I am entering a new water sport activity: packrafting. Yesterday, I performed first test with Alpacka Yukon packraft in Fort Collins’ Riverbend Ponds Natural Area.

I am not thinking about any big expeditions with my packraft at this time. My plans are just to explore short river segments combined with land transportation by inline skates or a bike. And, more opportunities for photography.

First observations:
- A fully inflated Alpacka raft fits inside my Subaru Outback. So, it will be easy to explore some local small lakes and ponds where dragging my expedition canoe would be an overkill.
- This packraft tracts surprisingly well. It is a new 2011 model with an extended stern.
- A comfortable cruising speed on a calm lake was around 2.5 mph. I was able to reach 3 mph. However, an efficient paddle stroke may be restricted with a big backpack or bike placed across raft bow.
- Seating and foot room is pretty tight. Well, I like to have some foot support for paddling – probably not a typical position for river floating.
- I didn’t use a spray deck. It could be useful in that rainy evening.

I am ready for a river test.

Some packrafting resources:
PACKRAFTING! An Introduction and How-To Guide by Roman Dial
Tips & Technique from Alpacka Raft
Tips for your first Packrafting trip by Alastair Humphreys

This is the 10th edition of the annual spring paddling trip on the South Platte River organized this year by 7 paddling clubs: Rocky Mountain Canoe Club, Poudre Paddlers Club, Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak Club, Canoe Colorado/Western Paddlers, High Country River Rafters, Pike Peak River Runners, and Colorado White Water Association.

Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2011 (snow/rain data: April 2nd).
Two trip choices:
- 9 miles from Evans to Kersey
- 14 miles from Evans to Kuner
Meeting at the put-in at Evans Riverside Park at 9:00 No membership is required. This is an easy, casual, flatwater trip, suitable for novices and families.

For a full information download this flyer.

Traditionally, I am joining this trip by launching at Kersey and paddling the 9 mile upstream river segment first instead of a shuttle. In previous years I tried to setup an informal race on this upstream course with participation varying from one to four paddlers. This year I don’t have any specific plans yet.

If there is any interest I would be happy to paddle from Kersey to Evans in a race mode. The start would be around 7am at sunrise (Mountain Daylight Time). Slower boats could start earlier. The idea is to arrive to Evans between 10 and 11 am and join the group for a relaxed downriver paddling.

I had a rather late start to my 2011 paddling season.

One of the readers of my blog, who is planning to paddle 2011 Missouri River 340 race solo and self supported, sent me some questions:

1. Was the self shuttle as easy as you made it sound or was there some difficulties?
2. I suppose you carried enough food and drink to get you through? Or buy at checkpoints?
3. Did you sleep much during the race? On shore or in boat?
4. This would be my first time event of any kind in kayaking. I will be turning 50 next year and have my sights set on doing this. Are there any extra challenges for the 40+ years set to be aware of?

I paddled the MR340 race five times always solo. I was self supported in 2008, but had a shuttle, and in 2010 I was fully self supported including a shuttle. In both these races I paddled my Sea Wind canoe. I will try to answer the above question in the following posts. Let’s start from the first two.

Self shuttle

My self shuttle with Amtrak worked exactly as I described in my previous post. I believe that a key in this operation was to plan enough resting time in a local hotel at St Charles before doing the shuttle.

Of course, it would be nice to perform the entire shuttle operation before the race. I would prefer to spend Friday at a race finish instead of riding a train and driving a car. However, I have a long drive (~10 hours) from Colorado to Kansas City and prefer to spend at least a day to get adjusted to Missouri climate instead of driving between Kansas City and St Charles.