AO river guide Robyn spent eleven days on Alaska’s Kobuk River this spring as part of an expedition studying climate change along with fellow grad students and researchers . . . Here she is guiding one  of the boats in her AO hat: Bookmark This!

We want to congratulate All-Outdoors filmmaker Ben Zupo and local producer, Todd Stanley for winning an Emmy for the hit TV show, The Deadliest Catch! (They won the Emmy in September, so although it’s not “breaking news,” we are excited for them nonetheless). As many of you know, All-Outdoors recently launched eight new rafting videos that [...]

I’m creating a new catagory for our blog, and want to invite you to contribute to it.  The premise is simple: Where in the world is AO?  What fabulous, bizarre, or creative places have you and your AO gear traveled?  What adventures have you shared together?  It could be you and your AO visor climbing [...]

As you may remember, back in May I told you about the devastating volcano eruption in Futaleufu, Chile.  The disaster was particularly poignant to us because we run a river trip on the Rio Futaleufu every January so we really wanted to do something to help.  Over the course of the many years planning these trips and making them a [...]

Kayaking California’s Class V rivers would be the ultimate adrenaline rush for most people. For kayaker and All-Outdoors videographer, Ben Zupo, the Class V rapids in the Sierra Nevada are simply the perfect training ground for the “second most deadliest job in the world,” working as camera crew on the hit TV show, The Deadliest [...]

It’s a small miracle that I can sit here and type today.  I had thought that after the gauntlet was thrown down, the challenge risen to, the doubters forever silenced, I would be forced to creep off into a dark corner somewhere, down a bottle of Advil, and eat bon bons for a week and [...]

It takes all kinds: some of us are dyed-in-the-wool adventurers, undaunted by blazing sun, blood-sucking insects, raging waters and the blackest mud, others have mastered instead the class V art of crab forks, fine-art appreciation, and Wagner’s Ring Cycle.  Myself, I’m somewhere in between–give me a long day in the wilderness but toss that dehydrated beef [...]

With a voice as big as All-Outdoors, Beth makes her presence known.  Whether she’s rockin’ the dance floor, leading a river trip, or hanging out with friends, her good humor and love of life is impossible to miss.  On the more serious side, she is equally at home in a labcoat, studying the mysteries of [...]

As of a couple weeks ago, spring officially arrived–although the blooming poppies on the upper  South Fork of the American River, the green hills outside our River office, and frankly the sneezing and coughing from the clouds of petals, pollen and dust swirling with every breeze are as good a sign as anything. It’s already over [...]

Last week we launched some new California rafting videos, shot on our river trips last summer.  We just added another one, of Cherry Creek, a river one of our guests described as “transcendent and transformative.”  Whether you’re an arm-chair adventurer or the real deal, check out our new video, which gives you a virtually-guided tour [...]

The 2008 California whitewater rafting season will officially open for business next week, but until then, wet yer whistle and get a taste of what’s ahead in the virtual world of the internet.  Just surf on over real easy like to our website, where we have just posted VIDEOS of our trips on five California [...]

I figured that if it’s “breaking news” that Outside Magazine joined Facebook, then it is definitely newsworthy to all of our loyal readers that All-Outdoors has a Facebook page. It’s pretty cool that as a small, family-owned-and-operated rafting company, we’re one step ahead of a major outdoor sports magazine. We have been active on social [...]

So who went to Friends of the River’s California Rivers Festival this last weekend?  Anyone Anyone?  I’m looking for a report here…..  Alas, I was unable to go because I am currently too busy to do what I hear are called “fun things” on the weekend because of a little project of mine called a Master’s [...]

The California Rivers Festival is just around the corner–it’s coming up this weekend, on March 15th. If you’re going to be in the area stop by and check it out. This Friends of the River sponsored event will be lots of fun–you can check out the swap meet, sit in on lectures, learn about safe [...]

Scott Armstrong is doing a radio interview with local radio station KFOK 95.1 FM on March 8th at 9pm. Along with other guests he’ll be discussing topics like how recreational industries like whitewater rafting companies in California can “go green.” What “going green” actually means can be difficult to assess–for us, it means combining a [...]

Friends of the River’s annual California River Festival just got even better.  AO owner Scott Armstrong has been invited to present a slideshow and talk on his 2005 expedition to Ethiopia’s Blue Nile.  Scott helped lead the expedition’s international team from the source of the Nile to the Sudanese boarder.  There were nights in bat caves, dinners of power [...]

A massive oak tree fell down on the property across the street from the AO River Center in the early January storm. It was well over a hundred years old—might have been growing here in this valley during the Gold Rush. It shaded the old Lotus hotel before it bit the dust, shaded a tiny [...]

  The question on every rafter’s mind right now is how the recent storms will impact the 2008 California rafting season.  Our informants living in Tahoe tell us they are snowed in, skiing fresh powder, huddled by their heaters, and watching the snow pile up.  Is this great news or what?  Well, yes and no.  Frustrating though [...]

All-Outdoors’ 2008 whitewater rafting guide schools are on the books. Our first school will be a split session in the spring.  Guide school begins April 17-20 (Thurs-Sun) and continues the next week April 25-27 (Fri-Sun).  We split our spring whitewater school into two sessions to make it easier for people to fit it into school and work schedules.  Our [...]

Happy new year everyone!  Here at the AO River Center in Lotus we’re hunkered down in the midst of a great big storm and even though the office floor is a muddy leaf-strewn mess, a tree fell down on my dad’s pasture fence last night, and we all look sort of like drowned rodents in our rain gear,  wool [...]