weinerdrizzle3000
Jul 2014
We did a Lower Animas trip on 7/6. Had a ton of fun. We booked the "Premium Boat," and let me tell you, when you see only one little 13 foot boat on top of the much larger tanker sized rafts, you know you did right. And even more kick-as's was the fact that on the bus to the put-in, which was full of families with loud kids, it ended up being just my girlfriend and me with our guide, James, in our boat. Great guide, all 3 of us talked non-stop for 3 hours. You'll walk away very envious of having a job like that, and learn a lot about rafting throughout the U.S.
This river is a good intro to paddle sports. Goes right through Durango, so you get to see parts of town from a different perspective. A raft is overkill; this river could easily be tubed or even canoed at the flow we ran it at. Only one class III rapid. James was great and took us on more interesting lines and did some surfing in the holes below the 2-3 rapids that allowed it. I've done a few Class IV trips around Colorado, and this one was almost as fun because of the great guide, the "private" boat and the fact that the water was tolerably cold! We luckily avoided the splash wars and water guns between the other boats, another plus! Just a nice relaxing float trip. Perfect way to close out our trip to SWCO.
All the guides we talked to were very friendly, the boat was nice and new, the gear was in good order, the booking process was painless and the up-selling (booties, wetsuits, pictures) wasn't too overbearing. We'll be heading up to the Upper Salt this spring and using M2W again. Solid outfit.