We’ve seen a lot.
We’ve been through a run-of-the-mill recession that may have included some gas rationing.
We’ve been through the highs and the lows of the Me Decade.
The fall of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.
Two five hundred-year floods.
A presidential impeachment.
Y2K.
September 11th, 2001.
An unnecessary war.
A tech bubble bursting.
Mortgage futures and the national housing market collapsing — or something along those lines.
A soft recession.
Smoke becoming a regular health hazard in the state of Washington. Fires breaking out in the rain forests on the Olympic peninsula.
A pandemic.
And now a year that included Canadian tourists boycotting America, a manhunt for a murderer in our hometown, major fires pincering our beloved mountain town and then the third 500 year flood in the last 35 years.
Every time one or more of these events occur, I think of my erstwhile mentor, Jim Fielder, the owner of Washington’s second established raft company. He told me he figured the one activity people continued to enjoy throughout The Great Depression (yes - THAT Great Depression) was the nation’s ubiquitous roller coasters. He had no data to back his conviction up, but he believed whitewater rafting just might be recession-proof.
I don’t know. I’m no economist. But we’ve opened our doors for 48 springs and that’s the plan for 2026. Come hell or high water!
