Claire piloted our raft, along with a family of feisty French tourists, who irritated everyone else by spraying them with those rental spray guns, (until one poor woman and her husband actually cut their trip short, but you know how the French can be..., and after I asked them to negotiate a detente with the other rafters (since my wife and I don't rent spray guns to shoot at strangers), everything was totally cool. Claire was great! All of the guides were great. This dude named Ruby shared a joke on the bus ride back to the shop: "What's the difference between a river guide and a park bench? A park bench can support two people." Har-dee-har-har!!! I had never done white-water before, and expected a lot more than we had, so next time we'll go for something a little more exciting. it was totally fun, though. The water was a little low, but if you followed the EPA Superfund site news from the summer before, you'll understand that things could be (and have been) a lot worse. What I learned is that, even if it not hot, rent a he scuba suit bottoms, at least. I got feeling cold, especially with all the water being sprayed around. We also we up to Silverton, about an hour drive north, and we met up with Dave and a charming family from the D/FW area. Definitely try this 4X4 trip up to Stony Pass! Trust me! David is about my age, and he was very nice and outgoing, and everyone learned quite a bit from this outgoing, thoughtful guy. Mild-to-Wild seemed to have a lot of very very nice employees. Their equipment was all very good and clean, too. David took us over a very pitted road, which I believe we could have avoided, on the way to the base of the unpaved two-track up to Stony Pass (elev 14-plus thousand feet). I wish we could have taken the direct route because it only looked at some old mines and was exceedingly bumpy, whereas believe you/me we went through a hundred thousand bumps on the way out of Silverton and up into the mountains. I guess I am saying I would have rather spent more time, in retrospect, going up into Stony Pass than taking the scenic route. David asked about what to visit and the kids of the D/FW family wanted to see old mines, so you know? That's what we got. Let me say, though, once we started up, WOW! David handled that huge four-by-four deftly and we could look straight down over the edge of the unpaved mountain "road" and it must have been several hundred feet of sheer drop-off. Once at the top, well, it's almost beyond description. David pointed out a waterfall and we all climbed over and took photos of one another. After an hour or so, we all felt like we knew one another. David was critical to engendering that familiar feeling and that calm attitude. Here's what we learned: we were crazy foolish not to bring at least a fleece with us on that rainy afternoon. It was relatively warm, but Silverton started to feel a little cool, and, of course, a couple thousand feet higher didn't get any warmer. David lent us a couple raincoats which helped (except in photos where we look like refugees in the coats). Also we should have stayed overnight in Silverton, a charming place, so we could explore more. BTW: with the half-day white-water, we got two passes to the mineral springs north of Durango and went there on the morning we went to Silverton (drove right by), and it was really nice. Advice: bring a towel.