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  Rafting the Rogue River  For the Hundredth and First Time Ryan, A.K.A. "Hunter," and son, Ty In 14 seasons of guiding with Orange Torpedo Trips, I have had the opportunity to paddle rivers of incredible beauty, with challenging and exhilarating rapids.  From my home river, the North Umpqua, to the Main Salmon, the Klamath, the various sections of the Rogue and as far away as Alaska, Hawaii, and Costa Rica, I have repeatedly found myself awed beyond words. This past summer, I was fortunate to have a “first river experience” in taking my children, my 6-year-old son, ... Keep reading ›

During some recent tunneling through footage, we came across this video time-lapse of N.G. (Erik Weiseth, OTT GM) and Mike Slagle (A.K.A. The Great One), who, after having been called in to help, are here seen setting up a Z-Drag and ultimately retrieving one-unlucky-someones' boat (not ours!) from the Picket Fence--the crux move in Blossom Bar on the Lower Rogue River. From the time they arrived at the rapid, it took our team just over an hour and fifteen minutes to free the raft. Once free the raft ended up flowing into the sieve on river-left, from where the OTT rescue team re-in... Keep reading ›

Guides' First Rivers Series River guides are notorious storytellers. And whether they be true or tall, the stories we tell about the river are a part and reflection of our own story. They are a part of who we are and who we will be (deep water, brother...). So, in this spirit of storytelling and in homage to rivers everywhere, we've asked our guides to recall a notable "first" paddling experience, broadly defined, and to tell the story of that experience.  For this, our first installment, OTT guide Priscilla Macy (A.K.A., Fukari) writes about first river/paddling experiences through a glob... Keep reading ›

Like the tributaries that feed into the rivers we run, the history of Orange Torpedo Trips (OTT) is one of multiple beginnings. Key among those tributaries, the threads of our history, is the boat that started it all: the Sevylor Tahiti or the Orange Torpedo (as OTT founder, Jerry Bentley, would fatefully call them). The Original Orange Torpedo | Sevylor K-79 SB Connie Klimenko, who founded Sevylor U.S.A., recently sent us an article (or as he describes it, "a modern day fairy tale") that he wrote in 1994, titled, "A Little Boat Finally Gets Respect." In his story, Connie r... Keep reading ›

Guides' First Rivers Special International Edition River guides are notorious storytellers. And whether they be true or tall, the stories we tell about the river are a part and reflection of our own story. They are a part of who we are and who we will be. So, in this spirit of storytelling and in homage to rivers everywhere, we've asked our guides to recall the first river they paddled and to tell the story of that experience. For this, our first installment, 43-year veteran OTT guide Mike Slagle (A.K.A., The Great One) recounts his experience traveling to Nepal and there running his firs... Keep reading ›

Ben Digging Deep, Chetco River, Southwest Oregon Today is Ben's Birthday. Happy birthday, Ben! He is, therefore, a fitting guide to feature in this week's installment of our ongoing "Where's Your Guide" series. This time, we thought we'd break things down by prompt. First: Who's Ben? Ben Making Breakfast at the Always Excellent South Fork Salmon Confluence Camp Ben is a--temporarily elsewhere, and Southern--Oregonian, a River Guide (R.G.), a former Division One pitcher and a current Duke Medical student. Also, he's also a top-notch individual. (For ... Keep reading ›

Make the Most of Your Salmon "River of No Return" Rafting Trip Although the 2014 season is still a Winter and some Spring away, we're already getting a good number of bookings for our five-to-six-day Main Salmon "River of No Return" trips. So, in the interest helping our guests to make the most of their vacation, we've put together this list of the 5 best things to do on either end of a Main Salmon River trip. 1. Hang out in-and-around Salmon, ID Not much has changed since this photo was taken. Salmon, ID is the meeting and departure point for our Main Salmo... Keep reading ›

    Owyhee River - Oregon There’s this river... Owyhee River BLM Signage  ...Not many have run it, and the odds are you've never heard of it. Because of its remoteness. Though it courses over 346 miles, through Northern Nevada, Southwest Idaho and Southeast Oregon, it’s among the more remote commercially runnable rivers in the western U.S. (The nearest settlement to the put in, a place called Rome, which seems an ironic name for a place on the ghost end of ghost town.) ... Keep reading ›

If you’ve ever been rafting, kayaking, or really any-thing on the river, then you’re—hopefully—familiar with PFDs, that is, Personal Flotation Devices, A.K.A., lifejackets, life preservers, Mae Wests, life vests, life savers, cork jackets, buoyancy aids or flotation suits. (For those of you who may not be familiar with PFDs, they’re basically kind-of-puffy, vest-ish things filled with enough floaty stuff to help keep their wearers afloat when they wear them.) Once you’ve spent enough time on, around, and especially in the river, you know not to take PFDs for granted. Well, you know n... Keep reading ›

Looking for your river guide? If you’ve been following along, you’ll have noticed that the previous (and only) two installments of this--the OTT Where’s Your Guide--series have followed the more faraway members of our family. So we thought we’d bring it home for a change. This week we’re stalking the the only member of the OTT First Estate (or if you’re in need of a more contemporary reference, the OTT 1%): Orange Torpedo Trips’ General Manager, Erik Weiseth (affectionately, N.G.). If you’ve gone on or booked an OTT trip in the past 10+ years, chances are that yo... Keep reading ›