After a successful inaugural packrafing in Escalante, we were fired up to get back on the water. We quickly got to work planning our second packrafting trip, this time, we were ready for more technical water and add to our growing skills on the water. For this we returned to our beloved Wind River mountain range.

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Fresh off of the Lake Powell trip, we were ready for something different. Don’t get me wrong, hiking through deep and narrow slot canyons to a paddle on Lake Powell was incredible and unique in every sense of the word. However lake travel is on still water. As fun as it was, we were ready to graduate to more “technical” waters and try our hand at a river trip. We went in search of something ideal for beginners, which is how we came across the Green River in Wyoming.

The Green River is nestled in one of our most beloved mountain ranges, the Wind River Range, and immediately knew it had to be the destination of our second packrafting trip. With a little experience under our belt, we met back up with Chase and Aimee a few miles from the trailhead to pack for yet another grand adventure.

At this rate, we were no strangers to how heavy our packs would be, yet it still caught us by surprise when we hoisted our packs onto our backs. Heavy, without verifiable metrics, is just heavy. A few weeks after this trip, we had the opportunity to weigh similarly packed bags. We were floored to find out our packs were just shy of 50lbs… And that was with just one camera and lens. (We normally are toting around a lot more camera gear than that) To put this into context, our base weight for regular backpacking is about 23lbs.

Hunched but excited for what laid ahead of us on trail we got to hiking. The incredible views wasted no time making themselves known.

Originally the plan was to hike roughly 10 miles up stream to camp for the night and then hop in the water the following day. No more than a quarter mile into our hike the trail came close to the first lake. We were quick to noticed the wind was at our backs…

We immediately made our way down to the lake’s edge and got to work inflating our rafts! We couldn’t pass up the golden opportunity to exchange some miles of hiking for assisted paddling. I think we were all just looking for any excuse to be on the water.

By the time we made it to the other side of the lake, the wind had picked up so much we almost didn’t need to paddle. It made for an easy and scenic first few miles of our trek.

Once we were out of the water we paused for lunch and repacked all our our gear back into our packs. Finally, it was time to hike the trail and make some progress towards camp for the night!

Or so we thought. Immediately we came to a deep water crossing. If only we’d looked down the beach before we broke down our boats we would have realized we might need them. In an effort to keep our clothes dry for the day we all stripped down to our underwear and shuttled our gear across one by one. Some of us were left with some suspicious looking wet spots ;)

After our water crossing we were able to start making some progress on trail.

The hike was breathtaking with a new view around every turn. The craggy peaks in these mountains are what keep us coming back to Wyoming year after year.

A few blisters later we were relieved to find camp in a wide open meadow with views up and down the valley.

We felt lucky to have found such a spectacular place to call home for the night as it was a special day!

It was Owen’s birthday and I had something very small, but special planned. So once our tents were set up I got to work on making a fire*.

*I mention this in the video, but want to reiterate it here. We’ve never had a fire in the backcountry because so often there are burn bans in place, no wood collection rules, or at certain elevations they’re just not permitted. Before our hike we did our routine research on the fire regulations for the area and found that we caught a rare window because it was early season! It was a treat to be able to have a warm fire that helped keep the mosquitos at bay. Forest fires are obviously becoming an increasing issue so please be sure to do your research ahead of time if there is any active fire restrictions where you hike/backpack/camp/packraft/etc.

After dinner I surprised Owen with a Birthday-brûlée, candle and all! I packed in the candle to be able to sing Owen happy birthday! I know this may seem like a small and insignificant gesture but this is how we like to celebrate each other. The small things are how we show we’re thinking of each other. He was really surprised I’d slipped the candle in without him detecting it. I was proud to have caught him off guard and couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate him.

That night we all went to bed exhausted, sore, happy and anxiously awaiting our first day on the water!

In the morning we backtracked a few miles to find a conservative place to put in. On our hike up river we found many areas congested with downed trees creating dangerous obstacles for our inflated boats and novice steering abilities. We wanted to be sure that we came back from this trip excited for more. Thankfully, our scouting made it easy to find a good safe place to transition our trip onto the water!

PACKRAFTING PACKING LIST

Next week we’ll be sharing a full “How To” on packing for a backpacking/packrafting trip. But for now I wanted to share a bit of our packing list to give you an idea of what we brought along for the river portion of this trip. Everything listed below is in addition to our backpacking packing list which you can check out here!

• Chase & Aimee’s Kokopeli Rafts. If you’re wanting to get into whitewater with your raft, I recommend this version instead because it has a spray deck that will keep your boat from filling with water.

• Our Alpacka Rafts. We each have the Wolverine because of the internal storage space, maneuverability in whitewater, and spray deck. We have some big goals for some future trips we hope to get into!

• Paddles. Chase and Aimee have the ultra light touring paddles which are nice and light, but a little on the long side, particularly in the tight quarters of the slot canyons. Owen and I carry the whitewater paddles that are shorter, nimble, and durable. However, they are not quite as light. No matter what, if you plan to hike with your paddles to access remote water ways, be sure to get a four piece paddle so it can be easily packed in!

• NRS Straps for strapping our packs to the bow of the boats.

• NRS lifejackets… safety first!

• NRS utility knife. This is for the unlikely situation of flipping in our boat. If we get tangled in straps the knife gives us a quick and easy way to cut our way free.

• Dry Bags. And lots of them! When we store our gear inside of our boats, it’s important to have one on each side of the boat for balance on the water. Also I recommend carrying a spare for the things that you want to keep out, as well as for a backup in the event of a puncture in one of your main bags.

  Alright, now back to the trip!

The Green River is known for being a place where budding packrafter such as ourselves can get comfortable with river travel. Owen and I have some whitewater kayaking experience, but it’s been years. It was nice to get back on the river with a new craft and re-familiarize ourselves on calm waters. Usually when hiking it can be hard to stay focused on the views when also having to keep an eye out for tripping hazards. Being on the slow moving river gave us ample time to study and enjoy the terrain.

With a view like this, it was nice to give it our undivided attention.

The freedom that packrafting gives us in the backcountry is so unique and frankly, addicting. After years of only backpacking along side of rivers, it’s such a treat to be able to use them as a means of traveling and exploring deeper. Packrafting also adds a luxurious and illusive sense of relaxation in the backcountry. When doing all of our traveling on foot, we often arrive at camp stiff, sore and bruised. On a river, you can find a sense of stillness while still moving towards you ultimate goal. Feeling still or “relaxed” in the backcountry was essentially unheard of for us, and thus felt like a revelation.

Not wanting our paddle to end, we all did as little paddling as possible to extend our time on the water. We all kept wishing we’d found a way to make the trip require multiple days on the river, however, it wasn’t in the cards. When we arrived back at the lake we’d let the wind push us across the day before, we came ashore with plans to venture down an a-joining valley.

After filling water we found a camp spot high up on a ridge and as far away from the mosquitos as possible. We settled in for a quiet night around the camp fire and reflected on our day.

We woke up to our last morning on trail and were excited to venture up a new drainage. After carefully looking around the map we wanted to see if we can find any fishing up in an alpine lake high above the Green River where we didn’t see any evidence of fish. After a deep river crossings and a few miles of steep climbing we came to a fascinating little feature.

We found a fresh water spring bubbling up from the ground teeming with little Brook Trout. After examining it, we surmised that the water was apart of a bigger system that the fish can travel through. Otherwise, how would these fish have gotten into this tiny pool?! (No one is as cool or imaginative as nature, am I right?!) We stopped for Aimee to flick a few flies into the bubbling pool. Because the fish were so small we didn’t want to pester them too much and spent a good bit of time just watching them rise to the surface. It’s always a treat to stumble on a natural wonder when you least expect it.

Up at the lake we had no success in the fishing department. We’re not ones to feel defeated particularly when rewarded with an incredible view. After we recovered from the few thousand feet of climbing we started our long journey down to our camp and then back to our patiently waiting, homes on wheels at the trail head.

During the hike back we began scheming our next packrafting trip. The Green River had given us a taste of river travel. We felt ready to take on some whitewater!

I think this is how you know you’ve found something that speaks to your heart. When you have a restless desire to improve while always looking for whats next.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for joining along on this adventure! Next week we will be releasing a video on “How to Pack for Packrafting” with a focus on backcountry access that requires you to backpack in. We’ve learned so much over the last year and we look forward to sharing some of those details with you all! Based on all the messages we’ve been getting it seems we have piqued some of your interests!

Thanks again to REI for being such a huge support of our work and life in the outdoors, you all make so much possible for us and it’s an honor work with you all!

Love, MAK