By Emery Cowan Herald Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: Monday, May 09, 2011 11:06pm

Life as a raft guide in Durango may seem too good to be true. Paddling down the cool waters of the Animas with the summer sun blazing above and beautiful mountain views around every turn. What could be better?

SARAH FRIEDMAN/Herald

“This is awesome!” says Cara Orton as she gets ready to go back on the Smelter Rapid on the Animas River. She is rafting with Mike Orton, and is guided by Zach Conde.

Warming weather sends snowmelt down the Animas

The reddish-brown color of the Animas River, which was carrying almost twice as much water Sunday as on Friday, points to melting snow loosening sediment in the mountains.
What confirms that for Jeff Titus, the Animas River commissioner at the Colorado Division of Water Resources in Durango, is the color.
“The reddish color tells me that it’s runoff principally from the Hermosa Creek drainage,” Titus said. “Later, when the water is greenish or yellowish, it will be from snow melting around Silverton.”
At Bakers Bridge (just north of Hermosa), the Animas is not reddish, Titus said.
Commissioners oversee matters involving their assigned river. There’s one for each river in the Southwest Colorado basin, which stretches from east of Pagosa Springs to the Utah line.
The Animas on Friday was flowing at 757 cubic feet per second. On Saturday, the flow jumped to 990 cfs, then to 1,480 cfs on Sunday and 1,820 cfs on Monday.
That means the warm weather is finally reaching the higher snow, he said.
Except for north-facing slopes, snow is gone at elevations below 8,000 feet, Titus said. At Cascade, near Purgatory, there’s no snow, but it’s a different story at 10,000-feet elevation or above – Red Mountain Pass, Mineral Creek near Silverton or Molas Lake.
“Basinwide, the outlook is not good because the snowpack stands at 91 percent of average,” Titus said. “But the Animas drainage is 110 percent of average.”
The surge in the Animas is not lost on rafting company owners.
“We’ve already done a couple of outings,” John Squire, who, with his wife, Karen, owns Durango Rivertrippers, said Monday. “We officially start the season next week, but there’s plenty of water now.”
Robin Fritch, who owns Flexible Flyers Rafting with husband Stephen Saltsman said their season begins this weekend.
“We have water,” Fritch said. “Good weather brings tourism and tourism means rafters.”
daler@durango herald.com

The good news is, the job can be as sweet as it sounds, but it takes a certain person with the right mentality about life, nature and going with the flow. According to what several of Durango’s veteran paddlers had to say, here’s what it takes to be a rafting guide in Durango:

Love the water

Whether they had grown up on the river or had just stepped foot in a raft a few years ago, all of the guides said they were doing the job because they love being on the water.

Kjirsten Williams, an English teacher at Aztec High School, said she started guiding to make extra money during the summer.

“Now I keep teaching so I can keep rafting,” said Williams, who has been guiding for six years. “I tell my students when I grow up I want to be a full-time river guide.”

There’s a special quality about water that makes it unique from any other outdoor experience, said Josh Lau, a fourth-year river guide veteran.

“There’s something about rivers that draws people into a different human experience,” Lau said. “It connects us all and is such a life force to everything around you.”

Be a people person

The most important part of the job is making sure the customers come away happy, said raft guides. It can be a challenge working with different people’s moods, senses of adventure and desires for the trip, they said.

It’s a combination of hospitality and baby-sitting, said Codye Reynolds, a guide going into her 11th season.

On top of making sure people have a good time, guides also have to help everyone work together to get the raft down the river.

“It’s harder work than you think,” said Aaron Schenk, manager at Four Corners Whitewater.

Let go

Some of the best river trips venture into the deepest wilderness, guides said.

It’s the complete immersion into nature that makes the trip so liberating and fulfilling, Reynolds said.

“I like being removed from technology and white noise that comes from city life,” she said. “You have to relinquish to the river and the wilderness.”

There’s no thinking about unpaid bills or future appointments when your boat is slamming through rapids and winding down the river, she said.

“People have to give up and be where they are,” she said.

Be flexible

The summer season lasts only so long, so most guides have to find ways to make a living the other half of the year. Reynolds has been a barista and a retail employee. Lau blows snow at Telluride and travels cheaply to South America. And Aaron Lombardo, a 20-year guiding veteran, plays in a band, works at a zipline company and owns a chimney sweep company.

Rafting jobs also can take guides away from home to rivers across the country.

“The hardest part of the job are the personal relationships,” Reynolds said. “I’m on the move so much, I don’t get to see my friends and family as much.”

Adapt to the conditions

Guides can never control the weather or the water, so it’s up to them to adapt to whatever the day brings, Schenk said.

During training, students have to practice flipping over the raft then flipping it back, and sometimes the water can be freezing, Williams said. She remembered going through flip training one spring while it was snowing.

Wet suits don’t help much, she said.

Be ready to work hard

Raft guiding isn’t all about floating down the river, Schenk said.

“The job is physically demanding,” he said.

Guides have to stack boats, load gear and be able to paddle with enough force to guide the boat down rapids and between obstacles.

On multiday trips, the preparation work makes for extra-long days, Lombardo said.

“It’s getting up at 5 a.m. to pack up gear, load on the train, spend an eight- or nine-hour day on the water then cooking and cleaning at night,” he said. “It’s like a 15-hour day for us.”

Don’t expect a stellar paycheck

“It’s great living, this life, but it’s not the greatest financial-wise,” said Drew Kensinger, who has been rafting for four years.

It’s a labor of love more than a career, Lau said.

“You’re never going to make a ton of money doing this, so if you want to continue doing it, it’s definitely a lifestyle choice,” he said.

Enjoy

“People come here for vacation, and I get to do it for a living,” Kensinger said.

It’s difficult to name a difficult or terrible part of the job, Schenk said.

“It’s like, ‘Wow, I can get paid to go out on the river and hang out with people and have fun in the sun.’”

ecowan@durango herald.com