co-founder Mark Dubois chained himself in the canyon with the promise to drown if the filling continued, in late May 1979. His action drew national media attention, and led to a temporary stay in the reservoir’s rising waters. Dubois and FOR advocated a compromise fill level that would have permitted the continuance of the river run and the preservation of the canyon while still allowing the reservoir to serve its other purposes.

“It was the culmination of what at the time was the largest river campaign in the country,” said Mark Dubois recently, “and helped change water policy decision-making in the nation.” A new documentary film on the controversy is in development.

The reservoir was filled to its limit in 1983, ending the commercial and private rafting industry for Angles Camp and other Calaveras and Tuolumne county companies.

Dubois and several fellow FOR organizers plan to be at the afternoon picnic in Angels Camp, to share their recollections of the time. Don Briggs, a river guide and filmmaker who was involved in the grassroots efforts, will also be in attendance, to screen his 1979 movie “Parrott’s Ferry is the Limit.”

Other veterans of river running era on the Stanislaus are invited to attend, as well as younger recreation enthusiasts who want to learn more about the region’s once-thriving rafting tradition.

Music from local groups will headline the afternoon’s entertainment, and beer, wine and food from local vendors will be available. Other sponsors of the event will have informational booths at the park. Raffle tickets will be sold throughout the week, culminating in the 6 pm raffle awards.

Event Schedule:

• 2:30-6:30 pm: Picnic in the Park: Utica Park, South Main Street
• Live Music •  Old Friends •  New Friends •  Booths •  Beer & Wine • Stage
• Raffle of donated gear, trips and other items to benefit FOR
• 7:00-9:00 pm: Stanislaus River movies and discussion

Movies at the Elliott Smart Performing Arts Center at Bret Harte High will include: “Lady of the Mother Lode”, “Parrott’s Ferry is the Limit” and “Grand Canyon Adventure”.  Admission will be $5 and children under 12 may enter for free.

Sponsors and Supporters:
• Friends of the River • Outdoor Adventure River Specialists (O.A.R.S., Inc.) •
All Outdoors • Zephyr Whitewater • Sierra Nevada Adventure Center (SNAC) • Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC) • Foothill Conservancy • MacGillivray Freeman Films

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How many whitewater rafting companies can claim a motorcycling-riding, world-traveling, gourmet-cooking, derby demolition chica?  O.A.R.S. proudly sponsored Tyra McCart-Swanson in the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee Demolition Derby this past Sunday.

Okay… so Twisted Tyra didn’t win this year.  Who cares?!  She was out there representing O.A.R.S. and our good friends of Twisted Oak Winery.

Tyra is currently our Wyoming and Utah Adventure Consultant.  She helps people plan adventurous vacations to such places as the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon and Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park.  She was previously responsible for organizing California rafting trips.

Tyra’s taking the philosophical approach to this year’s performance, stating yesterday morning, “At least I have a car for next year!  I will need a new carburetor, however.  I realized my chances may have been doomed when my pit crew had to push me up into the arena because the car died every time I got it into gear.”

She continued, “People told me at least I got one good hit.  What they didn’t realize was that my car coasted into another car.  HA!”

Hit? Coast?  Doesn’t matter, we all still love her here at HQ.

Unca John, our mailroom supervisor, offers his take…

Top Ten Positive Spins on Tyra’s Derby Experience

10. Announcer did get “OARS” this year
9.  Should be able to get the cleaning deposit back
8.  Didn’t break a nail (or a sweat)
7.  Had, hands down, the best crew shirts
6.  Still has a full tank of gas
5.  The OARS logo is absolutely pristine
4.  Gets 365 days to master an automatic
3.  Al Gore does want people to drive less
2.  Gets to tell Cody “I told you so!”
1.  Doesn’t have to look for a new car for next year

Go get ‘em next year Tyra!

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Might I suggest a whitewater rafting trip on the Stanislaus River followed by a trip to the 81st annual Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee in Angels Camp.  Events are held literally around the corner from our world headquarters – honk as you pass by.

A trip on ‘The Stan’  means steep, stellar, technical Class IV whitewater, groves of Giant Sequoia trees, bountiful blooming dogwood trees and Monday morning bragging rights (the Stanislaus has some of the most technical Class IV whitewater rafting in the state). Don’t think too long or hard before booking – this river is near the end of its run for the 2009 season.  (It might be do-able for one or two more weeks  before the flows are too low for commercial boating and you’ll have to wait until next spring – you don’t want that, do you?)

The meeting time/place for an O.A.R.S. Stanislaus River rafting trip is 10:00 AM at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, and the take-out is typically between 3:30-4:00 pm.  So if you raft on Sunday, you might miss the International Frog Jump Grand Finals (they begin at 2:30pm Sunday.)  But, you could catch our favorite staff member, Tyra, at the Calaveras County Demolition Derby.

Sometime Sunday night (approximately 7 pm?), Tyra, our motorcycle-riding Utah/Wyoming Adventure Consultant and resident World Traveler, Tango Queen, Bartender Extraordinaire and Kentucky Derby Enthusiast, will be challenging for the title of the Calaveras County Demolition Derby Champ.  She’s come in third and second in years past … we all know this is her year!!  (Right Tyra?!)

There are some wonderful places to stay in Calaveras County and grab a bite to eat… oh, and please do get me started on the whole WINE TASTING biz around here… (Twisted Oak, Stevenot, Hatcher, Ironstone, etc.)

I’ll be the short, O.A.R.S. t-shirt clad, bespectacled chica wandering around with several cameras slung around my neck.  Be sure to say hi!

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Mindy Gleason, who has worked with and has been whitewater rafting with O.A.R.S. for nearly two decades, recently returned from the Upper Navua River in Fiji as the first person to navigate each river included in the O.A.R.S.’ Seven Whitewater Wonders of the World.

These crème de la crème whitewater rafting trips include:

• Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
• Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho
• Chilko-Chilcotin-Fraser Rivers in British Columbia
• Futaleufu River in Chile
• Klinaklini River in Coastal British Columbia
• Tuolumne River near Yosemite National Park in California
• Upper Navua River in Fiji

National Geographic Adventure magazine twice named O.A.R.S. as the Best River and Sea Outfitter on Earth and recently National Geographic Traveler recognized the whitewater rafting and adventure travel company’s Ultimate Fiji Explorer luxury adventure as one of their 2009 Tours of a Lifetime. As testament to the company’s outstanding customer service and expertise, Condé Nast Traveler magazine named Reservations Manager, Mindy Gleason, their Top Travel Specialist for River Rafting in 2007 and 2008.  It’s been a good year for Mindy, eh?

The Seven Whitewater Wonders was introduced as part of O.A.R.S.’ 35th anniversary celebration.  Many whitewater rafting enthusiasts call O.A.R.S. in search of trips on the world’s finest rivers.  The office staff put their collective experiences together – the office staff alone has done close to 1,000 river trips – and realized these seven rivers represent some of the most unique waterways in the world. Five years later, there are several other O.A.R.S. travelers who are about to complete all seven itineraries and join Mindy in the Seven Whitewater Wonders Club.

In an interview from the O.A.R.S. HQ, Mindy said, “I realize I am extremely fortunate to be the first person to participate in such a unique travel opportunity. I certainly will never forget sleeping in tree houses along the Futaleufu River in Chile or witnessing the nearly 75 waterfalls cascading from the Upper Navua River’s canyon walls on my recent trip in Fiji. I find it helpful to have first-hand experience on so many different rivers when I talk with people who call our office. I’m frequently asked to reveal my favorite river, although I can’t truthfully do that. I do, however, have favorite memories from each. I particularly enjoyed the remoteness of the Kliniklini River in British Columbia.  I love to fly and we utilized helicopters and bush planes to access the river, which was thrilling. I often suggest to our travelers to experience more than one river, as each one offers something unique and unforgettable. No matter the economy, it’s always a good time to invest in lifetime memories.” 

Congratulations Mindy – for becoming the first person to navigate all 7 rivers of O.A.R.S.’ Seven Wonders and for being recognized as a Top Travel Specialist by Condé Nast Traveler magazine!
 

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Every year, the editorial team at National Geographic Traveler magazine combs the world to find the most authentic, most innovative, most immersive, best-guided, and most sustainable tours.  This year, they wanted to make sure that the trips they picked were also a great value, given the economic climate. 

O.A.R.S.’ Highlands to Islands: The Ultimate Fiji Explorer was selected as one of National Geographic Traveler magazine’s 2009 Tours of a Lifetime.

According to Nat Geo Traveler senior editor Norie Quintos, “What we found is that there is no better time to go on a guided tour than now as the traditional savings offered by an outfitter being able to negotiate better rates on a trip’s components is magnified by cheaper airfares, a strengthened dollar, and more discounts, freebies, and extras."

This Fiji vacation features Class II-III whitewater rafting on the Upper Navua River, as well as inflatable kayaking on the Class II ‘luva River with a visit to a riverside village where friendly locals welcome visitors.  Also included:  sea kayaking on Beqa Lagoon and zip lining through a forest canopy.  And, of course, snorkeling and swimming in turquoise water and relaxing on white-sand beaches.

The May/June issue hit newsstands, Tuesday May 5th. 

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What would Luke Skywalker do?  Get out on a river and celebrate, of course!  (I’m stuck behind the computer all day-fortunately I’ve got my lightsaber app for my iPhone.)  Recent heavy rains throughout the state have -thankfully- added to our reservoirs and pumped up the volume in nearby rivers.  Big flows in Northern California = big fun for California whitewater rafting:

These flows were taken from Dream Flows website at 7:00 AM:

South Fork American River – 4048 cfs
Usual summer flows are typically less than 2000 cfs – so it’s a great time to experience the South Fork at super fun, big flows.

North Fork American River – 5030 cfs

North Fork Stanislaus River – 2263 cfs (HUGE!)

Tuolumne River near Yosemite National Park – 4525 cfs

Merced River – 3280 cfs
 

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Rafting the North Fork of the Stanislaus is a constant temptation in April and May (and sometimes well into June depending on the Sierra snow pack) – this STELLAR Class IV Sierra river is literally just up the road from the O.A.R.S. HQ. After years of river rafting, after experiencing dozens of California rivers and hundreds of days on various rivers, I finally found my way onto “The Stan.” I joined an O.A.R.S. “fam” trip with local and regional VIPs and businesses including folks from:

• U.S. Forest Service
• Bear Valley Mountain Resort
• Dorrington Inn
• Ebbetts Pass National Scenic Byway
• Calaveras County Water District
• Arnold Rim Trail
• Calaveras County Visitors Bureau
• Northern California Power Authority (NCPA)
• Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch/Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Tour
• Quantum Leap Coaching
• Calaveras Council of Governments
• Greater Arnold Business Association
• All Outdoors  (the other outfitter permitted to run The Stan)  (If I’ve forgotten anyone – please let me know!)

I can wax eloquently until I’ve exhausted myself here, but I honestly don’t think I can express to you the true beauty of this river and it’s steep, tight, scenic canyon – it’s one to experience for yourself. The rapids are thrilling and come at you fast and furious.  No doubt you are “in the moment” throughout the day – this river demands attention.  The day brings crystal clear emerald green water; a deep alpine forest of towering pine and fir trees, as well as some of the largest Giant Sequoia trees in the world; staircase drops, chutes, tight squeezes between boulders and an occasional float through calm water; and interesting rafting companions one may normally never have a chance to meet or interact with. 

Note to self: raft this beautiful river *at least* once a year.

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