View Full Version : Packrafting
Anybody here done any packrafting? The idea intrigues me.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/packrafting.html
Thanks.
I haven't, and we have some pretty good rivers around here. It's hard to combine kayaking with hiking without alot of drop-off and pickup, and I've seen some portable kayaks that don't really look that portable, but I think something more coracle shaped, shorter and wider, might be lighter and more packable.
In scouts we made a coracle once, by winding branches into a circle and covering in plastic. The Iroquois did not build as nice bark canoes as the various Abenaki tribes, but their war parties specialized in being able to build desposable canoes very fast for crossing big rivers, and lakes like Champlain. Perhaps something involving a tough waterproof skin that you carry, but using simple disposable tree limbs for structural parts so you don't need to carry those with you on the hiking bits.
Anybody here done any packrafting? The idea intrigues me.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/packrafting.html
Thanks.
I've not heard of any one doing it outside the western states.
papa john
12-06-2008, 16:51
There's a guy over on hammockforums.net - TURK - who does that. He has even posted a few videos of him and his raft and gear. This guy is pretty hard core. Rafts in the winter time in Canada.
kayak karl
12-06-2008, 16:58
There's a guy over on hammockforums.net - TURK - who does that. He has even posted a few videos of him and his raft and gear. This guy is pretty hard core. Rafts in the winter time in Canada.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFo7Qy4dGnM
Thanks for the link Karl.
kayak karl
12-07-2008, 09:23
me too. i've thought it would be the ultimate trip, ever since i read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a kid.:)
Hammock Hanger
12-07-2008, 09:42
interesting.....
Doing this in winter isn't my idea of fun, but I could see planning a hike that ends at a major river - where you float out for a couple of days. Utah comes to mind.
I've thought of this too but haven't been ballsy/rich enough to pioneer it.
Near the north end of PA Mid State/Great Eastern Trail there are 2 crossings of Pine Creek, a major floating stream often called the "Grand Canyon of PA" and then a choice of route to head up the main stem on West Rim Trail or up a tributary on main MST to other creek encounters. On such a trip one would see different scenery up vs. down.
Anybody here done any packrafting? The idea intrigues me.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/packrafting.html
Thanks.
Does building a raft out of driftwood, loading 7 packs on it, then swimming/pushing it about a mile across Lake Powell count? I didn't do it but good friends of mine did.
Saved them about 7 miles of road walk in 100+ temps.
I have combined canoing/backpacking on Isle Royale. Canoed the first leg, met up with the other half of our group, and they canoed back while we hiked. Worked out great and could probably work rafting too with some planning tho' rafting is usually more linear.
Does building a raft out of driftwood, loading 7 packs on it, then swimming/pushing it about a mile across Lake Powell count? I didn't do it but good friends of mine did.
Saved them about 7 miles of road walk in 100+ temps.
Not really, but sounds like a whole bunch of fun!
Knew a guy in CO that had a packable float tube set up. But you know how flyfishermen can be.
TunnelvisionGAME09
12-08-2008, 13:59
Check out Alpacka Rafts (http://www.alpackaraft.com). This is what Turk is shown using. My husband and I looked into them this summer but budget would not allow. There are some pretty amazing videos on youtube with footage of repairing a raft attacked by a bear, etc.
I would like to know, back in the days of Last of the Mohicans and all that, just how much travel on foot the average brave did, and how much paddling by canoe, and how much time was spending kicking about the village, playing lacrosse and all that. I would imagine it varied from individual to individual and from trip to tribe. I wonder sometimes where I would have fitted in to a tribal situation like that, or over in Scotland 2000 years ago, and how much different my fitness and personality and temperament might have been, had I lived to my current age of 46.
Well, this thread is about drifting. :)