Category: Packrafting
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Dearborn River micro-guide
The Dearborn River can, for the purposes of floating, be divided into five distinct sections. All of them are worthwhile destinations, with short seasons relative to neighboring streams. Some parts of some of the sections are exceptional for their respective genre, and I make a point to float one or two every year. The only…
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West Grand loop; debrief and video
Planning post here, whose plan I followed pretty much dead on. Day one took me from Pearce Ferry, up Pearce Canyon, out the north fork of the south arm, and to a camp on the upper Sanup (where I found water, rain/snow puddles in sheltered slickrock). Day two went up the western wall of Fort…
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West Grand loop; conception and planning
Back in December I drew a Grand Canyon river permit. I’d been trying for three years, putting in for the annual lottery, as well as for the winter cancellation permits, and after around 10 total applications (including three waves of cancellations permits in late 2023) luck was on my side. I’ve been planning for this…
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2023 Bob Open report
The 2023 Open ran from lower Holland Lake to Marias Pass, under overall kind conditions. A late spring led to a sunny May, with snow levels tapering northwards, and the foothills of Glacier having a drastically lower than normal snowpack. Moderate temps in the week leading to Memorial Day kept both the Middle and South Forks low…
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The monster table
Top is locust burl and epoxy, the sides finished with slow cure epoxy to seal the pokies, the face sanded to 1500 grit and finished with linseed oil. Legs are pieces of a spalted maple slab that started in my care as a cutting board, but had shakes that just wouldn’t behave themselves, so it…
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South Fork November debrief
I’ve long wanted to float the South Fork of the Flathead in all 9 months I reckon it is ever floatable, read not frozen, those being March through November, with both March and November not providing good conditions every year. This year was obviously a good year for November, and November was the last month…
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The million dollar hat
Something on an exaggeration; but retail, this hat costs 55 dollars. Which seems excessive, even/especially in light of standard Pgucc truckers going for 35-39 dollars. Prior to this, my favorite foam truckers, which I find indespensible almost every day of the year, were the sort I got for free at trade shows or found for…
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Alpacka Caribou review
When we bought an Alpacka Caribou this past winter, to replace our slower and whitewater-poor Double Duck, bikerafting capability was far down the list. Another Explorer 42 could have easily been justified, as it has been so capable with multiple people, on white or flat water. The 42 is a bit much paddled solo, and…
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Things I made this year: Olivewood side table
Being a therapist I need a couch, and that couch needs a place for the lamp and folks’ coffee. The olive was a treat to myself earlier this year, as the 5ish foot length (of the most figured and funky stuff they had) cost a cool 70 bucks, which before I got into the intricacies…
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Smith River alone
The Smith is, for the time being, the only river in Montana which requires a permit. This has been the case since 1989, and the 59 mile “scenic” and mostly roadless stretch is now a state park, with a lottery for the probable floating season of April through early July, and fairly long odds (less…
Bedrock & Paradox 