Great video! Incredible. You mean the Paria can be a real river? Rapids and all? Just ankle deep when I hiked it. Amazing vid! Looks like fun. Thanks for posting!
Ahh these are some amazing places you have been going to. I'm close to being a "convert" to packrafts since I feel it gives more access to go on adventures to these unlikely and amazing places. However I have a question: I'm coming from a background of Canoeing II-III level rapids in Finnish and Swedish Lapland and for some reason I'm more drawn into the Aire Bakraft style design. It seems like the Aire would handle in a more natural, canoe style way in the river whereas many packrafts look like floating bathtubs with a handling of a bathtub. What is you opinion on the pros and cons of the Aire, in comparison to the Alpacka?
I've never personally paddled a bakraft, actually (only my friend in this vid has). He said he liked it, and he has demoed almost every packraft there is. Its a huge bonus to store gear inside the tubes (alpackas/kokopellis) for stability/handling if you're into true expeditionary missions. Bakrafts have plenty of rocker, but so do the modern whitewater oriented alpackas. I suspect that the handling of alpackas is superior (check out Mike Curiak's videos from the past year), and I can't imagine they are less durable than aires. I believe aires roll up to a much larger size as well. For many of the missions I do, I don't think I'd have enough trust in packrafts other than the burlier alpackas. Some disagree. Check out Forrest McCarthy's take on the bakraft: he loves it and has one of the best wilderness resumes out there (but is also sponsored by aire I believe).
IM a whitewater kayaker. I have backpacked this canyon. I always thought it would be cool to paddle it. Americanwhitewater should list it on its river pages. Thanks for the video
it's incredibly hard to catch, but yes it should be listed. I consider this to be the (so-far for me) best creek run in the colorado plateau. I'll work on a writeup for AW this year sometime.
Very cool guys! One question: could this realistically be done in a duckie (Tomcat solo) or was there too much hiking & portaging for that to be practical?
we had 2 short portages in 40 miles. BUT nailed the flow window; I always plan for the possibility of a 20 mile mud/quicksand exit if predictions go bunk. Any small craft could navigate most of this river in perfect conditions, the huge trick is to not get left behind by a flow pulse. Are you Okay with postholing shin to thigh deep in a bunch of muddy bullshit? if so, roll the dice...
approx 150 CFS near put-in, approx. 300 CFS at take-out. Had to bivy, Not sure it's quite possible to do the whole run in a day in winter at least, with flows like this.
