Ultralight packraft trip report – Canol Heritage Trail

[adelorenzo]

For those interested, I carried my ultralight on its maiden voyage this summer. It was 360 km on the Canol Heritage Trail which has a number of rivers that need to be crossed and in some years a small lake. The number of water crossings that require a raft depends on water levels, on this trip I used the boat for three crossings in total.

Hiking this far and only needing a raft a few times weight is the biggest concern obviously. My total padding setup weighed just 1.07 kg (2.36 lb).

• DIY Packraft Ultralight 843 g
• Speedo swimmer’s hand paddles 217 g
• Piece of vinyl tubing 14 g (adapts Thermarest pump sack to boat valve)

The ultralight worked perfectly for this trip. I had a fairly major seam failure (about a 2-inch gap) at one point but that’s of course due to my shoddy construction as well as the fact that I built this boat a year and a half ago and never really tested it. It still got me across the river just fine and, of course, Tuck Tape to the rescue.

The swimmers hand paddles worked really well and I think I paid like $20 for them. Definitely something I would do again in the future on trips where weight and pack space is at a premium.

Using the thermarest pump sack to inflate the boat works great and means I don’t have to carry a second, heavy inflation bag. I was solo so hard to get footage actually using the boat. Here are the links if anyone is interested:

Video

Written Trip Report

Topic

[e.ian.howick]

>That’s a nifty paddle setup! You don’t have any issue with the blades twisting?

Yes, it was an issue, it would have been good to put some tape around the walking pole joints to stop them twisting, but I could manage getting across those rivers.

I think my paddle set-up would give better propulsion at a similar carried weight to your hand paddles, but I’d still want a better paddle if I was heading down a grade 1-3 river. The river in my picture above is discoloured, flowing quite swiftly, it’s been raining about 50% of the time for the last week. I needed to pick a spot with a decent section and an exit point downstream, I was getting step downstream several hundred yards by the time I got across, so I’m not confident hand paddles would have been enough.

I have some quite light 25 mm dia carbon tube and a piece of ferrule tube, I’m going to make a two piece shaft from it I can lash those plastic blades to, think I can get a functioning paddle for under 400 g. I might try to make some very light carbon-kevlar blades that can fit on the paddle shaft, they probably won’t be lighter than the plastic ones but might be stronger and more efficient.

Yes, I agree the DIY Ultralight looks a great boat for my use, but thanks for the pointer to the Supai Canyon, I might end up getting one of those for this style of mainly alpine hiking trip, but where I need to get across a big river at some point. (Unless the DIY Ultralight comes back into stock!) A complete set-up including paddle for less than 1 kg would be really good.

[e.ian.howick]

Great Effort!

I’m doing a similar style of trip, mainly hiking/transalpine but carrying a packraft to get across rivers that would be otherwise uncrossable. I took a couple of paddle blades from a cheap beach toy inflatable and drilled a couple of holes so I could lash them to my walking poles. Good enough to cross even a quite fast flowing river, although I’d want something better for descending such a river. (Yes, it’s a Klymit LWD, I’m in the early stages of building a Skeena, but would really like to have a DIY Ultralight for such trips where I’m carrying ice axe, crampons, small alpine tent and a packraft).

 

[adelorenzo]

That’s a nifty paddle setup! You don’t have any issue with the blades twisting? I know Alpacka used to sell a trekking pole paddle at one point.

The DIY Ultralight is pretty amazing given it’s much lighter than the Klymit LWD, same weight as the Supai but it’s a full-sized boat whereas the other two are quite small. Of course it is made of much lighter materials, I can attest that it is easy to damage.

I’m using mine again this weekend for an extremely long day hike that starts with a river crossing. 3 of us will be ferrying back and forth.

[Matt (Admin)]

Amazing achievement! It’s a really impressive feat of endurance, and on a beautiful, historic trail. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for the tip about the swimmers’ paddles, too. I’m curious, do you find it easier to paddle forwards or backwards with them?

[adelorenzo]

Thanks Matt!

Not quite sure about the question? I sat in the boat facing the front and used my hands to push backwards, basically how you would normally paddle. The paddles themselves are on my palms so I am pushing them through the water, the straps are not strong enough to be able to pull the paddles through. Hopefully that makes sense.

I used these Speedo Power Plus they were like $20 on Amazon.

[Matt (Admin)]

Very cool! It’s a great idea for ultralight propulsion.

[Author]

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