We almost understand if you haven't yet booked your 2009 rafting trip with us here at ACE. We say "almost" because, well, hey, rafting season has already begun (see below)! Need another good reason? Well, we're about to give away some FREE RAFTING trips because this year also happens to be our 30th birthday.
Yes, these many moons ago, our owners Ernie Kincaid and Jerry Cook turned a weekend hobby of whitewater rafting and kayaking Southern West Virginia into a wonderland of endless outdoor activity. We'll be celebrating with a big party at the Adventure Resort on the weekend of May 16-17. We'll fill you in as we settle on details.
Now, as far as the FREE RAFTING goes, you'll want to keep an eye on our blog , yes, ACE has a blog (more on that below, too) , we'll be announcing more details and deadlines for a contest to give away the goodies. We'll say this, though: It's going to be huge. You won't want to miss this contest!
For now, we hope these season-opening specials will be tantalizing enough:
If George I., of Clearwater, Fla., and friends are superstitious, they didn't let it get in the way of kicking off the 2009 whitewater rafting season. George and his friends took the first trip of the year , they put in on Friday the 13th in March. Ooh, scary!
"It really just happened by chance," George said. "We were just getting anxious to go rafting, and that was the first week that was good for all of us."
Despite living in Florida (he's in graduate school in biomedical sciences), George said he's more of a cold-outdoors person, and the thought of a chill in the air and whitewater rafting really drew him in. He added that he booked the boatload of 8 paddlers with us because he'd had such a great experience with ACE on previous trips.
"I've never rafted with such professionals," he said. "They give you the thrill you're looking for."
Thanks for coming, George! For more on the "Ice Breaker" trip, check out the video in this blog post.
We boat and, yeah, we blog
You might not expect it from folks that spend their days on the river and most summer nights in tents, but the staff here at ACE is on the cutting edge of high-tech. Why would raft guides, mountain bikers and climbers have all this interest in the Internet? Well, because we're trying to listen to YOU.
Last month, ACE Adventure Resort launched its own blog. The staff known for talking ears off is now banging out stories on the computer keyboard. The idea behind the blog is to share with our friends all the great people and stories behind the scenes at ACE, but more importantly, to give us one more forum for interacting with our guests.
As it's always been, we need to hear from you guys to keep perfecting our trips and facilities, and we hope the blog will give you something to talk about. So, go check it out at www.aceraft.com/ACE-blog.html.
More FREE stuff for you
Let us sweeten the free rafting trip deal with a free hot tub (and, oh, the hot tub comes with a cabin). All you need to do to get yourself a free cabin rental is apply a little elbow grease on the trails here at ACE Adventure Resort. Trail Maintenance Days are coming the weekends of April 18/19 and 25/26.
We've got 30-plus miles of mountain biking and hiking trails that need a little love before summer gets rolling, and we're happy to give a little love back to the ACE friends that have time and muscle to spare. To sign up, contact an adventure consultant at 800-787-3982 or ace@aceraft.com.
Talk Like A Raft Guide
This is the part of the newsletter where we give you new jargon with which you can impress your fellow river mates , and your guide. Try using this one in a sentence:
highside! (hiy-siyd!) verb/command. The exclamation point on this term is because the command is given (and action is needed) in a hurry. When a raft broadsides an obstacle like a rock or another boat on the downstream side, the river will continue to push on the boat from the upstream side. The weight of passengers or gear on that upstream side combined with the river's current will begin to tip the raft, with the boat side against the obstacle rising into the air. If people don't move quickly, from the low (wet) side to the high (dry side) a raft can flip off or wrap around the obstacle. So when you hear this term, it's time to move:
Used in a confusing sentence: "We were crashing into a rock because we weren't paddling, and I thought the guide said, 'High five!', but then he shouted some more, and I thought, 'What's the big deal that we're in a Hyside raft?' It wasn't until I was swimming for shore that I understood he meant, 'Highside!'"
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