Rafting in Idaho during COVID-19

COVID-19 has up-ended life for essentially everyone.  We are living through a time un-like any in our past and hopefully un-like any in our future.  As of this post in the middle of April 2020, rafting companies in Idaho are essentially not operating.  The stay at home order from Governor Little would make it very challenging if not impossible to legally operate and out of a sense of what is best for the greater good most outfitters would not operate anyway. 

With that said, we are getting cabin fever with the rest of you and we are incredibly excited for the time in the near future when we can begin to venture from our homes and head into the wild places that make Idaho such an incredible place. As rafting outfitters we are confident in the upcoming summer and our industries ability to operate and help take people on the vacations that we will all need.  

As we think about summer there are a couple important things to consider. First, things are evolving in what feels like increments of hours.  We don’t yet know what best practices for leaving your house are going to look like in June or July.  Second, within our industry there is an enormous breadth of experiences offered in a variety of places and each of those locations will need to alter their trips in unique ways to accommodate what those best practices are at that time.  So within Idaho industry wide groups and local outfitter groups are having these discussions and preparing best practices.  River outfitters are experts in risk management and we are creating plans to mitigate the risk of disease transmission to the greatest extent possible while still providing the incredible experiences people are looking for.  We recommend you talk with your outfitter about what they specifically are doing.  

Finally, if you have a trip booked and it either has to be postponed, cancelled or due to other situations in your life you cannot make the trip date, please delay your trip and don’t cancel it.  The community of river outfitters is a community of small family owned businesses in the rural parts of Idaho.  When you booked it, this was a trip you were excited to take, so still take it at a later date.  Support your outfitter and their small community, delay don’t cancel if you can’t make the trip you already have.  If you don’t have a trip on the books for summer 2020, going into the woods with a small group people sounds like a pretty good way to celebrate being able to leave your house!