[VIDEO] Day in the Life of a River Guide

There is a lot more to a raft guide’s job than taking folks down the river every day. Come along as we follow seasoned raft guide Mathilda on a trip down the South Fork of the American River.

Getting Ready

Good morning! My name is Mathilda. I’ve been working with All-Outdoors for three years now. Today, we’re going to take you on the South Fork of the American River. We’ll go down the Lower section (the Gorge) which has fun splashy waves and big Class 3 rapids.

Our five boats are at the river and the guides are getting them ready before we take off. We are going to meet our guests, get everybody down here, load the boats, and start rafting. 

With our life jackets and helmets on, we are heading down to the river to raft, excited and hyped! Here we go!

Raft and Refuel

After rafting through some fun Class 1 and 2 rapids, we’ve made it halfway through our day into our lunch spot at Cronan Ranch. We’re going to make lunch for our guests at the tables up above the river. We do a picnic lunch with make-your-own sandwiches, starting with fruit and chips, and ending with cookies. We do our best to leave no trace at our lunch spot, picking up all the little pieces of trash, trying to leave it better than we found it. Next up is the Class 3 section on the Gorge!

The rafting portion of the day ends at Folsom Lake, at our take-out spot at Salmon Falls. We get our boats on the truck, our guests on the bus, and head back to the All-Outdoors River Center. Once there, we put all the boats and life jackets away, get the dishes done, and say goodbye to our guests. It was another great day on the South Fork!

Let’s do it again tomorrow!

My favorite part today was taking down a group of young girls who were a little bit timid at first but really opened up toward the end.They had a good time laughing and hanging out in the bigger rapids. Overall, that’s one of the favorite parts of my job: hanging out with new people, seeing them experience a new activity. And being outdoors myself, really enjoying the river!

All-Outdoors is a super fun company to work for for a lot of reasons. I love the guests we take down the river, the people that I work with and what I get to do every day. I’m excited to wake up and do it again tomorrow!

Reily Schultz

Reily is a Gold Country native. She graduated from Willamette University with a degree in Studio Art and a minor in Gender Studies and Psychology. She joined the All-Outdoors family in the spring of 2022, working as a California Rafting Consultant and a member of the marketing team. Her favorite All-Outdoors itinerary is the multi-day Tuolumne rafting trip. Reily is an avid artist, outdoors-woman, and purr-fessional cat snuggler.