There may be no better remedy to the hot summer months than a cool river and a round piece of inflated rubber.
No doubt, crazy weather has been rough on lovers of water sports. Droughts in some areas have all but dried up many favorite soaking pastimes, while too much of the wet stuff has left other quarters oversaturated.
But there are still places where the tubes will float on this summer.
Here are some of our favorite spots to help get your butt in the water.
At Kauai Backcountry Adventures in Lihue, Hawaii, riders slide down a collection of open canals and tunnels that once served as an irrigation system for a sugar cane plantation.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kauai Backcountry Adventures
1. Kauai Backcountry Adventures
Lihue, Hawaii
When Sean Stogner needed a break from those long, unrelenting winters in Alaska where he was stationed as an Air Force AWACs "Sentry" computer technician, he'd head to Hawaii for the perfect mix of warm weather, cool water and outdoor fun.
He loved Hawaii so much that after 10 years in the military, he finally moved there and eventually wound up running his own perfect mix of wet and wild outdoor adventure.
Tucked into the mountains of Hawaii's "Garden Isle," Kauai Backcountry Adventures sports one of the most unique tubing adventures you're likely to find.
"We call it mountain tubing," says Stogner, now Backcountry Adventures' general manager.
Indeed, it's a half-hour trek in a four-wheel-drive vehicle up the waterfall-gushing Mount Waialeale just to get to the launch site, where riders then slide down a collection of open canals and tunnels that once served as an irrigation system for a now-shuttered sugar cane plantation.
"You're actually tubing down this 150-year-old, hand-dug irrigation system," Stogner says. "Seventy percent of the flow is underground and through the mountains."
Tubers wear helmet-mounted lamps to light the way.
The three-hour trip — including the ride up and a meal and swimming at the end — is family-friendly enough to include tubers that have ranged in age from 5 to 98.
"There's not a lot of activities on the island where grandma and grandpa, the parents, the kids, and grandkids can all go out together and have fun like this," he says.
The cost is $106 per person. Service members get a 10 percent discount. "We stay sold out, so it's always good to book a month in advance," Stogner says.
Backcountry Adventures is two miles from Kauai's airport, which offers daily shuttle flights from the military hub around Honolulu. The Navy's Barking Sands Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai offers military-only beach cottage rentals at discount rates.
Leavenworth, Washington
Leavenworth, Washington-based River Rider's tubing season kicks in just as the Cascade Mountains' snowmelt-fed whitewater rafting season draws to a close, usually starting up in late July and ending around Labor Day.
"When the river starts to get low, slow and casual, that's when we start throwing tubes in the water," rafting guide Billy Williams says.
The nearly two-mile run typically takes about 1.5 hours, longer if you decide to stop and swim or picnic along the orchard- and forest-lined river valley as it emerges from the mountains.
Just a few hours from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the Puget Sound fleet, River Rider tubes are $20 each, but a military ID card will get you a 10 percent discount.
Kern River Tubing's Zorb Ball lets guests walk on water. Tubing conditions have been perfect along the river fed by the Mount Whitney snowpack.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kern River Tubing
Kernville, California
While an ongoing drought has grounded most whitewater rafting in Southern California, it has created perfect tubing conditions along the region's Kern River, fed by the Mount Whitney snowpack.
"We're one of the few places that managed to stay open," says Sarah Lowery, a water guide with Kern River Tubing, part of SoCal Rafting in Kernville. "The drought has not dried up the fun here."
Indeed, five sections of rapids down a run called the "Lickety-split" still keeps things interesting enough to require a life jacket and a helmet.
A guide will show you the way the first time — the 3.5-mile trip takes about two hours. Then you're free to loop back as often as you want on a free shuttle.
And then there's the Zorb Ball.
"It's basically a floating, 12-foot-tall inflatable hamster ball built for humans," Lowery says. "You get inside and run around on the water. How cool is that? Where else can you walk on water?"
Tubing and Zorbing runs $44 for the day; military ID card-holders get a 10 percent discount.
A number of campgrounds dot the area, including several along the river. The "Trail of 100 Giants" through a forest of towering sequoias is about an hour away.
Edwards Air Force Base and the Marine Corps training grounds at Twentynine Palms are both less than two hours' drive. Those stationed with the San Diego-based fleet, and most other Southern California installations, are less than five hours away.
Avon, Colorado
About three hours into the Vail Valley from the military hub in Colorado Springs, Turtle Tubing is still a good bet.
"What makes us special is that we are on the Colorado River and have dam-controlled water flow, so we're always running," owner Shane Ward says.
Tube rentals are $35 per person, $10 extra for a floating cooler. Be sure to ask for the $10-off military discount. If you're staying at Vail or spots in the Vail Valley, Turtle will pick you up and drop you off in its signature all-green rolling bar "Turtle Bus" for an extra $15.
The Turtle Tubing season usually ends around the second week of September.
Loudonville, Ohio
North Central Ohio's Mohican River is "perfect for tubing — not real wide, not real deep — and normally slow and gently flowing," says Patty Shannon, owner of Mohican Adventures.
Home to the state's very first canoe livery, Mohican Adventures now also offers everything from kayaking and rafting to mountain biking and go-karting to riverside camping and cabins.
A new aerial park adds a different kind of adventure. "You're roped into a harness, and it's something like an American Ninja Warrior obstacle course — just not as hard," Shannon says.
The seven-mile tubing run usually lasts about four hours, longer if you stop at any of the riverside snack bars. Tube rentals are $15.
Service members get a 10 percent discount on everything except camping and cabin rentals.
Locals tip: Be sure to ask for the onion-ringed and BBQ-sauced "Mountain Biker" burger at the Trails End Restaurant across the street. "You won't be disappointed," Shannon promises.
Mohican Adventures is about three hours from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Canyon Lake, Texas
The silver lining to the record flooding that hit central Texas in June is that it snapped a three-year drought that had reduced regional reservoirs such as Canyon Lake nearly to dust bowls.
Near Austin, and just a few hours from Fort Hood and the military hub in San Antonio, Tube Haus is among the many outfitters celebrating the newly invigorated water supply once again feeding the Guadalupe River fun runs.
"It's been a few rough years, but we're looking forward to a great season now," Tube Haus owner Jerry Lara says.
Lara says to "expect a party ... one huge floating party of wall-to-wall tubes."
Booze and floating jam boxes are not only legal in the section of river run by Tube Haus, they're practically encouraged.
Tube Haus offers three trip options, ranging from about one hour to five hours long. Tube rentals, good for the whole day, are $15 per person. Military ID card-holders get $4 off. Cooler tubes are also $15.
7. Styx River Tube and Canoe Rental
Robertsdale, Alabama
What could be better than an afternoon beating the Gulf Coast heat with a lazy tube float? If you're an off-road fan, spending the morning crushing some ATV trails might be a good way to start.
You've got both at Styx River Tube and Canoe Rental, which also hosts a 100-acre ATV park and cabin rentals.
Less than an hour from Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, Styx River tube rentals are $15 per day. Every Thursday, military ID card-holders get them for $10.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
If you can't decide between high-adrenaline whitewater or a lazy river, you won't need to at River Riders.
"The tubing here is awesome," says assistant general manager Alexandria Tamez, who's also a petroleum supply specialist in a local Army Reserve unit.
"We have tubing down two very different rivers, and both are two very different styles of tubing."
You'll tackle up to Class III rapids on the more than two-hour Potomac River whitewater run, which is open only to strong swimmers 18 and older. Meanwhile, the Shenandoah River offers a bring-the-cooler-style, flat-water float and is also about two hours.
"To anyone in my unit, I'd recommend the whitewater. You can do flat-water tubing just about anywhere, but it's not often that you can swim in rapids like this.
"A lot of people do both, hitting the whitewater in the morning and then chill out and relax in the afternoon," Tamez says.
In between, there's a zip-line canopy tour and new "Mega Zipline," where you race face first, Superman style, at up to 50 mph across a 1,200-foot traverse.
River Riders also offers campgrounds and, new this year, four- to six-person cabin rentals.
Tubing season runs May through September, but earlier in the season is best for the whitewater runs when the water levels on the Potomac are higher. "It's a shorter trip, but a lot more adventurous," Tamez says.
Tubing trips start at $28. Service members get a 10 percent discount.
Harpers Ferry is well within two hours' drive of most D.C.-area military installations.
Conway, New Hampshire
For those stationed in the Northeast, Saco Bound in New Hampshire offers three- and four-mile trips along the Saco River.
While the river itself is pretty tame, with no real rapids to speak of, the action on the river is a different story.
"It can be a pretty wild party scene, especially on the weekends," manager Sadie Miller says. "We have sellout weekends through July and August."
Weekdays — Monday through Thursday — are more family-friendly.
Tube rentals are $15 per person, same for a cooler tube. Troops get a 10 percent discount.
There's a campground a short walk from Saco Bound's launch site.
"But if you're looking for the party scene, go to Fiddlehead Campground. It's like a big constant college frat party on the river," Miller says.
Wilderness Cove Tubing and Campground in Saluda, North Carolina, is the perfect all-in-one Green River getaway from the Carolinas' summer heat.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Steven Houser
10. Wilderness Cove Tubing and Campground
Saluda, North Carolina
Wilderness Cove, owned by Marine veteran Steven Houser and his wife Christy, taps the Green River for your hot-weather reprieve.
"We get a lot of folks on leave," says Houser, who was a Reserve ammunition tech until 2005. No surprise considering Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina; and Fort Gordon, Georgia, all are within a few hours' drive.
If you're looking to spend the night, Wilderness Cove also hosts 21 tent sites, two group sites and two cabins.
Tubing season typically runs Memorial Day to Labor Day.
With the Green River dam-controlled, Houser says the water levels are almost always perfect but typically best around midday.
Rentals range from $9 to $14 per tube, depending on trip length. Troops get a 10 percent discount.
Trips vary from one mile to six miles.
If you go straight through the longest, it's usually a four-hour run, "but that can easily stretch into a whole day. There's plenty of swimming holes along the way, and a rope swing, too, about halfway down," Christy says.
Don't look to get much of a party on, though. This a dry county when it comes to booze on the river.
"It's pretty strictly enforced, and it's a $280 ticket if you get caught," she warns.
