Rafting Green: Green in Sexy

I, like you, have been inundated with the word, Green. For me, I'm not tired of it, in fact, I find it interesting how many 'main-stream' companies are embracing the concept but I worry many will tire of the barrage. Some tuned out long before this recent surge began and they're probably untouchable when it comes to converting them to Green champions. Others are in the wait and see mode of learning and then there are those of us who are interested and dabble in Green exploration and of course, the complete Green geeks.

I'm not looking to get political or to do too much preaching. It's just that all this talk has got me to thinking. How can I help folks who want to be more Green be more Green. Here are some simple steps to being a Greener whitewater rafter, a Greener vacationer.

1. Carpool with friends to your destination. On the South Fork of the American River, many folks drive from the San Francisco Bay Area or from Southern California to the Northern California Foothill destination. If you're rafting with friends from the same area, look to coming up together. Some rafting companies have discounts worked out with bus lines, if your groups is large enough you may all take a luxury bus from your area to the river. This can save you money as well as reduce the ole carbon footprint.
2. Cook with propane. If you have the ability to use a propane barbeque rather than charcoal, do so. Propane burns cleaner. This is a tough one, the taste of charred cooking is so good... There's talk of the stuff coming off the charcoal not being good for your health either, so, you now have two reasons to reconsidered charcoal.
3. Since you must wear sunblock, look for all natural, organic sunblocks that avoid: PABA, octinoxate, oxybenzone, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and the preservative butylparaben. Studies are showing the sunblock we wear is killing coral reefs in the ocean. While there's no coral in the river, it can't be bad to avoid using the stuff, bad is bad, right? One recent study claimed some 6-million gallons of sunblock are washed into our oceans annually!
4. If you're really into watersports that require a personal flotation device, then you might wish to look to Astral. They use a more environmentally friendly foam in their vests. They're one of the top vests made as well. So, you get to be environmentally cutting edge and cutting edge in your outdoor equipment as well.
5. Shop locally, shop organically. Have you gone organic yet? We have at my home. When you do, here's something you'll learn very quickly, food spoils far faster. For us, we paused, scratched our heads and asked, what the heck is in the other food that lets it last so darn long? Buying organic for the most part means your foods have traveled less distance to get to you and thus have a smaller carbon footprint. In many cases the products used to grow the foods is far better for the earth, the animals are treated better, raised more closely to life in the wild, etc.
6. Just by whitewater rafting you're Greener! Getting down a river requires human power, not electric or fuel run engines.
   
7. Employ reuseable water containers. It's important to get your hydration on, very important. For shear convenience and hygeine many companies switched to individual, throw away water bottles. Man, it was convenient too! But, this creates a lot of waste in both the number of bottles lost overboard and in the empties that get thrown away after each trip. Switching to metal or even glass bottles can be a great compromise. For me, nothing tastes as good as coming out of glass. Here's a link from Rachel McAdams' website, Green Is Sexy, that sells semi-designer glass bottles, Love Bottle.

For those that are interested or completely geeky, I hope this quick hitter is beneficial to your vacation planning. There are many great site popping up that educate, advise and share the newest in Green ideas and products. It's all a learning process and none of us can be completely gentle to the world surrounding us, we're a product of our society. And, some constructs of this society make it virtually impossible not to tread heavily at some point. So, do what you can do. If you're excited about the changes you can make, make them. If not, no worries. Green is coming around, it's impacting all of us. Even the most non-intersted party will be Greener by decades end. Try and find some fun in the race to be Greenest.

See you on the river!

For loads of free information on summer camps and what you might expect from a camp, videos of camp-life in action and photos, visit our summer camp page. Action Whitewater Adventures has been providing quality raft trips to families and youth groups for 20-years on the South Fork of the American River.

-Christopher Pyle