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If you're looking for a way to spice up a day hike, this sport may be just what you're looking for.
It's a pretty basic sport. Your day begins as any hiking day would. You load up your daypack, but you add a one-man raft, a paddle, and a PFD to your pack.
“Packrafts are extremely durable, lightweight. They weigh about four pounds. Very, very durable personal rafts that we utilize to get into some of Alaska's most remote areas and just explore it and paddle it,” said Michael Crotteau, guide, True North Expeditions.
Once your backpack is ready, it's time to venture upstream. When you've gotten to where you wanted to go and had a chance to explore the river, it's time to unpack the raft and get ready for the ride back down.
“Learning the skills of packrafting is fairly easy. These boats are very forgiving. They're easy to learn. The trick is just learning the river's character,” said Crotteau.
First timers may want to take a class or hire a guide to learn everything you need to know. And once you try it for the first time, you'll find after a few minutes, that it's a pretty easy and fun sport.
“It's really a lot of fun. I mean it's really portable. You can pretty much just pick a day, and go out, and really have a lot of fun, and enjoy yourself, and see a lot of really nice stuff,” said Joe Wilson, first time packrafter.
Places to purchase packrafts:
REI
www.rei.com
(907) 272-4565
Alpacka Raft
www.alpackaraft.com/
(907) 929-8255
Packraft Guided Trips:
True North Expeditions
www.truenorthexpeditions.org/home.html
(907) 332-RAFT
If you have any ideas for the Get Out series that you'd like to share, you can give me a call on the Get Out Hotline at 273-3118.
