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Annual 2009—Working
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It’s a warm September day, and just off Highway 12 along the banks of the Tieton River it’s peaceful and quiet as one of the land-bound guides for Orion River Expeditions cuts up watermelon for the approaching rafters.
Soon, boat by boat, day-trippers appear on the river and paddle their way to this lunchtime takeout spot. Wearing a red, sparkly helmet, Kayla Applebay brings her boat to shore; her dog Rauzzie, a spirited Australian shepherd-border collie mix, greets her at the riverbank.
Sporting a great tan and toned arms, the now 29-year-old river guide has one of those summer jobs to be envious of. You get to live in your swimsuit, be out in nature, bring your dog to work and hang out with other like-minded souls.
Living in Lyle, Wash., Applebay has a regular day job — not that it’s terribly regular — as an environmental health specialist for Klickitat County. She calls herself “outdoorsy, but not,” although she did complete an 85-day Outward Bound course in 2000 and was hoping to work for the wilderness school.
In 2001, Applebay took Orion’s training program and has been guiding ever since.
“If I’m going to do something, I go overboard,” she says.
This day she’s taking white-water thrill-seekers down the Tieton River during the annual “flip-flop.” In September, when water is released into the Tieton from Rimrock Dam, thousands of people hop in inflated rafts and trust their safety on these Class 3 and 4 rapids to just a life vest, a helmet and the Teva-wearing guide in the back of the boat hollering directions.
And when the Tieton is running high, it can be a dangerous stretch of water.
That’s why the main qualification to be an Orion river guide is “the desire to be one,” says 53-year-old James Moore, owner of the Leavenworth-based rafting company.
“When I’m looking for guides, I’m looking for people with good character and good judgment,” explains Moore, who has 20 years of experience on the Tieton and 33 total in the white-water business.
They also have to be people willing to put up with long hours, low pay and hard work, he adds. While the Tieton River ride is just in September, it often marks the end of Washington’s rafting season, when the Orion crew has been going 24/7 since late March. (Those who’ve been going down the Tieton River long enough know that the end of the season is always celebrated with a giant river guide toga party out in the woods.)
But before Orion’s guides take on a boatload of customers, they complete a 15-day training program that consists of a seven-day overnight trip and four weekends spent on a number of rivers in Washington and Oregon.
For a lot of guides, it takes being out on the water to decide if this is their cup of tea, if they can have fun but also take charge the second an emergency happens.
“It has to be something in your genetic makeup,” says Moore. “But it can’t always be on the forefront of your mind — that can be paralyzing.”
Applebay, who spent a good part of her childhood in Yakima — her parents still live in the Gleed area — says your mind-set has to be “very in the moment.”
“That’s what some people can’t deal with. It just freaks them out too much,” she says. “Your mind-set has to be always knowing what’s going on, professional, but having fun. You have to be confident in your abilities.”
And you have to always be learning — how the water acts, how the rapids are being formed. You can’t ever be out of that mind-set, says Applebay, who continues to take training courses and goes rafting for fun. (She and others from the Orion crew, including Moore, spent three weeks just last month rafting through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.)
Applebay’s compensation for navigating these wild rides is about $65 to $100 per trip, plus tips, and sometimes she does two trips a day. For overnight excursions, it can be $120 to $150.
Of course, the tan is a benefit, but there’s no health insurance.
However, it’s a job that suits Applebay’s need to keep moving, avoid routine and rack up plenty of good tales to tell.
“You have to do stuff to have good stories,” she says with a smile. “I would like to die with a lot of stories rather than a lot of money.”
And with that, she grabs a sandwich from the lunch table, cracks a couple of jokes with the other guides, then it’s back in the river.
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