Our River Guides and Office Staff

American River Whitewater Guides

The most important ingredient of a quality rafting trip is your guide. We are very proud of our team of highly experienced, professional and fun loving guides, many of which have been with us for 5 to 10 years, or more.

Steve Armantrout
By far the silliest man on the river, he has worked for EarthTrek for so many years now, that no one can remember when he first started. His 20+ years as a whitewater river guide has taken him all over the western part of the United States, dragging his mountain bike and camera along with him. His many years of experience and his awesome ability as a raft guide keeps guests young and old safe, his knowledge of the area and his gold panning background will inform them, and his witty sense of humor will keep them rolling all over the raft. He says his hobby is rearranging his underwear drawer and spending his off season in the wilds of Montana filming the elusive highland llama, but he is usually surfing in Hawaii or Southern California, looking for gold in Australia, or taking pictures in New Zealand or Utah. Steve will keep you amused at every turn and drop, and he is darn good on the grill, too!

Gina Giacomini
Gina has been with EarthTrek for the past 15 years, sharing her river guide experience and wisdom with our guests. She has rafted all the forks of the American, run the Kings and Yuba, and has even headed down south to New Zealand to raft the Kaituna. Gina also loves to kayak, bike, run and spend time with her grown children. Her off season activities are teaching, energy awareness seminars, and writing, all of which she brings together in her book titled "Bringing Intuition to Work", which is being sold internationally. Her guests love her and request her as their river guide year after year. This is due to her great guiding abilities, her openness and caring of her passengers, her easy smile and great back rubs.

Victorino Urzola
Our little Costa Rican has a multitude of rivers under his belt that he has run. Tori has rafted rivers in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, Africa, Russia, Italy, Norway, and the United States. Tori was the Captain of the Costa Rican Men's Rafting Team in 1995, World Rafting Champion 1995, Costa Rica's Kayak Surf Champion, gold and silver medalist at the World's Sea Kayak Championships in Papua New Guinea 1998, and numerous medals in the 1999 nationals in Costa Rica and Latin America. Oh, but he can do more than kayak and raft! Tori loves kayaking, surfing, photography and travel. During his off season with us he runs his own adventure photography company in Costa Rica. There is a ton of energy, humor and experience in this river guide.

Tony Bertagnoli
Little Tony decided to leave his home town of L'Anse Michigan four years ago to become a whitewater river guide in California, and we haven't been able to get rid of him since. In those four years he has rafted as many rivers in Northern California as he could, in between working for us, camping, hiking, and working on movie gigs in Sacramento, El Dorado County and Placer County. Tony spends his off-season going to C.S.U. Sacramento where he is pursuing a degree in Business and playing on the ice hockey team. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Tony is one of those natural athletes who can pick up any sport and excel at it, which is what he has done here at EarthTrek. We are happy to have him on our river guide team.

Tony Stewart
Coming to EarthTrek from Rotorua, New Zealand, he has made California his home, and it's all because of Janeen, his lovely wife and one of our river guides. Before he settled down to a life of marital bliss, Tony spent many years running rivers all over the world, and still does whenever possible. He also loves to kayak, mountain bike, bow hunt and play Pac Man. His accomplishments number in the hundreds, but he feels that his greatest ones are hitting a fast pitch and learning the standard system after 30 years of the metric. During the off season, Tony loves a white Christmas, eating turkey, and spending time in school. His education is an on going process, learning as much as he can on every subject possible. He shares his knowledge with all his guests and is an excellent river guide, and a joy to work with.

Janeen Stewart
Being a California girl hasn't kept Janeen down on the farm. She has rafted rivers in California, Oregon, Costa Rica and New Zealand. Her love of the outdoors is evident whether it's sharing this love with her guests, or kayaking, hiking and biking on her off time. Janeen can have a great time indoors as well, as her bowling skills can attest. She says she bowls a mean 70 (OK, so it's only great in her mind). Her finesse on the grill is world renown, and she can barbecue chicken with the best of them! Her witty humor and great ability to guide (as well as flip a burger), has made her very popular with our guests. Janeen is spending her off season studying to be a speech pathologist, but will be back in our kitchen and on our boats this summer, providing our guests with an A+ river trip.

Brian Terry
Brian is from Reno, Nevada and has been guiding for EarthTrek for more than 15 years. His main interests in life are his wife, skiing, mountain biking and " playing the sitar while my mind is in another universe". This must be true, as Brian seems to be from a whole other world than ours! His strange mind comes up with ideas, sayings and accents that no other mind could. He is always making someone laugh! He has rafted numerous rivers in California and New Zealand, many of them Class IV and V. If you have Brian as your guide you will be safe in the knowledge that not only is he a highly seasoned river guide, but is a trained and a working nurse also. He will keep you laughing all the way down the river!

Jerry Ashburn
Jerry's interest in the outdoors began in the early 60's as an avid backpacker and mountain climber, exploring every corner of the Sierras and the West. In 1969, while working at a well known Orange County theme park, Jerry started an employee outdoor club, organizing and leading backpacking trips, ski touring trips and rafting trips. "I took my first rafting trip on the Snake River in 1970 and I was hooked." In 1977, Jerry started EarthTrek Expeditions as a travel agency and tour operator specializing in outdoor adventure travel, including primarily skiing and rafting. "My rafting background did not come from guiding rafts, but rather organizing group trips to just about every river in the West utilizing many different outfitters. When I became an outfitter, shortly after starting EarthTrek, I tried to consolidate all the best features of the many outfitters I have viewed over the years, and I think it shows on our trips."

Karen Mc Daniel
Karen has worked for Earthtrek for the past 15 years as the Operations/Office Manager, and brings with her many years of experience in the business and whitewater field. She has rafted rivers in California and Utah and currently spends more time in the office and at camp organizing trips and working on logistics, than she does on the water. She has an interest in natural history, environmental and Native American studies, of which she shared with children at a local outdoor education school in the past. If you need any information about EarthTrek and our trips, just ask. She'll be more than happy to help.