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| At the Falls |
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Packrafting is pretty intuitive, but it helps to know a few things. We put together this page to provide and "Packrafting Primer."
- Paddling Your Alpacka
- How to "Go Packrafting"
- Boating Gear, Simplified
Paddling Your Alpacka
Alpacka rafts are simple and easy to paddle. The basics of paddling a one-person raft are almost instinctive. Alpacka are designed to be "jacks-of-all-trades," usable by everyone. You can figure out the basics of flatwater paddling just playing around.
Basic Handling:
We've distilled some of the basics for paddling in calm water and low-class (Class Iand II) rivers.
- Always wear a PFD. We recommend all our users wear PFDs.
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| Just Explorin' |
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- Alpacka rafts are extremely stable. They are designed not to roll. We build our boats to be extremely stable. Capsizing your raft is pretty hard.
- Falling out isn't a big deal. Falling overboard in deep water isn't a big problem, provided you've practiced the art of getting back into the boat. To do this, flip the raft upright if it's capsized, and pull yourself back in over the side-tube.
- Alpackas bounce! Alpackas absorb and soften impacts, gently bouncing off boulders and other obstacles.
- Alpacka rafts are shallow-draught boats. They "hover." Alpacka rafts are relatively smooth-bottomed, with a shallow draught and no keel. Although this means the raft doesn't "track" like a kayak, it also makes the boat easy to spin and scull side-to-side. You can also skim over obstacles and into shallow landing spots. As one of our boaters puts it: "an Alpacka is more like a helicopter than an airplane."
- Spin! Spinning is useful in our boats. You can spin around and off obstacles. It's also fun. It's good to practice spinning, because your raft is going to "want" to spin when it hits obstacles in a river. You can use this to your advantage.
- Alpacka rafts are sensitive to windage. The same high buoyancy which allows an Alpacka raft to float over eddylines and descend shallow creeks makes it sensitive to strong winds. Fighting a headwind on open water can be a little challenging.
- Alpacka rafts can puncture. Initially, most Alpacka owners are very concerned that their boats will puncture. After using the boats for a few months, that hesitancy is replaced by aggressive confidence. Yes, our boats are tough, but they are inflatable and they can puncture. Be wary of sharp objects! Don't boat down something you aren't prepared to swim out.
Want info on Whitewater Performance? Check out the Whitewater & Technical Paddling page.
How to "Go Packrafting"
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| Ahhhhh... |
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The essence of a packrafting trip is remarkably simple: find someplace you'd like to float or paddle your boat, get your packraft, and off you go! It's that easy. Some of our favorite "trips" are to the lake after work, or in the local wetland, floating on a lazy summer Sunday, watching the herons and beavers.
Examples of Packrafting Activities...
"High Laking," often with a fishing rod. Pack up to an alpine lake, and off you go.
Hike Up, Float Down. Your classic packrafting trip. Hike up into the wilderness, hop in theriver, and float down! It's a way to see a different side of the trip, and we know older trampers prefere it because easier on their bodies.
Car Boatin'! Will, a former Alaska fishing fleet skipper, told us the beststories about "car boating." He'd keep his Explorer in the trunk ofhis car, and every time he saw someplace - a pier, a wetland, a channel- he wanted to explore, he'd park, inflate his boat, and go for a row.
Rowing with the Dog around the local lake. We're prettyfond of this one. An evening row on the lake with the dog is one ofour favorite ways to unwind at the end of the day.
Running a river, via car-boat-bike. This is a great "after work trip" for athletes. Grab packs with yourrafts in them, load your bikes on the car, and drive to the river. Drop the bikes off at the take-out. Drive up to the put-in, inflateyour rafts, and float the river down to your bikes. The rafts go backin the packs, you hop on the bikes, and pedal back to the car. Voila!
Bikerafting. Another great day trip option, bikerafting is: biking to the put-in, paddling or floating a river with your bike-on-board, then biking home from the take-out. There's even some fun bikerafting entries on Surly Bikes blog .
"The Big Traverse." These are those "trips for the intrepid," when you really want to get out somewhere remote, and make the river a part of your journey. Some boaters link hikes with multiple river crossings anddescents, often taking a week or more in the wilderness. Otherscross mountain ranges, hiking up one side and paddling down the otherside. At their logical extreme, these become "Raftaneering" trips,often combining such elements as mountain biking, mountaineering,skiing, brush travel, orienteering, whitewater, and long floats. For a somewhat comical "Big Traverse" story, you can read an Outside Magazine story of transecting the Olympic Mountains, WA, from Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean - saltwater to saltwater.
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| Not much hi-tech gear required here. |
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Boating Gear, Simplified
Boating gear can be confusing if you're new to water sports. We can demystify it a little...
for calm-water, mild-weather boating:
Alpacka rafts come standard with an Inflation Bag, Repair Kit, and Stuff Sack. You can also find our downloadable user manual here . The Big 3 + your included accessories are all you need for calm-water, mild-conditions paddling. Having a snack and a some sunscreen doesn't hurt, though :-)
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