Meet Our Guides & Staff

It is hard to believe but Alex Atchie has been a whitewater guide with ARO for thirty years. When ARO established the first rafting trips on the Black River in 1983, Alex, an enthusiastic young fishing guide, stopped in and said he would like to train. He fell in love with rafting and has been guiding and entertaining our customers ever since. Alex has been training our guides for decades and has undoubtedly logged more miles on the whitewater of the Black River than anyone else on the planet. Alex spend a number of years with wolves and caribou when he worked as a whitewater fishing guide in the Whale River, which empties into the Arctic Ocean. Alex is a manager in the ski industry in the winter.

When Matt isn’t guiding he is working on developing his growing business making goose decoys. His company is growing but Matt says it will never draw him away from guiding. “I can hire people to work at my company but I can’t replace the excitement and rewards I get from guiding.” Check out his decoys at www.fieldkingdecoys.com.

Larry started as a rafting customer 12 years ago and has never gone home. “What other job is different every day; different water levels, different people, and lots of adrenaline?” His enthusiasm and obvious love of what he does makes him one of our most requested guides.

While many of our guides have college degrees in biology, history, education or even business, Dylan is the first to have actually studied paddling and guiding in college. He has a Bachelor’s degree from SUNY Plattsburgh in Expeditionary studies which focused on planning and executing wilderness expeditions. Dylan has planned and led expeditions in the crocodile filled waters off the Pacific coast of Panama and in the Florida Keys and Everglades. Dylan has been a raft guide for ARO for three years and is a ski instructor at Whiteface Mountain in the winter. He is another second generation ARO guide and actually made a prenatal run on the Black River while his mother guided.