Here is a quick trip report on a packrafting loop I just did in the Gila Wilderness of southwestern New Mexico. (pics later if I can actually resize them successfully)
By the numbers the trip was as follows: River flow: 500cfs at Gila throughout trip
Distance (time): 46 miles in raft split up into 39 (10 hours on water), 2(1 hr), and 5 mile (2 hr) segments; 31 miles walking in 29 miles (13 hours moving) and 2 mile segments.
Days: I took 5 nights to do this on soft feet so I slept in late and made camp early. Could be done by someone much fitter in 2 or 3 days .
Weight: 10 lbs base; 10 lbs packraft kit; 10 lbs consumables.
The runoff on the Gila came slightly early this year starting with a rain on snow event that spiked the small river to 9000 cfs on valentines day and flows have held at floatable levels ( anything above 250 cfs) ever since. This perood of water conicided with an earlier yhan normal spring break from teaching so i packed the backpack and packraft and headed south for a week floating and hiking.
I launched near the village of Gila Hot Springs in the “center” the Gila Wilderness at the Grapevine campground/ put-in where the east fork meets the joined flow of the west and middle forks of the Gila River. Weather was sunny and 80 degrees. I inflated the Alpacka yak with whitewater spray deck and strapped the 4400 Porter on the deck and launched. I wore a type 3 pfd with a real river knife.as my luxury item.
2 days of class 2 Rapids and dodging lots of wood in the water brought me to my take-out at the mouth of Turkey Creek. I then hiked north for 2 days following the rough and storm damaged trail 155 the length of Turkey Creek on the first day. Then over the saddle near Granite Peak and down the easy trail through the parks of Little Creek, trail 161. At EE corral I followed a wide stock trail 3 miless north over a ridge and down EE Canyon on trail 833 to the west fork of the Gila River. After a night of light sleet and snow I floated a mile or 2 to the Cliff Dwellings National Monument where the canyon tightened and constant portaging around wood and an audience of Rangers led me to decide to deflate and walk the 2 miles of road to the visitors center where the middle forks flow would join the west forkside and yield 5 miles of floating back to the truck ( no portaging needed in this section for anything smaller than a raft).
At the end of the trip it was surreal floating back into the site of my trip launch days earlier, from up-stream! Joys of a packraft and trails that connect.
Gif of the Gila
