Molly Absolon - Packrafting: Exploring the Wilderness by Portable Boat

Packrafting

Packrafting

Exploring the Wilderness by Portable Boat

Molly Absolon

An imprint of Globe Pequot

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Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2017 Rowman & Littlefield

Photos by Moe Witschard, except where noted

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN 978-1-4930-2747-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-2748-4 (e-book)

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

The author and Rowman & Littlefield assume no liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in the activities described in this book.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all those who provided guidance, expertise, ideas, and corrections for this project. Your help ensures that this book reflects the most up-to-date packrafting techniques and equipment. Youve also motivated me with new ideas about where to go and what to do with my packraftideas I hope Ive conveyed in this book to inspire others. Special thanks to Emily McGinty, Forrest McCarthy, and Luc Mehl for reading the text and giving me feedback. Thanks to Thor Tingey and Alpacka Rafts for launching the sport of packrafting and for the use of the historical images in this book. Thanks to Moe Witschard for his beautiful images as well as his input on the text. Moes photos really make this bookwithout them its just another instruction manual; with them its an aspirational guide to packrafting adventure. Moes wife, Marlena Renwyck, deserves a shout-out for being his patient model in many of the photos. I look forward to packrafting adventures with the two of you in the future. Finally, thanks to Don and Sarah Carpenter, Julie Mueller and Don Sharaf, Emily Tepe and Dirk Kramer, and Molly and Andy Tyson for paddling with me. Youve all informed this book by being part of my own packrafting path.

And, of course, thanks to my husband, Allen OBannon. Allen is my adventure partner and the first to read everything I write. He introduced me to packrafting and river travel, so without him, this book would have never happened.

Introduction

I love backpacking, but fun isnt the word I usually use to describe the experienceat least not when I have been hiking for miles and miles with a load on my back. Nonetheless, Ive explored some incredible country using only my feet and been perfectly content... that is, until I discovered packrafting.

Packrafting can take you places you might never experience on foot. Here boaters float the Tara River in Montenegro.

I remember floating down the South Fork of the Flathead River in the Bob Marshall Wilderness on my first extended packrafting trip and passing a group of hikers walking along the riverbank. We waved and drifted by, quickly leaving them behind as the current carried us. At that moment I knew if there was a floatable river on my next backpacking adventure, I was bringing my packraft. Why walk when you can float and enjoy the scenery?

Hikers head downstream along Alaskas Jago River with their packrafts, looking for water deep enough to paddle.

Dont get me wrong; I love hiking. I love scrambling up peaks and walking through alpine meadows dotted with flowers. I love the smell and hushed darkness you experience hiking through old-growth forest. But I also love the different way you experience the wilderness while floating down a river. Rivers give you a totally new perspective on the world around you. The skills you need are nothing like those you use to move across the land. Your senses are alert to the way the current travels and the sound the water makes as it flows over rocks or piles up in a rapid. Your body awareness shifts from your feet and legs to your upper body as you twist and turn to move your paddle blade through the water. You experience moments of nervous anticipation above rapids and ecstatic joy at the bottom. And you often float past wildlifedeer, moose, otters, and waterfowlas you travel downstream.

For me, and many others, there is something special about river life that brings us back year after year to experience its magic. The fact that with a packraft you can combine that magic with the magic of hiking adds to the power of these trips. You feel more connected to the natural world when you get to be on both land and water during your journey.

You can use your packraft to access remote wilderness rivers or to boat urban waterways like the Vrbas River in Bosnia.

Not that packrafting is stress and danger free. It can be cold, wet, and uncomfortable in a packraft when the weather is bad and the water temperature frigid. Big rapids can be scary and river hazards dangerous. But life is not risk free, and Id hate to give up the joys packrafting brings me because of my fears of what could happen if things went wrong.

What Is a Packraft?

Packrafts are tough, sturdy, forgiving crafts that you can carry in a backpack, on a bike, or in your airplane carry-on bag. With all the necessary equipmentpaddle, lifejacket or personal flotation device (PFD), helmet, and so fortha packraft outfit typically adds about 10 to 15 pounds to your backpacking load. Its not insignificant, but its definitely manageable, and the doors the equipment opens up for you are huge. With a raft in your backpack, you can opt to hike or boat. You can run a whitewater river or float across a lake. You can hike over a pass, trek down to a river, inflate your boat, and head downstream. Depending on your skills, goals, and imagination, your raft gives you freedom to travel through wild places in ways you never have before.

A friend first introduced me to these little inflatable rafts a few years back. My initial experience was bumping down a roadside Class II whitewater run close to home. And I was hooked. The boats are funny and fun, and they totally changed my relationship to wildlands and whitewater. Id been in a hard-shell kayak a few times and mostly gotten scared. Packrafts let me run rapids without that fear.

Once bitten, I wasnt just looking for cool places to hike when I perused topographic maps planning my summer adventures, I was also looking for cool places to hike to cool rivers to run. It felt as though the packraft had opened up a whole new world for me to explore.