Finding exciting team building opportunities that don’t draw groans from your attendees isn’t easy. When trying to get your attendees fired up and rearing to work together toward a common goal, trust falls and ice-breaker circles aren’t always going to cut it.
Enter the Battle of the Bighorn Rafting Challenge, an eight-mile, multievent white-water rafting race through Bighorn Sheep Canyon near Cañon City during which teams battle in several silly and absurd contests. These events include popsicle eating (speed is encouraged to promote brain freezes), taking a cold plunge into a stock tank, completing a 3D puzzle made of spray-painted nuts and bolts, and more. Oh, and there is a watermelon you must bring with you on the whole journey.
“It’s kind of like a token, if you will—a moniker, if you will. It’s a representation of that team,” says Andy Neinas, owner of Echo Canyon River Expeditions. “You do need to complete the Battle of the Bighorn with your watermelon. It’s this arbitrary talisman that we’re giving you that is not easy to physically manipulate.”
If you’re worried about the safety of rafting on rough waters while babysitting your slippery, buoyant melon moniker, don’t be. All groups in the races are accompanied by a rafting guide to ensure your group’s safety. Neinas says oftentimes the guides are just as competitive with the other guides as your group will be with its opposition, so you won’t have to worry about them slowing you down, either.
Neinas says, because of how over-the-top and physically draining some of the challenges can be, teams get extremely competitive. The first task your group has to complete during the race is to inflate the raft with a hand pump, an exhausting undertaking that sets the tone for the rest of the event. There isn’t much at stake––unless attendees decide on a trophy or reward of some kind for the winner––but groups nonetheless typically want to prove they are best equipped to handle the extreme obstacles thrown their way.
“It really is a fun, adult team-building experience that allows you to [act] like a kid,” Neinas says. “I think that really is the appeal for a 44-year-old working professional who sits behind a desk––to actually be out doing something completely novel and completely different with coworkers in an environment they’re not accustomed to.”
At the end of the race—which can take between two and four hours, depending on group experience level and will to win—there is a ceremony held at 8 Mile Bar and Grill, located next to the Echo Canyon River Expeditions building. Here, the winning team is announced, and racers can relax with grub and drinks from the full-service bar and grill. Neinas says, because groups can receive time penalties or bonuses during different event stations, the first team to return is rarely crowned the champion.
