Participants in a rafting trip need to keep warm and dry to enjoy the eagles. That means rubber boots, rubber gloves, warm clothes, and an all-body rain suit. Around every bend in the river stands another perch tree with perhaps a dozen eagles on it. The eagles use douglas fir, western red cedar, hemlock, and cottonwood for their perches. The mature adults, after about five years, attain the characteristic white head and tail.
Mature birds boast a wing span of six feet.
The immature birds are mottled brown and appear even larger than their parents. The float trip starts on the Cheakamus River and includes a section of the Squamish River, along the Paradise Road Ecological Reserve of old-growth trees. The chum salmon run begins here each September. The eagles are present from November through March, but are most abundant in January. Thousands of salmon carcasses are present in the water and on the banks in January.