My family and I went rafting in the early part of March. Prior to booking the tour, and had called and spoke to someone on the phone about the tour and was pretty confident that we would get to experience at least a few moments of excitement. When we arrived, I noticed that the river seemed to have fairly little water in it. At the point, the girl behind the desk told me the river was on "natural flow" until sometime in April, when the dam upstream began regularly discharging water. Further research on my end indicated that an average river flow for the Pigeon river is around 1000-1200 CFM (cubic feet per minute). The day we took our tour it was about 220 CFM.
What this meant was that in at least a dozen instances, we got stuck on rocks and our guide had to get out of the boat and dislodge us. At times we were rafting in no more than 6-8 inches of water!
Needless to say, when the water level is that low any real "rapids" disappear. Those looking for actual whitewater rafting should make sure you go at a time when they GUARANTEE water (via dam discharges). Call and verify that they will GUARANTEE water on the day and time of your tour.
I would have actually given less than 3 stars, however our guide was FANTASTIC and the other staff was very nice, friendly, and accommodating. Had the river actually had water in it, I could see this having been a 4 or 5 star review.
I should also note that while I didn't vociferously complain to the woman at the front desk, I made my displeasure at the lower water level known. At no time was I offered a discount for a future visit, nor any other compensation. Additionally, she made it sound like "we don't guarantee water" was well advertised, when in fact the man on the phone had GUARANTEED we would end up soaked and that the experience would be pretty thrilling.
Again, the staff was otherwise great, and I'm sure with better water conditions the rafting would have been better, but on this particular day I was left unimpressed and disappointed.