Have you ever wondered where our innovative River Guides begin their illustrious careers? Are you interested in wowing your friends with rowing skills? Well, look no further! ECHO offers Guide Schools designed for all types of aspiring river aficionados. Choose from Professional or Recreational Guide Schools both on the Rogue River.

Professional Guide School is meant for those hoping to guide for ECHO or another outfitter. Here you will learn much of what you need to know about becoming a river guide including reading water, rowing oar boats, loading gear and some camp cooking. Recreational Guide School is for those looking to further their whitewater techniques for personal enrichment. You will be shown how to maneuver a raft safely and effectively without the emphasis on loading gear and preparing camp meals.

Our Advanced Whitewater School is already full. There is still space available in both the Professional & Recreational Schools, but it’s going fast! Contact us soon to reserve your space.

Graduates of our Professional Guide Schools have asked for more so we’ve introduced graduate school for river guides. The Advanced Whitewater School is intended for the individual with a working knowledge of river guiding and thirst for more.

We chose to offer this course on the Middle Fork of the Salmon at the end of May when the weather is bad and the river is high. You will flip boats, you will swim, and you will be cold. Everyone is expected to have previous training and experience.

The course will consist of six of our younger ECHO guides and is open to six guides from other rafting companies and the general public. We’ve timed this school so that the industrious newbie can take both our Professional Guide School from May 17 - 24, 2008 and the Advanced Whitewater School from May 28 - June 3, 2008.

Learn more about the Advanced Whitewater School.

We just finished our 2007 professional guide school on the Rogue River in Oregon. The eight day guide school included two days of instruction at our guide house and six days of instruction on the river. Both participants and guide trainers report great weather and an wonderful time had by all.

After talking with the students and guide trainers, we’ve scheduled our guide schools for 2008. The first will be another 8 day professional guide school on the Rogue Starting on May 17, 2008. Next we will be offering a 7 day advanced whitewater school on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho.

The advanced whitewater school will be offered to those that have taken a previous ECHO professional guide school or the equivalent. Participants will be expected to have basic wilderness guiding skills when they show up for this school. The course will include a day of instruction at put-in, five days on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, and a day of instruction at our guide house in Salmon, Idaho. While on the river, all participants will float the river in paddle boats and will be focusing on their paddle boating skills through the challenging whitewater found on the Middle Fork in May. We’ll be flipping boats, swimming rapids, and working on rescue techniques.

Learn More About ECHO Guide Schools.

After two successful guide schools in 2006, we’ve decided offer one on the Rogue River in June 2007. The school will consist of a six day river trip on the Rogue combined with two days of classes and trip preparation.

ECHO offers a guide school different than most. We focus much of our school on wilderness cooking, camping, and ethics. Our students will learn the details of whitewater rafting each day and will spend the morning and evenings focusing on a wilderness river camp. Our instructors are fun, enthusiastic ECHO guides and we usually have several assistant instructors that offer a more personal touch.

Please visit www.echotrips.com/training to learn more about our guide schools. For a personal account of our guide school, click here to read Laura Stavoe’s article titled “A Woman Confronts Her Fears on the River and Finds Out She’s Not Alone.”

Due to trip logistics and possible road closures, the decision was made to fly our students into Indian Creek. Once we heard the road was open to the Boundary Creek put in, the guides headed in to start from the top for a little pre-season training. We encountered some of the biggest snow flakes as we headed up over the pass, putting few inches on the road. When we finally reached put-in, we all took a look at the river that was flowing just over 6 feet. What a different river than the one we left in the fall. As we stood with the snow coming down, Maggie pointed out the warning sign for low water that still hung on the vacated forest service building, and we all had a good laugh.

The next morning we rose early to coffee and more rain, and hit the river. We needed to make the 25 miles down to Indian Creek that day, to meet the students, and most of us hadn’t ever seen the river this high, or ever. Paying close attention to spacing and boat order we left the eddy and headed down the river. We all made the left at Murphy’s hole, and headed down to Velvet Falls. We stopped to scout, and all picked out our lines. Our last boat, with Kelly on the oars, bounced off the rock she was trying to pull behind and headed straight into the hole. With her boat now upside down, she swiftly swam to shore and Zach and Marc were after her raft, which they successfully were able to get stopped not to far down the river. After getting Kelly’s raft re-flipped, we all jumped back into our boats and made it to Indian Creek after a long cold day on the river.

Due to weather, our students were stuck in Salmon at our locked up guide house until the morning. They jumped on the Islander and landed at Indian Creek around ten o’clock the next morning hungry for French toast and bacon! After filling up, Zach led the safety meeting and divided the group up into four teams of two. Colleen and Marc did the first lesson in rigging gear onto rafts and we were soon rowing down the river practicing catching eddies along the edge of the river. Even with the river dropping, it was still a difficult task finding eddies big enough to catch, but soon everyone was getting the hang of it. We reached camp, Marble left, and divided into new teams to learn about setting up camp. Three people set up camp tarps, chairs, fire pan, and collected wood with Zach. Three more set up the kitchen with Colleen, and Marc worked on tying up the rafts and putting up the groover. These jobs would then rotate the rest of the trip, so everyone would learn all the camp jobs, and eventually be able to do it themselves. The rest of the night included a delicious chicken dinner, chocolate fondue, a few beers, and some guitar music around the campfire.

The next day was a layover, and we had a lot to cover. The morning was knot tying, where we again rotated through different stations. Next was throw bag practice. What started as a funny idea of Brait, soon grew into the new game of throw bag football. Three attempts at the end zone, then switch teams. The bystanders re-stuffed the bags and tossed in a new one after every attempt. Once we were done practicing on land, we headed for the river. Teams stood on the banks, and the guides all headed up to be swimmers. We all rotated through swimming in the cold water, and practicing throwing. This also made sure everyone was comfortable in the water.

We camped at Loon Creek the next night, and hiked up to the Hot Springs for a great evening Soak. The next day, we headed down to Survey, where we all took the night off and had Fajitas, Margaritas, and great “dare wear” party for Hata’s Birthday.

We soon arrived at the Main Salmon, where three of our friends from Sawtooth Adventures joined us for some training of their own. The Main Salmon was higher than any of us had seen it and we all marveled at the beauty and how fun the rapids were at the higher flow. Our second to last day we spent as a layover day and covered boat repair as well as safety topics. Our last night on the river was a touching one as we all discussed epiphanies that we had during the trip. The trip ended as we pulled into Carey Creek, our take-out, and loaded the truck for the nine hour drive back to Salmon.

From the ECHO World Headquarters in Oakland, we can only speculate how the Idaho Guide School is going, but we spend plenty of time discussing it.

The Idaho school is a 9-day guide training course on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and the Main Salmon. Both rivers have been flowing at mid-to high water levels this past week which adds an extra element of excitement and challenge to their river adventure. We are sure they are finding plenty of opportunities for learning, gaining experience, and having a wonderful time!

With daunting weather reports at the beginning, we were a little worried. The trip started off with gray skies bringing snow, rain, and highs in the mid-40’s. It takes a true whitewater enthusiast to want to run a high-water Middle Fork Trip in winter conditions. Wet suits, splash jackets, wool sweaters, and plenty of hot cocoa were likely the survival tools that helped them make it through the first few days of stormy weather.

Looking at the weather report for the last few days of their trip, we are all wishing we could be on the river with them. They are now floating down the the Salmon, camping on big sandy beaches, sleeping under starry skies, and enjoying the warm sun during the day. The weather report for the next few days predicts clear, sunny skies with highs in the mid-80’s. Somewhere along the course of the guide training, Idaho turned from spring to summer. And now we are all ready to pack our bags and get out on the river!

We just finished our 2006 Oregon/California guide school on April Fools Day after a week of rain and boating. Our Oregon crew reports a good time, cold weather, some great new friendships, lots of boating, and a great April Fools Prank.

One of our younger students, Mack, came to us with a serious cold and a 100 degree fever which he failed to mention to us until our third day on the Rogue. His parents called the office a number of times worried about him, but we had nothing to report as he was in the wilderness for five days. Mack was fine and it became an inside joke of the guide school to continually ask him “How ya feeling” as we were all concerned and nobody could stop asking him for an update.

Mack’s dad came to pick him up from the school the last night and Mack thought it would be a good time to play a joke on him. So we bandaged Mack up with an arm sling and head bandage and came up with a great story about a boat frame falling on top of him. When his dad showed up, Mack told the story with a straight face while the other trainees and guides were biting their tongue.

Mack and his dad left our guide house with plans for the emergency room. It turns out that Mack kept the joke going until his parents were on the phone talking about shoulder surgeons. A fun ending (for some) to an epic guide school.

Our next guide school will be on the Middle Fork and Main Salmon from May 28 to June 6 and is almost full.

The March/April issue of Paddler Magazine features an article about ECHO’s 2005 guide school. Written by Laura Stavoe, the article is from the point of view of a forty-something mother of twin boys who joins the school in part to overcome her fears of white water. Laura tells a good story of having to deal with the cold, the rain, the hard work and the anxiety of spending eight days learning the basics of guiding on the Rogue and Tuolumne in March. The learning curve is steep, and the hands-on experience is rewarding if exhausting. Laura does a nice job of weaving a blow-by-blow account of what happened with her thoughts of home, children, and the question of what in the world she is doing with these crazy people.

The article features some gonzo photographs of that weren’ t taken during training, but some realistic photographs that were. A trainee wrapped a raft at Blossom Bar on the Rogue, the the shot of the wrap is one that we debated about. But it did happen, and it was an excellent lesson for the trainees, so we thought it belonged in the article. If you get the magazine, that’s ECHO Idaho guide Colleen Winters and trainee Martin Waters on the raft, anchoring the Z rig.

Read the Article

In other news, ECHO Idaho guide Rob Marin, who spent much of the winter guiding on the White Nile in Africa, just boarded a trimaran in Cape Town, South Africa, to sail to Miami. We wish him luck.

Our guide school is just two weeks away and we are very excited. The school will start on March 25th early in the morning. We’ll load up our equipment and put on the Wild and Scenic Rogue River that afternoon for a five day trip. After the Rogue, we will drive back to our Galice guide house via California’s Smith or Salmon rivers for three days of training that will focus on river safety skills.

The picture to the right features Geoff Phillips, one of our most memorable graduates from the 2005 guide class. Geoff quickly took to guiding and worked a full season last summer. He will be joining our guide school as an assistant trainer where he’ll be sharing his perspective as a newer guide.

Our 10 day professional guide school in Idaho is really starting to fill up. The maximum size for this school will be sixteen trainees, four trainers, and two assistant trainers. We’ve already received six applications for the sixteen spots and it’s only December!

Our Idaho guide school will be a ten day school with nine days on the river. We’ll do five days on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and four days on the Main Salmon. We’ll cover whitewater skills and safety, but our school is different than most because we’ll focus on whitewater camps, cooking (especially Dutch Oven), wilderness ethics, professionalism, and multi-day river trip issues.

If you are interested, please fill out our Professional Guide School Application.