Bikerafting: My new adventure

To kick off the year, I landed on a plan for a new trip. I’m going to try and combine two of my favorite activities into one adventure with a sport called bikerafting. Bikerafting combines bikepacking or touring with paddling using a lightweight and portable raft. While I haven’t finalized the entire route, it’s looking about 900 miles (if I can squeeze the trip into a slot in my schedule). It could shortened to about 400 miles total if I can’t make it work with my schedule.

The goal is to ride gravel and bike paths from my house in northeastern Minnesota to Wisconsin, paddle two rivers (plus a short section of a third), and then ride home on gravel roads and bike paths. Depending on my schedule, I may have to shorten the trip slightly. I could start at the source of the first river, paddle that, ride back to the source of the second river, paddle that, and then bike back to my car. Everything is a bit up in the air right now due to my schedule though. My fingers are crossed.

Originally, I was planning on trailering a canoe behind my bike and then canoeing the rivers. While that would have likely been faster on the water, it had some issues on land. So, I started looking at packrafts. Back in May of 2009, I bought Roman Dial’s Packrafting! An Introduction and How-To Guide. Packrafting looked like an interesting way to do some backpacking to remote lakes to paddle them. I never got around to doing any packrafting even though I’ve always wanted to (I do have a Klymit LiteWater Dinghy, which isn’t ideal).

After emailing with Alpacka Raft, I learned that a packraft might not be the ideal craft for the rivers I’m planning, but it would be a good enough compromise to haul on a bike and to haul a bike while on the water. It seemed like a much better choice than trailering a canoe. If it doesn’t work well, I can always bail off the water and just ride home. Now that I ordered a packraft, I’m starting to think of some other trips.

Here’s what Alpacka wrote about the two rafts they recommended for mainly flatwater rivers with short sections of rapids up to class 2:

I think the Caribou or the Chinook would be a decent option for your trip given the length and overall goals. If you want to be able to carry heavier loads and aren’t as focused on the flatwater performance, the Caribou with its cargo-hauling bow is the more appropriate pick. However, if you want a higher performing flatwater model that may be a little more finnicky loading a bike onto, then the Chinook makes more sense. The main advantage of the Chinook is that it will behave and paddle more similarly to a flatwater kayak, than our other more load-bearing oriented packrafts. However, the Caribou has been the preferred multi-adventure, bikerafting pick for a handful of years now, and is a great and versatile boat if you value flexibility. Ultimately, the choice is up to you and what your priorities are for this trip, but personally I think the Caribou makes the most sense, especially if you ever plan to do future bikerafting trips. 

On Alpacka’s recommendation, I got a Caribou, but I wanted a backband, so I ordered a custom lab Caribou with a backband. It’s more expensive than a stock raft, but I figured it would be worth having for a longer trip. Maybe I’m wrong about that.

While doing the order, I noticed that the fabric choices they offer are similar to the colors of the Minnesota state flag. After the ICE invasion of Minnesota, I’m feeling even more so proud of my state, so I decided to get Minnesota state flag colors. It’ll also be a way to honor Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by ICE. Pretti was also a biker. As Bikepacking.com wrote, he was one of us.

Here’s a graphic I made of the Minnesota state flag inside the outline of Minnesota. I sell Minnesota flag stickers of the design as well, and other Minnesota-inspired designs.

This is the color I went with.

I can’t wait to get it and start training. I’m also going to have to figure out how to fit it on my bike. I ended up getting a rack for my bikepacking bike last year. It isn’t shown in this photo, but the raft will likely end up on the rear rack.

Also, I don’t have a four piece kayak paddle, so I may need to get one. I’m going to try to see if I can make a two piece work on my bike before I spend more money.

Also, did I mention that I got a new tent? I haven’t written about it, yet.

While I’ve been excited about the trips that I’ve done over the last few years, I’m really excited about this one. I hope to be able to share more with you about the trip in the near future after I get my schedule ironed out.

If you have any experience or tips about bikerafting, I’d love to hear them.

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