Wildman Whitewater Ranch, Athelstane

Lodging: The cabin was neat & clean on arrival but 2 of the futons were in poor condition so 2 of our guests slept on the couches :( The refrigerator was not cooling properly the first night and after the power went out and came back on it somehow reset itself otherwise our food would have spoiled. There are no contact numbers should something happen later in the evening either. The activities: If your looking for hard core adventures this isn't the place. Don't expect the events to start on time either ours were all 30min-1hr behind schedule. You'll need to sign a waiver for every event too. The paintball course is tiny and on a hill so good luck going up and down that 10 times. The gear and guns all worked fine and it was really good fun. You can bring your own paint and gear but no guns. The whitewater rafting was a learning experience more than a challenge. Our guide was awesome and made the most of the trip. We did play a lot of raft games which made the trip. The Menominee River's water level was luckily higher than the last few weeks so we didn't drag bottom at all. The rapids are a few class 2's and 1 class 4 which you go through twice. You must have watershoes or shoes otherwise you'll need to rent $4 ones from them and they might not have your size! The kayaking was pretty leisurely and relaxing. Not much to it really. The rock climbing I would say is the most challenging event they offer and for first time climbers it's real rock climbing. Bring your own shoes and bring lots of fluids (water) Overall: The actual ranch/cabin is about an hour away from 3 of the 4 events we did which started at Bombers so keep that in mind. We did a 3pm rafting trip and got back at 9pm without eating dinner there so keep that in mind. I'm still questioning whether or not the food was actually cooked on a grill but you can be the judge of that. The brownies were good. For your dinner meal ask if there are other groups eating dinner because if your the second group to arrive you might find little left. Keep an extra tombstone pizza in your freezer if you have one back at your cabin. I would say this place is great for kids and beginner sportsman but if your looking for a real ranch you might want to head toward the rockies. This review is my own personal opinion and only use it as a reference. The guides were all very polite and bring some cash to tip them!

Our group of 11 went on the trip June 12-14, and the activities were fun, though the location was far in the middle of nowhere. The activities all started late, but our group was ok with that. However, our group did have big issue, and that relates to the Photo CD we purchased. We paid $65 at Wildman GC and Enter (the bar at Bombers) to get a CD of the pictures for our memories, but the rafting photographer did not perform to their normal standard, since she was new. Firstly, there were only 29 rafting photos, whereas I noticed that on the website, most photographers typically took 70-100 photos. The photographer only took pictures on our second shoot through the rapids, which was very disappointing. Second and most importantly, the photographer did not know how to change settings on her camera and took only 1 Megapixel pictures, which is absolutely useless for anything other than website viewing. I'm fairly certain Wildman would not be able to make quality 8x10s if anyone ordered those, because she used such a low resolution despite her camera being a 5 MP camera. I know because the rock climbing photos we got were 5 MP in resolution. The photographer did mention it was her first time, but that is no excuse for doing such a poor job, and we bought the CD so we could use the full resolution photos to get some nice prints, but now we can't at all. Third, we did get some nice photos from our AM rock climbing (that photographer did a tremendous job of taking ~70 5MP full-res shots for us), but there were no photographers for the PM rock climbers in our group! The result was that those who didn't get any shots of them were very upset that 1/2 of us had pictures and 1/2 did not, and that is also extremely dissatisfying. We also did not get a photographer for paintball, which would've been nice...Because only 1/2 of the group got rock climbing photos, the rafting photos are the only full group shots we have, and because the photographer did not use full resolution in taking those shots, we can't use those photos for much, so we feel we purchased a lot of disappointment. I tried to contact Wildman to help us resolve the issue, but here's where they were extremely unhelpful and have refused to return my emails or phone calls, so I have no recourse but to post reviews on them, to let you know that the activities are fun, but they are poorly organized (one guide even admitted this to us that he just gets a call to referee paintball the day before and the time without any further details), and if you ever have a problem with them, they are highly unhelpful. Good experience turned very sour at the end.

We made our reservation and deposit to confirm our vacation. the experience surpassed our expectations. Family Camp Yes!