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

Montana Creek is open at a gauge reading 450 cfs yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX6UbQpRE2E

There's a little ice, but was super fun, if a long drive from Anchorage.

Lots of ice bridges in third canyon.

Not quite ready for general consumption yet.

http://packrafting.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... t-and.html

The new boat is the best Alpacka thing since spray decks.

http://packrafting.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... t-and.html

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?

On the Franklin River recently we had some interesting portages. The easiest way was to strap the pack on the bow in such a way so that we could pick the boat up and walk with it inflated on our backpacks. This video shows how to attach the pack to the boat in a simple, convenient and secure way usi...

The Vimeo version of the Franklin has the soundtrack

http://vimeo.com/19228804

The Vimeo version

http://vimeo.com/19228804

has the soundtrack

Can't wait to get one of these new boats. May go back to using a Yak....although the Llama is a big stable boat for big water.

Bill Hatcher has some good photos and information on his blog here
http://billhatcher.typepad.com/bill_hat ... .html#more

and on his website here

http://www.billhatcher.com/#a=0&at=0&mi ... 00&s=0&p=5

Great Grand Canyon and NZ vids Ganey and Forrest --- the GC one made my heart race and palms sweat....

Here's a Franklin River (Tasmania) video



and another little river there, the Anne

Bill Hatcher, son Cody Rome and I just finished 5 days on the Franklin. This is a wild, temperate, multiday adventure, certainly one of the best, if not the best, mix of whitewater and pristine wilderness in the southern hemisphere. We took the TassieLink bus to Donaghy's Lookout Trail from Hobart. ...

Yep it was really low, but doable. Three more inches would've been nice. SIx inches, pushy, and twelve inches scary, I think.

Bill Hatcher, son Cody Roman and I got two recommendations to run the Anne, a steep (400 feet/mile) creek run starting near Lake Pedder and running into the Huon. Beta was scarce and fortunately so was water. The Tahune Gauge read 0.75 m the day we descended the Upper Anne and a little more but not ...

Well we are here and the water levels seem pretty high, so that's good. We are just sort of limbering up now: Picton, Styx, stuff like that. We have plans to do Franklin (of course) and others but wondering if anyone on the Tazzie end of things knows about the New River on the south coast? Is it wor...

Wondering about the Jane and the Dennison: how long is each? And how difficult?

Yes, recall watching the Franklin come up a meter in a night. Like the looks of that "six rivers trip"....good to know that there's water down there. A few years ago it seems like it'd be a drought leading into the summer.

Thanks Steve,

Would like to go to Tazzie, but doubt I'll make it this year....maybe, though.

Hello all Down Under.

How is the summer season looking water-wise this year?

Is it too early to say? Franklin and Jane?

Upper Willow, October 10, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLOJpeygPHs Luc Mehl is now battle rolling regularly in his thigh straps. Still, he wants to get a kayak in part to improve his paddling skills. He's also hucking big drops with beautiful boofs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbnEfpsnj7I ...

Others can check, but I'm thinking that's "Yukla" in the Chugach Mountains above Eagle River. That 8000+ foot peak dominates the put-in for Echo Bend of Eagle River and "Polar Bear Peak" dominates the end of Echo Bend's main rapids. In the fall this is likely the most scenic stretch of packrafting i...

One thing to think about when using thigh straps in a single chambered packraft: if your boat is cut and deflates quickly, then you may well find yourself wrapped in your deflated boat, particularly if you have lots of velcro to keep the deck closed and the boat dry. The Alpacka designers might thin...

"Ironically as they paddle more and more whitewater, their reward circuitry (for dopamine) dulls, which makes the easier runs less satisfying and drives them to still harder runs and bigger drops to compensate."

Finding dopamine satisfaction:

Paddling Regression is so right about Echo Bend right now. It's like a hot-dog butt-boater says, "stupid fun" right now and super beautiful with Yukla at the put in and Polar Bear looking good over the final drops and the fall colors all in Alpacka yellow along the banks. This is a possible after wo...

Forrest McCarthy named this the "Cant Talk" route as it links the Cantwell area to Talkeetna and passes through the North Talkeetnas where some FDs still lurk. We did this in June 2007, at essentially high-ish water. I am reposting it here as it's hard to find in the forums but has some beta others ...

Bird Creek's Lower Canyon (the Inner Sanctum, between Mushroom and Bird Falls) is clean right now (Sunday Sept 5) but pushier than than during last fall's flipping Bird extravaganza -- Ship's reading 4.8 on the USGS site. Bird's closer than Montana Ck maybe not quite as exciting but still well worth...

Alastair, the Icelandic images are great -- that place looks incredible. Have you posted a map?

Gordy Vernon and I ran the lower canyon with the NOAA and USGS gauges reading around 450-465 cfs or 5.4-5.5 feet yesterday. This is about 100 cfs higher than when I did it last year. The center line on "Big Sky Country" the tallest waterfall at the entrance of the lower canyon looked pretty bad, a r...

Wrangells and Brooks Range:

Maybe get something like this out for 2010....fingers crossed.

Why not....

"Triple A"-- a route that visits most of the scenic highlights of the Central Brooks Range as it crosses the six million acre Gates of the Arctic National Park. The route is best done in August, when bugs are sparse, days are long, and colors intensifying. Anaktuvuk, Arrigetch, Ambler are three touc...

Packing the inflation bag when you have no pack and worry about poky things around the boat prompted me to cut the sticks free from my inflation bag and store them in the paddle. By cutting them free I mean I just made a little hole and slid them out, then burned the nylon with a lighter to keep it ...

A bit late but not never....

When it comes to theory vs empiricism, it's really best to go with the facts.

If you put thigh straps in your packraft, and actually use them there, you won't go back to a strapless boat.

You can get to that good water faster and without the scree bash by hiking in from near Fourth of July Creek and taking the ATV/horse trail upstream as far as you want.

I have removed my sticks by cutting a small hole in the sleeve and then I store the sticks in my break down paddle and stuff the blow up bag minus the sticks elsewhere. This is worth doing if you are having trouble finding a place to put the blow up bag -- like running Class IV creeks without any ge...

This is super. Thanks for posting it. It'll be interesting to see packrafters rediscover sea-kayak skills as we have whitewater ones.

Little Su is super fun right now, so fun I ran it three times in the last week. The best place to put in when it's this low (3.3 feet) is at 11 Mile Fishhook Road. Leave a bike at the Fishhook Bridge (about 8.5 mile), then drive up and park at the Government Peak Picnic Area. Walk up the road 50 yar...

Inflatable Kayakers have been using thigh straps longer than Alpacka has been in business. Here's a discussion on their safety from Mountain Buzz: http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f11/are-thigh-straps-in-iks-dangerous-29312-2.html#post192406 Worth a read if you have any doubts about their safety r...

Been getting a bunch of questions about this classic so posted http://packrafting.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... arthy.html

Brad Meiklejohn, Paul Schauer and I flew in from Talkeetna to an unnamed lake about 7 miles from boatable water on June 19. It took us three hours to walk to the put-in and another 4 hours to get to the Fairview in Talkeetna. In between the 11 miles of Disappointment took 8 hours of our full attenti...

That's an awesome post on Wikipedia -- also it made the featured page there. It needs an edit, however, to make a reference to the modern packraft.

this pack is sold

The boating part, from McCarthy down. Check out all the snow from the Bremner down to the Flag Point Bridge and the "packraft scooch" on Miles Lake's late ice.

Some Alaskan-style vid of the Witch

This is a great pack (72 L), just too big for me (I need a medium). It's perfect for packrafting, has hip pockets and a dyneema sack and is an improvement over previous models. Weighs 2 lb 1 oz. Used for one 3 day hike plus a week of floating. $100 plus shipping although I'd prefer to sell in ANC/Va...

Video of White River to McCarthy:

The men's has sold, but the women's is till up. It's really nice, practically brand new. I swear I think it's been used only one aftrenoon on Eagle River by our daughter.