First, I have to say our guides, Bucky and Mike, were great. They made sure all the guests had a good, safe time on the water.
That being said, the business end of things at Outdoor Adventure Center is a second thought at best. I made my reservation for a 1/2 day river kayaking basics course for my daughter and me for Sunday, 9/4 on 8/11. On Friday, 9/2 - two days before our day on the river, I got a call from OAC to tell me they had to cancel my class because they did not have enough guests signed up. We rescheduled to the following Saturday, 9/10 with the caveat that that class may end up being cancelled because it was late in the year and there was only one other person signed up at the time. Then I get a call the next morning from one of the river guides asking if I was on my way and that they were waiting the class on us. I live 2 hours' drive from Index and the class would've been almost over by the time I could've driven out. He assured me that they would have a class for me and my daughter on 9/10.
Saturday, 9/10, my daughter and I show up on time, the class goes off as planned, and we have a great time on the water. But, business loomed again. We returned to the OAC facility where they were running a slide show of the photos they took of the class on the river. I saw several great shots of my daughter and bought a jump drive of all photos for $35 (the only option available.) I asked the girl who burned the jump drive if I can run the photos on her laptop to make sure everything was okay, she said she was going to take the jump drive into the back office computer and test it there for me. A few minutes later, with a $35 jump drive with 84 photos in hand, we drove off, forgetting about the frustrating scheduling snafu. That evening, I load the jump drive into my computer only to find that 29 of the 84 photo files were corrupted, and worse yet, the series of good photos of my daughter were among the bad files. I called OAC on Monday 9/12 and left a message, then emailed them with details of which files I needed replaced and asked whether they could email them to me. I received a prompt reply from Kathy saying they would email me the files. No emails by Thursday, 9/15 so I emailed a reminder to Kathy and confirmed my email address again. 9/17, still nothing - and I sent another email to OAC. I've heard nothing back form them since, not even a note to let me know they no longer have the files - nothing.
The time on the water was fun, OAC provided good gear to use, and the river guides make sure you have fun. However, be prepared to be frustrated should anything go awry and don't buy the photos unless you personally check the drive before you leave. I now have a $35 collection of 50 photos of people I don't know who look like they were having a fun time on the river.
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