Thank you for your thoughts and for taking the time to come out with us on your McCarthy adventure. We're bummed to hear you weren't completely pleased with your excursion as our goal is to be the highlight of your McCarthy experience. 2020 has been a tough year with the pandemic, as late as early May, we weren't even sure if we were going to be able to operate. We made adjustments to our scheduling and our tours to reflect the current realities & ensure for the safety of our guests and employees. The biggest adjustment was changing all of our day tours to be privately booked to ensure the safety of our guests. With that adjustment, our prices reflect the cost of operating groups of varying size with the per person cost going down with the more folks that are in your personal group. To successfully offset costs of trips, we naturally have to charge more for smaller parties.
Our location and operation are much more remote than Seward which makes it hard to offer a direct price comparison, Seward is 2 hours from Anchorage on a well maintained highway while in McCarthy, in America's largest National Park, we are 8 hours with 320 miles, including 60 miles of dirt road, separating us from the financial hub of the state. The added mileage and remote location significantly increases the cost of operating. It is also hard to price compare directly with a glacier hike, the equipment involved with paddling in glacial waters, (drysuit, flotation device, kayak & paddle)) is significantly more than the price of the crampons needed to go on a glacier hike. We are the only raft outfitter in McCarthy that offers drysuits with trips, allowing you the experience of jumping from an iceberg into a glacial lake as well as protecting your personal belongings from the sticky glacial silt.
I asked Johnny why your trip was a bit shorter than anticipated as our trips are typically full length if not longer than the advertised time, this being one of the benefits of a private booking. From what I understand, it was a misunderstanding on his part as he said the breeze on the lake was picking up and clouds were moving in, he made an assumption that you were getting cold from the weather and decided to bring you in a little earlier than anticipated. He apologizes for the misunderstanding and is bummed that he read the situation wrong. We had a great time meeting you and hope that the rest of your Alaska travels have gone well! Thank you again for supporting small, Alaskan owned business' in a very tumultuous time!