The spring rafting season was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, so things got off to a slow start on the river this year. However, according to a recent article in The Polk County News quoting Cascade Outoors owner Kip Gee, July 2020 saw a 30% increase in commercial rafting compared to July 2019. In numbers, that’s about 10,000 more paying raft trips than last July – 54,183 whitewater users in 22 days of water releases. Polk County has seen significant increase in tourist traffic for the Summer of 2020.