river & trail outfitters

My husband and some of his family ranging in age from 12-50 came upon some rough Upper Iowa River conditions when they canoed into Decorah, IA. Despite an emergency landing of three of their five canoes at the River & Trail Outfitters landing and an attempt at gaining their composures, they were met by an angry owner (while he was on-duty, or assumed since he was driving a city vehicle). He angrily approached them and asked, "How many canoes?" He demanded his $5 per canoe fee, and the group agreed they would get him his $15 as soon as they got to camp and were able to obtain the cash from their support crew. He falsely accused them of landing five canoes since he found out the crew had five canoes, and didn't seem to care that two of the five had actually landed further downstream. He did not care about the safety of the canoers and was so concerned about his measely $15. He could have handled things so differently. My family was more than willing to pay the $15, but since it was an emergency landing, canoes had tipped, and no one had cash at the time; the group had tried to convey to Mr. Cote where they were camping and that they would indeed have him reimbursed. Not only was the river a scary situation, the owner made the entire situation even more scarier for the family canoe trip. I would suggest trying to avoid this establishment for landing or put-in.