Packrafting on the Chickaloon

A few weeks ago Brad offered to take me out packrafting. We headed out to the Chickaloon River, north of Anchorage an hour or two, for a great day on the river. We hiked up stream about eight miles, and then got out the rafts and floated back down. We encountered a few mildly technical sections - a nice challenge but still plenty navigable - and the rest was smooth sailing.

I did manage to flip on the very last rapid ... read the river wrong and nailed a hole head on. As I plunged into the chilly water, my heart beat definitely quickened its step, but my feet quickly found the shallow bottom, and my hands maintained a tight grasp on the paddle and boat. I staggered to shore and readily took Brad up on the offer to walk up stream and repeat that section of river.

Round 2: I aimed for the opening to the right of the hole and shot right though, no problem. Flipping a packraft is like you're first lead fall when climbing. Once you do it, you realize it's not all that bad (as long as you're not in a class IV or V rapid, of course).

All told, we had such a good time, we headed out for another day of packrafting the following weekend (Photos coming soon).

Many thanks go to Brad for not only lending me the gear to packraft, but willingly and patiently teaching me how to do it.

Beautiful blooms!

Brad checking out the route down to the river

Scouting the Chickaloon River

A peek at the current ahead

A beautiful blue mellow river

The rafts ready for the river

All geared up and good to go

Brad at a pullout

The view at the end of the river