Nearly twenty years ago, after several weeks exploring the Maze in Canyonlands National Park, I descended to Spanish Bottom intending to swim across the Colorado River. While waterproofing my backpack by lining it with several heavy-duty garbage bags, I could hear the distant rumbling of whitewater in legendary Cataract Canyon below. Wanting to avoid the canyons perilous rapids I wandered a healthy distance up the section of flat water and jumped in. With backpack in tow I began my swim across the mighty river. Underestimating the speed of the current, I watched the far bank zip past at an alarming rate. Breathless and pumped full of adrenaline I reached the other side just above the first rapid. Simultaneously terrified and enthralled by the mysteries below, I dreamed of someday returning.
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Companion forum thread to:
Ultralight Packrafting in Cataract Canyon
Is the Stephen Koch in this article the 7 summits snowboarder guy?
Does anybody who went on this trip know if the pack Steven Koch used is a Jam2 or a Pinnacle?
Sweet article… I've been around the Colorado way too much to have never rafted it.
Without explaining my reasonings, I feel this is the best article ever published by BPL. I would like to experience this trip, possibly via a BPL led outing.
I have the Jam2 and that pack looks much larger, def looks like the Pinnicle.
This trip sounds like a blast!
Makes me want to get my packraft in the water now!
I was not on the trip but the pack is a Pinnacle. You can tell because the shoulder straps have "load lifter" straps at the top which you can see in the picture. The Jam2 lacks these straps.
Dan
Ryan,
If you look at the picture of the pack you will notice load lifters attached to the shoulder straps running up to the pack. This feature is absent from the Jam2 but is present on the Pinnacle pack.
The packraft rescue course Forrest refers to will be taught in Jackson Hole in April by Scott Solle with Forrest helping out.
Details here:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/10399/index.html
Yes- it is the same Stephen Koch of the Seven Summit Snowboard Quest. And it is a Go-Light Pinnacle Pack. For the last few years I have used a Gust for packrafting. We then line the Go-Light packs with a light-weight Sea to Summit Dry Bag.
As a lightweight backpacker, mountaineer and former kayak guide, all I can say is WOW!!!!
One of the best articles I have read here. It opens up some ideas that have been in the back of my head.
I look forward to more Alpaka Packrafting Articles- hopefully some about the New Zealand trip that predates this one.
I may have to add an Alpaka to my fleet.
Thanks,
Christo
Years ago, a friend and I did a trip like the one Forrest did 20 years back. We flew into Salt Lake on a 3 day weekend, drove to Needles in a rental car, and took off on a trip that we later called the Blitzkreig.
We hiked Elephant Hill to Lower Red Lake in blazing heat, swam at Spanish Bottom with our packs in large dry bags, pulling them with cords around looped around our shoulders. The river was in high flood stage and the swim was extremely frightening. But we made it and spend the next day on a big loop through Ernie's Country and Standing Rocks. On our way out, we met some rafters who kindly gave us a ride across the river so we wouldn't have to risk our lives twice. We hiked out and drove like mad to make our plane in Salt Lake.
It was an insane trip and one of the most memorable of my life. It pushed us both to the edge and we really had to rely on each other. The best kind of adventure.
I loved reading the article and thinking about this fantastic variation on our trip. What if we had gone down instead of across? Thanks Forrest!
Doug
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