White Water Rafting

Content

Submitted by Dr Waisanen on Mon, 08/24/2015 - 21:41
Identifier: 20080816-White Water
Purpose of outing: White Water Rafting
Advancements: None
Mode of travel: Car
Planning horizon: 3 months
Capacity: 20
Fees: ??
Distance: 200 mi, 3 hr 45 min
Location: Ohiopyle State Park, Ohiopyle, PA
Contact: Troop 1501
Dates: 2008-08-16 - 2008-06-17
Description: Advanced planning for this event was generally good with rafting and campground reservations being made over three months in advance. I strongly recommend a similar 3 month advanced reservation on future rafting trips, as the rafting companies are limited in the number of clients they can accept on any given weekend day. However, despite the early reservations, I encountered problems with last minute cancellations from scouts and parents. This is important because once the final payment is forwarded to the rafting company; the troop is liable to pay for the number of rafters booked at that time. Unfortunately, as of the final payment date, I did not have all scout/parent payments in-hand and some of those individuals ended up canceling causing a gap in the amount collected vs the amount owed the rafting company. LESSON LEARNED: Any scouts/parents who are not paid up by the final payment date, are automatically dropped from the roster. Fortunately, to additional family members of a scout already attending this event filled two of our open slots resulting from the cancellations.
Assessment: Execution also went very well with everyone showing up on time Sat morning. The rafting company was well run (aside from the funky smelling lift vests) and the Ohiopyle State Park camping ground was well laid out, clean and had adequate facilities. The only issue was water accessibility (approx ¼ mile walk) compounded by the troop not bringing water bladders. The Sat evening program for the scouts was deliberately left unstructured and I believe most of the boys enjoyed the free time.