Big California Cheese
June 18, 2008.I caught up with James Rodger a second ago. (He’s O.A.R.S. California/Oregon Operations Manager). We haven’t seen him around the office much lately, and I wanted to know where’s he’s been. Inquiring minds want to know. (I thought maybe he was hiding out because his rockstar girlfriend just left to guide river trips in Peru…)
He told me, “Hey, we’re busy! California whitewater rafting is up. I think people are staying closer to home maybe due to gas prices. We just had some stellar runs on the Tuolumne River this past week or so. It was flowing around 3000 cfs, which is just a great flow. We had great folks and great flows. It’s all good.”
For the record, I think it’s always ‘good’ for James. He’s definitely the go-to guy, the one you want to be on a river with. Easy going. Experienced. Upbeat. Well-traveled. Playful. Responsible.
He continued, “We’re running our last Merced River trip of the season this Friday. However, the Middle Fork (of the American) trips are just getting underway – that’s a great Class IV run. We’ll run trips on the Middle Fork, the South Fork and the “T” through September.”
And how about the remainder of O.A.R.S. guide schools?
“We just completed the final guide school of the year, and we hired a handful of new guides. You’ll have to check with Clavey (Wendt - Forks of the American Operations Manager) to see how our first South Fork Wine and Raft trip went. They’re out there right now sipping their day away.”
There you have it from the Big California Cheese… Good flows, good guides, good people. Yeah… it IS all good.
