Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Opening Day Update

The big question of the day?

Is still...

"When are you opening for the season?"

The problem we've had this year is a late snow melt. We've been stuck in cool winterish weather, not allowing for upper elevation runoff. This means that there is still too much water entering the Truckee River below the Tahoe City dam, which is where we are. There is a Federally mandated amount of water which needs to be exactly 500 cubic feet per second (cfs) past the Floriston Station, about 30 miles away from us. When the smaller creeks and streams subside and the flow at Floriston falls below the legal 500cfs point, the Federal Watermaster in Reno will release more water from the Tahoe City dam to meet the 500cfs demand.

We'll keep waiting for a phone call from the Watermaster's office... ready to open our doors, in an instant, so that we may all enjoy rafting and playing on the Truckee River!

So when do we think that day is??? We're calculating sometime between July 7th to the 14th. We just don't know exactly.

Sorry for the bad news

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Employee Orientation

Today was Employee Orientation Day here at Truckee River Rafting with Mountain Air Sports!

We had a GREAT turnout with the sun shinning on our launch site in Tahoe City. Almost 40 eager, job seekers sat ready to listen to our once a year kick-off speech. We started with everyone stating their name and where they were from.

After about an hour we concluded with a "respect the river" and "give thanks to the river" segment. We would not be here if it wasn't for our beautiful Truckee River flowing from the gates of Lake Tahoe.

Now we wait for the phone call from the watermasters office in Reno, telling us the day the gates will open!

Happy summer to everyone!!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tahoe Dining - River Grill, Tahoe City

The Mountain Air Sports team gets asked about more than Truckee River rafting questions.

Over the years, we often become unofficial tour guides for the Tahoe area.

For the "where to eat in Tahoe City?" question we always recommend dining at the River Grill.

The River Grill in Tahoe City offers riverfront dining (year round) and features California cuisine.

River Grill is used for events, weddings and has an elegant main room perfect for special gatherings.

Dining Al fresco in Tahoe is the way to do it! Happy dining!

The River Grill is open 7 days a week.

Happy Hour runs from 5:00 to 6:30 and all night every Sunday and Monday.

Dinner is served nightly from 
5:30 to 9:30.

For dinner reservations, call
 (530) 581-2644 www.rivergrilletahoe.com

Mountain Air Sports Improvements 2010

Each year our "little family raft business" makes improvements to better serve you. Truckee River Rafting should be enjoyed, as the river is amazing. We like to do our small part to make a difference.

This year, we built new steps from the waters edge to the walkway and shuttle bus at River Ranch Pond.

We have redesigned our launch site/life jacket and paddle area for better people flow.

New rafts have been added to replace some of the older ones.

We have also purchased a new shuttle van which replaced an older 15 passenger van.

One of our biggest improvements is our new web page, by Web Marketing Therapy which is being expanded as I write this blog post!

All very, very exciting!!

I'll have more updates in the next couple days.

Tahoe Employment for 2010 Summer Season

Attention Tahoe/Truckee job seekers:

We will be having an orientation and job fair June 13, 2010 at our raft launch site in Tahoe City.
Past employees and new applicants can come and meet us and ask questions. Rich, Jen, Judy and myself (Ryan aka Riverman) will be here to welcome back all the old crew and prospective new applicants!

Hope to see you this Sunday at 55 West Lake Blvd. next to the River Grill and Dam Cafe at 10:00 a.m. Any questions... please call my cell at (805) 698-2200

Truckee River Rafting questions?

One of our most frequently asked questions pre-season is... When are you going to open rafting for the Truckee River (in Tahoe City) for the summer?

The answer is... When there's enough water in the river! Simple, right!?

Well, not exactly.

Lake Tahoe is considered a reservoir and is monitored and controlled in Tahoe City by the Federal Watermaster in Reno, Nevada. The Watermaster monitors several other lake heights and stream flows in the area also. When stream and river flows reach certain levels, the Watermaster will then regulate, at the lake outlets, to keep flows at federally mandated levels. The long and short of it is, we have to wait until the Watermaster opens the gates at the Tahoe City Dam (Fanny Bridge) to a hopefully perfect river flow. The Watermaster does not know an exact date he will release water but will call us a few days in advance.

So we wait patiently, on the edge of our rafts, for the "phone call".

The call is usually sometime in June!

Just check our blog. We'll let you know as soon as we know!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Great Tahoe travel website

I wanted to share a great website for the Tahoe area. Tahoetopia.com has everything the Tahoe travler needs to know, from weather, dining, events and news, upcoming happenings and more. What I like the best about the site are the videos and webcams. Visit Tahoetopia.com and come see us on the Truckee River this summer!