Anyone have experience with Pack Rafts

[joens]

I have been thinking about getting a pack raft. In the video on Adak Island caribou hunting by HuntAlaskaDIY they used one and it seemed to work well. I was eyeing the Alpacka Raft brand. That was the one they were using in the video. I was curious if anyone had experience with that or any other brand of pack raft.

 

[El Jason]

Bob Marshall Trip

dfwwd

www.hunttalk.com

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I used my buddies Alpacka raft on a trip in AK last year. Pack rafts are a great back country tool... but at the same time they definitely have their limitations. Little background I grew up canoeing and rafting... would say I'm a neophyte kayaker although I can roll and feel comfortable in class II water definitely would rather be in a ducky or canoe in class III than a kayak at my skill level, have rafted my fair share of IV and V water... and done a ton of 5-10 day floats. (whitewater boat, not one of those giant lake kayaks people take in the ocean or boundary waters)

Take aways
1. The small pack rafts handle like a sluggish whitewater kayak, if you don't know what you are doing you will flip immediately
2. Definitely get the spray skirt and run rivers full a full summer before you try and use them for camping/overnights/etc.
3. Unlike a whitewater kayak they have storage, storage is super limited. Basically they work great if you are the kinda person whose backpacking setup is 35-40lbs for a 5 day trip.
4. A rifle will fit in the tub but it's sketchy, essentially it creates a weird heavy point on the tube and can cause enough friction on rocks to perforate the boat... dense items shouldn't go in the tube.
5. Meat in a "classic" pack on a river is a no go... definitely an option for lake or flat water scenario, you are just super low in the water so it will get wet + you will need to put it in your lap... imagine paddling a whitewater boat down a class II river with a 80lb pack in your lap... you dump and your f-ked.
6. There is a reason that in all the meateater episodes where Rinella is using his he is never paddling with a huge load of meat.

A pack raft is at the top of my list for next big gear purchase, for adventuring/floats/getting rowdy on the river for someone with intermediate experience go with the gnarwhal, if you own a whitewater boat already and are in the expert catagory or plan on getting yourself there then get a smaller more playful boat.

If you are looking at this as a hunting boat, Oryx (muley or elk hunter in the breaks ) or forager (moose hunter in AK, or elk hunter on the salmon/Colorado/etc)

 

[npaden]

I bought one of the pristine ventures PR-49 pack rafts last year for my POW trip. It worked well, not sure how often I will use it but it is built to last a lifetime.

 

[npaden]

I thought I had more pictures on my phone but I guess not. Here is a picture of the raft on my pack. I hiked it up 5 miles and 4,000’ of elevation gain to Pine Creek Lake in Montana last summer. No pictures of the raft on the lake though.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

@npaden have you taken that pristine in fast water/ class II-ish stuff. Looks like it would be nice and stable.

 

[npaden]

@npaden have you taken that pristine in fast water/ class II-ish stuff. Looks like it would be nice and stable.

I haven't but they have some videos of some guys going through some pretty decent stuff fully loaded with a moose on their website. There is a group of folks that do some group trips in Alaska each spring/summer and they hit some rough stuff occasionally.

My main reasoning for going with the pristine ventures raft was hauling capacity. I have the inflatable floor to add to it and they say it has a 950 pound capacity or something crazy like that. (I read somewhere that adding the floor adds 100 pounds to the capacity). It does pretty well with 2 guys and their gear. It's limiting factor is just space, it rides super high in the water even with 2 guys. The front guy has pretty limited leg space, you have to get used to rowing with your legs crossed.

It's drawback is it's weight, I have the HD version with extra tough material on the bottom and sides and I think it weighs in close to 20 pounds with the floor. Still not terrible, but if you are packing in a bunch of other stuff for an overnight trip it would get pretty heavy if you had to pack your camp plus the raft.

Here's the link to pretty much the raft I have - https://pristineventures.com/products/pr-49-hd-package/ There are some videos at the bottom of that page. The 3rd video down has some dudes wearing helmets going down some whitewater in it. You might turn your volume down for the music but the raft handles pretty impressively. They do end up ditching it and when they do it looks like they have modified the bottom of their raft for extra abrasion resistance as well.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

The front guy has pretty limited leg space, you have to get used to rowing with your legs crossed.

Yeah I felt like a wet exit on the alpacka with a pack/meat in your lap would be terrifying. The rivers in those videos are all super low flow where you could where chest waders and things went south bail out stabilize the boat and drag it to shore. Honestly that seems like the kinda rivers you want to select for a pack raft. I'm not sure about taking a pack raft on a CFS river. Obviously for hunting, just floating I think you could do the grand canyon and be fine.

Seems like your boat is about the size of a forage, and would be pretty stable and could be used as a one man boat with meat pretty effectively.

 

[COEngineer]

POW = ???

 

[Deleted member 28227]

POW = ???

Prince of Wales Island, AK

 

[theat]

I love my Alpacka raft. They are made in the US, tend to be lighter and better made than most of the other brands that are made overseas. I have used a couple Kokapelli rafts and they are pretty nice too, but are heavier, take up more room in your pack and are made in China. If you are not planning to carry it much and want to use it exclusively for hunting, the pristine ventures boats are great, but I would never want to carry one and my camping/hunting gear more than a few miles. My boat weighs about a third as much as one of theirs and packs up to less than 1/6 of the size. I have the internal storage system on mine and as long as you are somewhat careful in how you pack it, I have hauled over 180lbs of gear/meat in mine as well as my 200lbs with no problem through class II and a few class III rapids. I have found mine to be very stable, but I have flipped a couple times in tricky whitewater. You definitely have to be a little careful what you run into with them as they are made out of very lightweight materials, but so far I haven't put any holes in mine and have bounced over countless rocks and bumped tons of logs and branches in the water. They are actually pretty easy to patch in the field with just some Tyvek tape. I am thinking of heading up to the Brooks this August to hike in a float a couple north slope rivers and look for a caribou.

Here are some pics from a trip down the Middle Fork Flathead in the Great Bear Wilderness last summer. That river has some big whitewater and as you can see in one of the pics, we portaged around a handful of the rapids that looked too sketchy for our limited ability. That is another time that having a light raft comes in handy. Mine is the green raft and since then I bought a Seek Outside pack that has a breakdown frame so that I can put everything I don't need during the day including my pack inside of the tubes. That helps a lot with visibility and stability by having most of the weight at or near waterline.

 

[theat]

Here is a video of a couple guys using a pristine ventures pro pioneer raft for a caribou hunt. Looks great for getting through skinny water and still be able to carry a ton of weight, but I wouldn't plan on carrying it too far.

They can hold a whole moose...kind of!

!

 

[joens]

Thanks for all the replies. I currently have a canoe and 2 kayaks, I have done a lot of canoeing over the years including some 7-9 day trips. i am very comfortable in a canoe somewhat less so in the kayaks. I am planning some river hunts in the Missouri river breaks but was planning to use the canoe for that . My intention for the pack raft was to use it when some element of hiking was involved to access the river or lengthy road trip.