Author: PeteG

Spring emerges...white water rafting is around the corner Every spring smells like rafting. The breeze turns warm, flowers and trees are growing again, the snow is melting, filling the rivers, and the warm days of summer are just around the corner. For a white water rafting guide, every spring is filled with expectation and hope. For the experienced guide, spring brings memories of past seasons,  reunions with fellow white water rafting guides, high water excitement, and expectations and goals for another year of guiding. New guides are filled with nervous anticipation of training or their first commercial trips, and the excitement of starting a new career. Every spring is different but still the same in many ways. After almost 30 years of springs working for a white water rafting company, what is it that draws me and others back to the river each year? Certainly can’t be the low pay, long hours and hard work. On the economic side, raft guides are one of the few jobs out there where you can find work in any type of economy. Rafting companies are always looking for guides that work hard, don’t complain, and take pride in their river skills. As you get more experience, you get more valuable and are able to earn more money as well as get more responsibility. Another benefit of being a guide is that the rafting industry has a wide range of companies with a huge diversity. There are small companies that focus on one river and custom trips, huge companies that have year-round opportunities, companies that focus on day trips, companies that focus on mult-day wilderness trips, and all kinds of companies in between. With a little exploring it’s usually possible to find a place that fits and you can call home or you can

We've been going through some changes here at Blue Sky. 2022 will mark our 25th season of rafting in Oregon! Boy, the time does fly. Part of our company ethos has always been to think outside the box for potential opportunities, not be afraid of change, and trust in our ability to adapt and adjust. This has served us well in the past as we explored and pioneered commercial rafting trips on a variety of rivers like the Breitenbush, Molalla, Wilson and Sandy Rivers. The last 2 seasons we have been tested with Covid guidelines and wildfires. And while it might've been easier to take a break and close up shop for a bit, we decided to soldier on and look for opportunities rather than dwell on limitations. For Covid we adjusted to smaller rafts, separate groups and lots of vehicle logistics among other adjustments. When faced with the closure of the Upper Clackamas after wildfires, we established trips on other rivers and sections and figured out efficient, enjoyable logistics on those trips. Although exhausting, ultimately we are super proud of our staff for all their hard work and flexibility and we are excited to incorporate all we've learned into an exciting 2022 season! Upper Clackamas Trips After the Riverside Fire in Sept. 2020, the highway to the Upper Clackamas has been closed. This has prevented access for any rafting trips on this great intermediate section of river. Although we currently don't have an exact opening date for the highway still, we are confident we'll have an opportunity to offer trips again on the Upper Clack. Since 1999 we've focused our energy on offering great trips on the Clackamas all summer long. It has been a long wait to get back up on the river but we are super excited

2009 was another busy year for everyone at Blue Sky Rafting. We started the year with plenty of rain and a good snowpack which led to another year of great water levels in the Clackamas. Pete punching one of the big waves in Toilet Bowl on the Clackamas River Neal dropping into Powerhouse on the Clackamas River at high water We had an interesting trip filming a video for Columbia Sportswear. We had two camera crews chasing us down the river in vehicles trying to stay ahead of us and set up for filming. With the high water, they were constantly radioing us to slow down and wait for them. Not always the easiest thing to do with the water pushing us at 20 mph. downstream! Eventually the water levels dropped to summer flows and the weather warmed up for many great days of rafting. We had a very interesting July 4th this year with a small forest fire along the river near the take-out. It didn't affect our rafting but it closed the highway while we were on the river so we couldn't get back to our base at the end of the day. There were only two ways to detour around the closure. The first option was a long drive over to the eastside of the Cascade Mountains and the second option involved a shorter drive on a gravel road over a short pass high above the river. We opted for the more adventurous second option with about 10-15 other cars joining our 4 vans, trailers and rafts for the dusty trip through the woods. We all made it successfully about 2 hours later. At the top of the Clackamas Canyon with the Blue Sky guides ( Mt. Hood is just visible by the nose of the boat