Family Owned and Operated Whitewater Rafting in the Adirondacks

Pete and Diana Burns started Beaver Brook Outfitters in 1991. Pete is a 7th generation Adirondacker and has a long family history of skiing and river running. His Grandfather Jack Donohue was the River Boss for 40 years during the Hudson River logging era, and his parents were some of the first to ski Gore. He started his guiding career in 1980 on the Hudson and went on to guide all over the east coast before coming back to run the Hudson again. Pete and Diana operated Beaver Brook out of their house and ran guided fishing trips (with Pete as the only guide) and slowly expanded over many years to a retail shop and all-around outdoor outfitter.

Bone Bayse and his wife Autumn Goerner joined the party in 2006 and helped Beaver Brook grow into the outfitter it is today. Both are extremely experienced guides and a couple of the most fun people in the North Country. With their hard work, Beaver Brook has been able to expand in directions that Pete and Diana couldn’t do by themselves. In 2017 Bone was hired as the General Manager of Gore Mountain and works hard there to keep things running smoothly. .

There are 5 daughters between the two families who are keeping the outdoor tradition alive and well (they’ve grown up quite a bit since the picture above was taken). In 2018, Pete’s oldest daughter Cassandra came back east after spending her 20’s working in Utah and Idaho’s skiing and whitewater industries. Since then, she’s been managing the business alongside Pete and keeping him on his toes. The other two Burns daughters, Emily and Sam, worked at the business for years and have graduated to real jobs, but they still make guiding appearances every now and again. The Bayse daughters have opted into the family biz too — you’ll find Sage guiding tubing trips and Avery on the Gorge.

The Burns and Bayse families don’t run the Beave from afar, we’re here literally everyday, making food, answering the phone, guiding trips, cleaning bathrooms, driving buses, fixing buses…you name it, we do it. But we don’t do it alone — we have the best crew of Adirondack guides out there. We’re lucky to have guides who’ve worked here for literal decades (like Buzz, Marnie, Chad, and Pat) and many more who are well on their way. We genuinely love what we do — hang out with us for a beer on the porch after a trip and maybe you’ll catch the guiding bug too…

BBO in the press:

NCPR North Country at Work