Charlie Woodruff enjoyed his first packraft experience on the North Fork of the Virgin in Zion National Park. Starting at the Temple of Sinawava we descended The North Fork through the Court of the Patriarchs and Satin’s Staircase. The Springdale Stream Gage recorded 280 cfs at the time of our descent. We portage Corral Falls.
My friend Diana and I took packrafts down to the Colorado in Canyonlands. We rafted about 10 miles of flat water, before The Confluence, and a few more miles of flatwater afterwards until we ran the first 8 rapids of Cataract Canyon. This was Diana’s first overnight backcountry trip ever, she had fun and we are still friends.
A brief video from our 30 day trip on the Grand Canyon last month…
we had a few packrafts around, even though most of the video is canyons and
rafting…
The Grand Canyon is an immense place, almost unfathomable in scale, and one of
the last places in the American West to be explored. John Wesley Powell called
it the “Great Unknown,” having no idea what rapids, falls, or canyons awaited
him on his first descent of the river in 1869. In the decades since, the Canyon
has been a playground for dozens of explorers. River runners, backpackers,
routefinders, lithic hunters, and peakbaggers have all laid claim to the
Canyon’s iconic landmarks, often seeking out the prestigious “firsts.” While
many significant points of interest were being explored, there was one feature
that was left almost entirely ignored: the Canyon’s innumerable technical slots.
Deep within this vast wilderness are secret and intimate tributaries rarely
visited by man, hiding some of the Canyon’s most remarkable features. The
barrier to entry is steep. To explore them, one must have a knowledge of
backpacking, packrafting, rappeling, anchor building, and off-trail navigation.
The Last of the Great Unknown is the story of these slots, the canyoneers who
systematically explored their drainages, and the secrets hidden deep within
their walls.
In February 2011, a group of 16 set out to run the Grand Canyon and descend as
many slots as possible en route. The itinerary was ambitious. 280 miles of
whitewater, 30 days and 22 slots. The tally included 7 fully loaded boats, 5
rookie boatmen, 1400 packed meals, a steady flow around 20k cfs, and an ungodly
amount of 4 a.m. wakeup calls.
That video on the 30 days in the GC is so good, I think I am going to quit making videos.
Fall 2011? Does that mean Banff?
Decided to buy a new camera and try HD:
Montana Creek: May 14, 2011
Little Susitna: June 8, 2011
East Fork Iron Creek: July 9, 2011
Awesome HD video RomanDial…
Cant wait to get out this year and do some of that!!
a bit more packrafting footage from our trip on the grand canyon this past winter…
These videos are great! Thanks for sharing, everyone! =D
A quick bikerafting trip for people in the Mat-Su Valley: park at Napa in Palmer, ride bike with raft to Sutton on the Matanuska Railroad trail, raft to the Matanuska bridge on Arctic, and ride bike back to Napa. If you like a challenge throw in a dog for good measure. Make sure it is a mushing dog so it can pull you home.
The final event of the 2011 Willow Creek Whitewater Festival put on by Susitna Sled and Kayak: teams of three race to be the first to get their beach ball from Redgate to the Shirleytown bridge using only paddles and boats (no hands or putting the ball on your boat).
The original agreement was not to mess with other teams beach balls…that agreement was quickly forgotten!
If you run whitewater in Alaska you will recognize many of the participants.
Patrick and I did the “not-so-cheap” version of Sheep Creek on Saturday. Willow Creek was at about 900 cfs and the class III on Sheep was great. I now understand why this is referred to as a “classic”.
Eric Parsons, Dylan Kentch, Mike Curiak, Steve “Doom” Fassbinder and I fat bike and packrafted the 225 miles down the wildest part of the Lost Coast in 10 days of late June. Gordy and Thai even left us a note at the outlet of the lake draining Grand Plateau Glacier. This trip showed me the value of tidewater packrafting. I used an extended and spray decked 2011 Scout. It worked well for carrying a bike and weighed 4 lbs.
Here are some visual highlights of this incredible route, one of the most varied and interesting in the State, in my opinion.
Denali traverse by bike-ski-packraft!
Luc’s vid embedded… but it really deserves a click though to his site above so you can watch the higher rez version.
The automated forum nazi won’t let me embed a vid or even post a link to it, for fear of my newbness here meaning spam. Anyone care to embed it, please? Or give me a workaround? It’s on vimeo, vid # 25943565.
Thanks,
MC
Got the Vimeo embed working… but you should really jump to the page to watch it in higher def.
Mark Oathout and I made this run on July 23rd, 2011. This is a great packrafting creek!
Aniakchak Crater Video and photos.
Can’t embed anything… here is the link:
-Luc
August 2011 runs of Moose Creek near Palmer, Alaska. Video has a few shots of the Baylee self-bailer in action.