Payments and Cancellation Policy

Payments

Deposit: $500.00 per person, required for confirmed reservation.  No credit card fees apply.

Final Payment: Due March 15 of the year of your trip. Please note that Final Payment is due by check so please send by March 1 to MFRE, PO Box 17, Fairfax, CA 94978. Or use the link in your confirmation e-mail to pay on-line and there is a 3% credit card processing fee.  If we do not receive final payment by March 15 we will call you for your credit card information.  If Final Payment is not made by March 22 and we are unable to contact you, your Deposit will become non-refundable and we will release your space to the general public.

Cancellation Policy

Deposits are refundable (minus $150.00 service charge per person) if written notice is received before March 15 of the year you are booked. After March 15 your monies are nonrefundable.

Charter group deposits and final payments are non-refundable.

If Middle Fork River Expeditions must cancel a trip due to water levels, weather conditions, wildfires or any other circumstances, your trip will be refunded or re-scheduled for the an available date the next summer.

We highly encourage all participants to purchase Travel Insurance (see below).

Trip Insurance

We highly recommend you purchase trip cancellation insurance for the trip which refunds your for any reason in case you need to cancel.  There are many options for insurance online.  You can also contact Travel Ex Insurance.  Kids 18 and under are free. You must sign up within 21 days of making a deposit on the trip. Click the Travelex logo to sign up!  Also, Allianz Travel is really good.  You can purchase insurance that covers your for all your travel for the year.

High Water and Low Water Fly-ins for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River

Please note that on Middle Fork high water trips on June 2, June 11 and June 20 there is a possibility (low) that the road to the put-in is closed due to too much snow.  The Forest Service does not plow the road.  If this is the case, we will need to fly everyone into Indian Creek which is an additional ~$130/person.  If you are a hard shell kayaker and we need to do this the charge to fly in a kayak is ~$150/boat.  Lastly, every year the river gets too low to float the upper section with guests and so we “deadhead” the rafts down to Indian Creek.  If this is the case, guests will need to fly into Indian Creek which is ~$130/person.  This fly-in usually happens around the Aug 8 departure.

These flights are usually a big highlight of the trip for guests and if this is needed you will still have an amazing experience.  This makes the trip 75 miles long verses 100, so you are rafting 12 miles a day verses 17 miles a day which allows you to hike and explore the canyon more than if you did the trip at low water from the top you would be spending a lot (5-6 hours a day) of time on the rafts.

Additionally for the Main Salmon in September the river may get low enough that we need to fly all guests from Mackay Bar Ranch (Mile 55) to Salmon, Boise or McCall.

In all scenarios above we will contact you at least 10 days before the trip with a link to Sawtooth Flying Service to make this payment direct with them.

Tipping Guidelines

It is the Industry Standard to tip your guides 10-20%+ of the river trip cost. They all work so hard and with a wonderful attitude too.  MFRE pays our guides the best in the industry but tips really do help a lot with guide retention and part of the reason we have the best guides in the industry.  Also, we understand people’s finances vary and you can ultimately tip what you feel is best for you.   The best way to tip is to make out a check for “cash” and give it to your trip leader.  That way, you don’t need to carry a lot of cash and not have to deal with Venmo or Paypal.  Remember to only write check to “cash” right before you give it to the Trip Leader otherwise anyone can cash it.  The trip leader then distributes the tips equally amongst the guides.