Pioneers with Pool Toys

This weeks blog is brought to you by instructor, Mike Bueno:

Packrafting in Alaska has become the hot new trend in wilderness exploration these past few years. With the enormous amount of public lands and lack of roads leading into the backcountry, wilderness travelers have turned into pioneers of a new sport following a classic form of travel: the rivers. Alaska rivers have turned many travelers, hunters and NOLS courses away from some terrain–but not any longer. With the advent and wide acceptance of the packraft, these once inaccessible areas have become the new weekend adventure. This year, NOLS Alaska was proud to offer the first 30-day packrafting course.

A Packrafting Party in the Alaskan Wilderness.
The grey, brown glacial flow of the Susitna River gently carried our fleet of 16 packrafts downstream. Yellow paddle blades flashed as they rose out of the water and fell back towards the waters surface. Distant snowy peaks of unnamed mountains glistened in the sunlight. This was it: the first Packrafting course run by NOLS. Years of behind-the-scene work had finally culminated into a packrafting course being formed, staffed and put into the field.

The proposed route was to take our course down three different rivers via boats mixing in hiking on mountainsides carpeted in tundra. With over 200 hundred miles to cover, the beginning of the course felt more like the first ever NOLS packraft adventure race than a standard NOLS course. In the first week we boated about 65 miles and hiked over 20 miles to get our re-ration.

After leaving the slow, constant downstream ebb of the Susitna River, we hiked for 10 days through the southern Talkeetna Mountains and dropped down onto the Talkeetna River. Unfortunately, the Talkeetna River was a raging mass of flooded glacial melt water and strainers lined the gravel braids, hanging out into the surging mass of water heading downstream. Instead of floating downstream as planned we embraced the versatility of packrafts and stuffed the boats once again in our packs.

With a few more days on foot, the chance to get back into the river was finally insight. We took the opportunity to push our students to clinic and build quality paddling skills. These boating skills would be invaluable to handle what would come downstream and in the following days. Over the next few days boating, the group was relieved to take a break from hiking and put their new skills to the test on the swift current and braided channels of the Talkeetna.

Progress downriver was slower than expected and the clock was still ticking. We were at the half way mark of the course but it was no time to take it easy. We still had miles of ‘schwack to tackle on foot as the race continued. Finally, after three weeks of early mornings and late nights, it felt like we were going to reach our destination on time. With a few days of mellow hiking up high on the tundra, we were ready to head down to the final portion of our journey, Clear Creek.

Employing our newfound skills, we floated down the remainder of Clear Creek and slipped out into the main flow of the Talkeetna River towards our final destination. The first NOLS packrafting course was a success. Through a combination of hiking and floating rivers our course covered over 200 hundred miles of wild Alaskan terrain in 28 days. More importantly, the expedition began with a group of students who were previously unable to paddle or backpack efficiently and ended with competent campers and wilderness travelers versed in land and river travel.