I don't have a good photo handy, but we put a string between the two front loops, a second string between the two loops behind that, and put a strap with a clip between the strings. You drop your pack on, clip the clip, and crank it down tight. Need to have a strong clip, and it may need to be repla...

On packraft rescue: We use a very similar position for ferrying people across rivers, except usually with the person face up instead of down (minor difference.) It's pretty stable, but obviously with a pack on front you'd have difficulty, and I haven't tried getting into this position while in chall...

One additional factor to consider is the degree to which a vest will help/hinder re-entry, especially on very large rivers or open water. I haven't systematically experimented with this, but my sense is that buoyancy helps because you have less distance to lift your weight, but bulk in front will be...

We bathed our kids in a packraft tub during our time on Malaspina Glacier, using water heated on a stove. It was less than ideal conditions, but worked. We've also had them out in the yard as kiddie-pools. I wouldn't worry too much about damaging them with hot water. I've even considered (but never ...

We've never worried much about it - and often have left saltwater on boats for long periods. The only thing that may be a problem related to that is that some of our old boats are a little hard to glue to. It may be that the salt somehow alters the chemical composition of the fabric.

We're headed off in a few days for 2 months exploring Malaspina Glacier with our two little kids: http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/Journeys/LifeOnIce.html We'll be using our big red double duck to paddle some rivers that are only recently emerging from under ice, so I think we can claim to be the ...

I've never tried this with a bike, but it's for this purpose that we first experimented with something like Alpacka's packtach. For open water (where re-entry is sort of required) we'd set up a cord that went from the raft, through a loop on the pack, to the paddle. Sometimes would use a wrist loop ...

And there will be another showing! The movie did awesome in the Anchorage International Film Festival, and was voted "Best in Fest" so it'll be showing at the Bear Tooth on Weds. at 8:00 pm.

The inflation bags are sil-nylon, just like a lot of tents... Sil Net will work fine on them.

That said, the air-leakage around the seams doesn't seem to make much difference. I've used them with pinkie-sized holes in them even.

One thing that's fun about a small, relatively cheap, durable video camera is that it seems like a good idea to pull it out when, say, you're engulfed in stinging wet sand that sticks to everything...

That said, there is so much video we should have taken, but didn't...

As some of you know, my wife and I took a yearlong packraft trip from Seattle to the first Aleutian Island a few years ago. We carried a video camera, and now that video has become a full-on feature length documentary, that will be showing for the first time on Dec. 6th, in Anchorage (7:45 pm, One N...

Very nice work. I love the photo of the nose sticking out of the hotspring on your site... Many other good ones in there too.
http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/advent ... nsiceland/

What video camera did you use? We're looking at updating our old-school 2007 tech for our next expedition.

Seems like the trick, if you don't have a full floor, is to replace the shear strength and tension provided by the floor. Sounds like your frame mod might achieve that? It sounds like the sort of thing that would have a really rough rough draft...

Hull speed is less of an issue once you're on the foam, and doesn't apply if the boat is planing. I've also had fun out on the olympic coast, though on one visit a friend of mine almost died. Life jacket is key unless you have a really good way to stay associated with your raft. He got caught in a b...

I also had a good experience with Aqua Bound replacing broken blades for free. Not that that's much consolation when you're still a week from civilization, but nobody builds a totally flawless product.

On occasion I've lost or broken sticks and had to use the bag without... I didn't like it nearly as well, though it's certainly possible. I don't know why just removing the sticks when not in use didn't occur to me. Good idea. I'll go with my sliding sticks thing for a while and see if I like that b...

To put in a good word for flatwater... True, I'd rather paddle another craft in open flat water, but... The failure to track well seems to me to be purely a psychological barrier. It's easy to go in a straight line, your bow just wiggles. As soon as you throw in a handfull of portages between paddle...

You might be able to just make a buoy (maybe using a dry bag?) that would float the bike if you had to ditch it for a bit. For a sense of size... 3 gallons is about 24 lbs flotation (ie exactly equal to displacement... the weight of 3 gallons of water.) Given the bike has some displacement, then you...

I've tried several approaches, and found none easy. Initially I unsealed the heat-seal, cut the thermarest, removed a bit of foam, and then re-heat-sealed them. Then I sealed leaks with Aquaseal. This worked ok, but the leaks that did happen were really difficult to seal and tended to come open in t...

I'm always a fan of a very tight roll to pack my boat away, and I've never seen signs of issues, even when rolling in subfreezing (rarely even subzero) conditions. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Has anyone seen the fabric on old boats crack for any reason? Like after long sun exposu...

Nice post Andrew. A few thoughts: The paddle + current + wind equation is an important way to think about open water travel. Also, there's a big difference in the way wind and current affect your raft. One way of thinking about it is that current affects your velocity (speed and direction) while win...

A note that is slightly tertiary here...

I just refurbished an old worn out bag. One change I made was to make the sleeve that holds the sticks at the top continuous so the sticks can slide. This way the sticks move around on their own and don't wear through the fabric as fast.

Right now I'm using MLD's largest pack. Here's their site: http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/index.php?cPath=25 Overall I like it... but for use packrafting I think it's good to cut off the little plastic hooks that can grab hold of any string that might be about and become an entanglement h...

Pixels... http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/static/thumbs/uploads/photos/IMG_B006857.JPGaX08_D/_thumbs/__IMG_B006857_JPG_300x300_q85.jpg Geologists call the flat bedrock plane that appears at low tide in some places a "wave-cut platform." In Kamishak this phenomena is particularly dramatic, with va...

I've found you can inflate a boat with a mismatched fitting if you have a second person hold the nozzle in place. There's enough volume coming out of the inflation bag that even quite a bit of loss around the mismatched fittings is ok.

Hi Mark, I've messed around a little with a primitive version of your option B, and never got anything to work. I think it has potential though... it'll just take a fair bit of tuning to get it to sit stably and do what you want. I think a 1.5 cm rod would be enough to have an effect, but only a mod...

I'm not sure if yours is the same issue, but I use the "view unread posts" link, and after the migration the forums thought I hadn't read anything... I had to click the "Mark forums read" link on the main page and then things worked normally again. Maybe this will fix your issue too?

I should have let you all know about this much earlier... Erin and I are on a second book tour, and would love to have any of you come check out our presentation. We show lots of photos and a few videos, Erin does some readings from her book, and we show a selection of our gear. Gear includes Erin's...

I know nothing of entrapment or difficult whitewater, but I thought I'd provide a reflection on Sheri's original point that a hard-shell kayak will always serve better than an Alpacka in hard-core river-running. When we do presentations (which incidentally we are right now: http://www.groundtruthtre...

When I've put Thermarests in, I just cram them really tight into the bottom and they seem to do pretty well. But that's not in big hydraulics.

My take: I'd be hesitant to do this unless you're game to field-repair anything that goes wrong. Only do it if you feel like you could cut the part of the patch that overlaps the deck off, since that part is not going to be providing useful strength, and may be endangering the deck. You could take a...

Oddly they do not mention the word "packraft" anywhere in the post. I wonder if this is a deliberate decision?

This is the permalink for the post mentioning their new "Baylee Inflatables":
http://fckayaks.wordpress.com/2010/01/2 ... hitewater/

We've also written on our boats with sharpie. No problems, except it does eventually fade or wear off...

You can also just put the poles cross-wise way out on the bow. You have to get them way out there so they don't constrain your stroke, but it's quick and easy and requires no new loops. We've done it with skis, as well as with walking sticks collected along the way.

Well... if the failure was simultaneous failure of the entire glue surface, then it would be exactly the surface area difference you're describing that was important. But that's probably fairly far from the case. In this case, and in many gear failures, the failure probably begins at a point. Once a...

Esben, I expect that punching holes in your cookpot would do little to protect your neck from being broken by strong currents... I'm assuming the situation here is that your head is in the helmet, unlike the situation you described with the bucket. Your head + helmet has a little more surface area t...

Overall, I think exploring in Misty Fjords is amongst the most exciting packrafting frontiers in Alaska. Between amazing ocean paddling, alpine hiking, and river running, the packraft opens up some really cool options. The Unuk was not particularly sketchy... we were going up it, so it was walking. ...

Dave, I tried that... but for me over the last 10 years the fat just goes to my torso and avoids my butt... my youthful butt fat is sorely missed. For flatwater paddling where I'm not moving much, I do find the seat becomes uncomfortable after an hour or so. A little air out and some small shifting ...

Erin finished her book! It's not quite as packraft-centric as Roman's book, but it tells the tale of our 4000 mile Seattle - Aleutians trip, which was fundamentally a packraft trip. So I'll call it a packraft book. :) And we're going on tour! We'll be through Homer, Kenai, Seward, and Anchorage in t...

I'd be interested to see a picture. One thing I'd like to do is figure out a reliable breakaway point in a cord... Something that'd break under 50 lbs pressure or so. Maybe the fast-tack release is a better way to go though. One reason I like having a lanyard even in (moderate?) whitewater, is that ...

The degree to which you track with a keel is far higher than what you get with a counterweight (even as large as a second person.) It really feels like a keeled boat... a kayak or whatever. It also depends on the size of the keel-pole. A thicker pole provides more resistance to turning. The first on...

The paddle in the water works particularly well when running with a strong wind. You can use it as a rudder and get a fair amount of control. If the boat isn't moving relative to the water though, it's not as useful, and regardless you do have to use one hand to keep it under control. The "sea ancho...

For someone who is quite practiced with the inflation bag, it only takes about 4 "poofs" to get the scout mostly full... probably 1 minute. I'd guess double or tripple that for an explorer. Then you have to top it off by breath, which will take another couple minutes. It takes practice to do it quic...

I've been meaning to try the single-boat pole for some time, but just haven't quite done it (I keep carrying straps with me and not getting around to it.) Also, there is a psychological component to "tracking" on flat water. When I first paddled an Alpacka on flat water, I found it awkward because o...

And the scout is a bit narrower than an Alpaca or Yak. I'm 5' 9.5", 173 lbs, and I find it fine for me, but Erin, who's 5'3" 130 lbs but has a woman's wider hips finds it a bit too tight (with the boat blown up as taught as we can get it.) I also prefer a smaller boat than Sheri suggests, as I like ...

Brad, out of curiousity, have you tried putting the wineskin behind your butt instead of at your feet? It'd mess up the back-rest support, but it might allow you to lock your feet against the bow and also move your center of mass more to the center of the boat. (I'm 5' 9.5" and drive an Alpaca, whic...

We found the velcro's life-span to be far shorter than the rest of the deck, so I'm hoping a zipper might do better. We also installed a clip at the end and corner of the velcro (2007 style decks) once the velcro got weaker. There are little tab-clips that are weak enough that they easily pop under ...

Brad! You stole my idea! We generally go helmet-less... sticking to almost never swimming as protection for the head, but I've often founded myself wishing for that additional layer of protection, especially if it could double as foul-weather insulation and didn't add much weight. I look at our tita...

The SPOT is good fun... we may well have to give that a try on our next big trip. Though the SPOT line suggests otherwise, he didn't actually do the Beluga-Hope paddle. It was blowing 30 down Turnagain when he got there, and would have been riding the tide up the bay. Not a good combo. I think he hi...

I've been happy with the valve on the stern of the scout... I like that you can stand the boat on end to use the mouth-valve.