Winter Rafting the Pine River
Are you ready for an all new way to experience the Pine? We are now offering guided winter rafting trips! Rafts are extremely stable, thus making them the perfect craft to use in the winter. You don’t have to worry about getting wet – the only water in the boat should be from the occasional paddle splash and snow coming down!
The trips take place from Walker Bridge to Lincoln Bridge on the Pine. In a raft, this stretch of river takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes – long enough to soak in the scenery, but not long enough to freeze! While the trips are guided, we are giving everyone their choice of either having the guide in the raft with them or canoeing alongside them.
At the end of your rafting trip, you get the option of either receiving a ride from us back to the starting point where your vehicles are waiting, or of hiking the beautiful Silver Creek Pathway back to your cars. The Silver Creek Pathway runs on both sides of the river – one side is a 1.7 mile hike while the other is about 2.4 miles. It is a gorgeous, riverside trail with beautiful overlooks on the river. If you choose to hike, we will happily take back to your vehicles any thermoses, extra layers of clothing, etc, that you do not want with you on your hike. If some of your group wants to hike and some wants to ride back, we are happy to accommodate that as well.
We offer rafting trips 7 days a week, twice a day. We generally launch the first trip at 10:00 AM and the second trip at 1:00 PM. Since the trips are guided, reservations are required.
Winter Rafting Rates:
2 people - $50/person
3 – 9 people - $40/person
10+ people - $35/person
I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you how pleased I am with the level of service we received and the quality of facilities that we experienced during our recent outing through Pine River Paddlesport Center. Over the years I have worked with many canoeing outfitters, but I can honestly say that I have never felt so genuinely welcomed and accommodated as you and your staff made me feel. Your eagerness to make our trip exactly as we wanted was as refreshing as the actual paddling. I very much appreciated the thought you gave to which boats would make more sense as we switched from the Manistee to the Pine. It would have been easy for you to take the easy way out and let us go with the boats we already had, and the effort you put into switching for us speaks a lot about your service. I was also particularly impressed how you engaged the Scouts during your paddling "lesson" before we left. Working that process as a series of questions focused their attention and really made the points "stick". As for the facilities, I am ecstatic that I have found a place where I can know that I can go and have everything that I'm looking for in a non-wilderness campsite. You've really hit the mark with large, well spaced out sites where you don't feel like you're camping with the folks at the next site. Impeccably clean bathhouse facilities are a rarity, and yours is probably the cleanest I've ever seen. The focus on maintaining the peace and quiet of the woods really puts it over the top. I usually but a T-shirt from outfitters that I use mainly as a reminder of the trip that I took, and I bought a PRPC shirt as well. Somehow wearing the shirt last night felt different.....that I was actually proud to be wearing it. Thanks for a job well done.