Mariah Wilderness Expeditions' Staff Gallery

Two of Mariah Wilderness Expeditions guides where recently written about in the Auburn Journal!
Click here to read the first article....
Click here to read the second article....

At Mariah Wilderness Expeditions, we know that our great guides are the key ingredient to great river trips. Our guides are sensitive, highly skilled in both running the rivers and preparing top-notch meals. They are fun-loving, independent yet perfect team-players, fascinated with the lives and stories that our wide variety of guests bring with them to our rivers.

Our guides are “family”, returning year after year, and as a result are able to pay attention to the smallest details of providing a wonderful, exciting, and safe adventure for all of our guests. Each guide contributes something unique and special to the trip. Since the guides come from all walks of life, and bring many different experiences, skills and personalities to your trip, each guest is made to feel right at home.

Here are a few of our guides! All of them have CPR certification, Advanced First Aid, and Swift Water Rescue. Most of them have participated in the California Park and Recreation Department’s River Interpretative

Don't miss our Guide School Photo Gallery

Nikki Doyle
Considered a "guide's guide," Nikki has worked for Mariah for 19 years and, until this year, she trip-led on all of the rivers we operate on. This year she became Mariah's Staff-Camp Manager!! Yeah! She still gets out on the river, though. She is from Australia and the accent gives her away as soon as she says “good day, mate”. She kayaks, skis, surfs the big waves, and in the winter months she can be found leading trips in Costa Rica, Belize, and other countries.  She is also the proud "human-mom" to Sprocket, a beautiful, black labrador dog. He's been to special training and agility classes.  He's a beauty!

Kresta Painter
Kresta joined Mariah in 2001, bringing a wealth of outdoor experience with her. In addition to years of rafting on many different rivers, she also was the Food and Beverage Manager for Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in California. So, when you rave about our meals you can think of Kresta. Kresta is also a premier snowboarder, and budding ocean surfer.

Lisa Poser
Lisa went through our guide school in 2004 and has already proven to be a skilled, strong river guide. This year she has been Trip Leader on several trips and is well on her way to being a top-guide.

She spent this last winter in Guatemala where she went to language school and then stayed as a volunteer doing lots of different projects while living with local families near the shores of Lake Atitlan. So, if you speak Spanish she’ll love practicing her Spanish with you.

Jerry Pepper
Jerry has been a loyal Mariah guide for over 16 years. He has a “city job” now but still comes out to guide on many weekends. He is a “guide’s guide” – one of the best. He and his wife of three years, Jackie, just bought a home in Sacramento. He has many good river stories to tell since the days of strumming his guitar at the campfire.

Kenna Foster
Kenna worked for California State Parks as a park aid on the American Rivers three years ago, and yearned to have as much fun as the river guides seemed to have. So, she went to Guide School and chose to work with Mariah!! We are so lucky! She has rapidly become an extremely hardworking and capable river guide, is great in the kitchen, and has an infectious smile and laugh that you won’t soon forget.

Kris Lafollette
Kris has been on the rivers for years and brings special team-building skills to Mariah and our guests. She has taught ropes courses, created and facilitated team challenges and games. The kids love her, the corporate groups have a high degree of respect and admiration for her abilities to “pull folks together”. When she is not working on the river you can find her by locating Kayla, her German Shepherd, who never leaves Kris’ side.

Ned Sickles
Those of you who rafted with us three years ago, in the spring and early summer, during the super-high water, will remember Ned. He and his kayak could always be seen on a Mariah trip—he was our very special “kayak-support”. He now can be seen in the guide's position in the back of one of the paddle boats. He has great stories to tell about his many river exploits. He is kind, caring, and always has a story.

In September, he will return to the Philippines where he owns his own rafting company. You’ll see him back at Mariah next year.

Vince Corning
Vince got his first taste of whitewater as a commercial customer on the Tuolumne River in California. He is now one of Mariah’s most popular river guides on the American River. He is a wizard at fixing computer problems also, so he is quite popular with the office staff.

Red McFarland
Red hails from Texas and has a drawl that will make you Texans homesick. He is the classic, big-water river guide. Right now he is in Alaska with his dog, Jake, experiencing the rivers of Alaska. He will be back next April for California’s high water (and cold). He has a closet full of crazy hats that he wears on the river.

Scott Wager
Scott moved to camp from Texas six years ago and quickly became one of our most highly skilled and popular river guides. He recently earned his captain’s license and spends part of the year in Alaska working as a fly fishing guide. You can expect to see him back at Mariah’s American River camp in the spring and early summer. He is one of our highly skilled guide school instructors, also. Our guide school in 2009 will be April 18-25, 2009. He co-instructs with Nikki. We have guest instructors come in for a day or so, also. In 2008, we were joined by Matt, Amy, and Janice.

Matt Kurth
Matt received most of his river-guiding experience in Northern California and has participated in a lot of adventure-based education, both as a student and as an instructor. He loves the river, loves working in the out-of-doors. He is a great leader and a really fun team-player.

He is always smiling even when he has clean-up duty. This is his third year with Mariah and he is already talking about coming back next year.

Paula and Joanie and Maya, the Chihuahua
We were sooooo lucky to have Paula and Joanie join us this season as our Camp Store Hostesses. Many of you met them three years ago when they guided you to your camp spots, rented you the deluxe 4” pads, sold you t-shirts from our camp store, and even drove the shuttle buses. Maya, the dog, enthralled all of our youth groups as well as the adults during the shuttle drives.

Erin Smith
Erin worked as a full time river guide in Washington for 6 years prior to finding a new home with Mariah. He has explored many rivers throughout the U.S., including the Grand Canyon, the Snake River in Idaho, the Rogue River in Oregon, and many others. Erin is proud that he can provide his guests with entertaining conversations via anecdotes, jokes, and historical stores.

During the winter, Erin teaches in North Kitsap and Seattle, Washington high schools.

Some of the guides relaxing under the oak tree

Alex Fernandez and Carol Vargas
We are sooooo proud to have Alex and Carol, along with their two children, Aldo and Luis, join us this summer! And, they will be back next year. Alex owns his own adventure company in Costa Rica so brings many, many skills to Mariah. Carol became Costa Rica’s first female guide in the 90’s; with Mariah she doubles as our Food Manager and one of our guides.

12-year-old Aldo has just performed his first kayak role and 5-year-old Luis gets to enjoy the Class II rapids during our Raft Express Run.