We had trouble going live for our conversation last night, but it was recorded ..read more

You may have heard about a new packrafting book on the market: The Packraft Handbook by Luc Mehl Gear review website Treeline Review (and small business owned by two incredible women, friends, and thru-hiking powerhouses: Liz "Snorkle" Thomas, and Naomi "The Punisher" Hudetz) asked me to interview Luc on Tuesday, May 5 to discuss how to get started packrafting. 2 ways to join us: Facebook Live at the Treeline Review Facebook Page YouTube Live on the Treeline Review YouTube Channel So join us ..read more

Kirk and I helped redesign the new Flex PR pack this winter, read all about it: When my partner Kirk and I started packrafting almost 10 years ago, we soon learned one of the biggest challenges in the sport was not the rafting part, although I was on a steep learning curve to becoming a white-water paddler, but actually packing the boat. The big appeal in packrafting was our new-found ability to walk into more remote rivers and creeks, then launch our boats in places that are inaccessible to vehicles (FYI - Kirk is to rivers as I am to trails, so packrafting combined our most favorite ..read more

If the sky could have opened up and dumped as much rain as possible on the Gila last night, it did. The torrential downpour and high winds had us all in our tents checking for leaks and worrying that we didn’t pull the boats up high enough on the beach. Flooding! Would we wash away? Would our boats be gone in the morning? If you had looked carefully at the bench where we set up camp, you could see that sometimes the water gets high enough to flood the whole flat we were on. Would that be tonight? Kirks’ story of getting caught in a historical flood was seared into our brains as we listened to ..read more

Now that I’m home, I am learning more and more about the Gila River and efforts to protect it as a Wild and Scenic River. Read more here Now, back to the river! Day 3: We didn’t make the miles yesterday that we wanted. We had over 40 miles to go on the trip, and there was the added wildcard of rain and potentially snow in the forecast soon. Our options were to paddle fast and get out before the weather, or slow down and keep on despite the weather. Because some of our crew didn’t have dry suits and were already somewhat cold and wet during the day, we had to consider the dangers of paddli ..read more

Group photos by Slow Ride We woke after a nice warm night and waited around until the sun hit our camp to really start moving. A morning fire helped with the motivation, along with multiple cups of coffee.The paddling was really smooth yesterday, and we would find the opposite today! For all of our effort, we didn’t seem to be moving efficiently down the river. We had a few swims, but all people and gear were recovered, and even though a few folks were shaken up from the cold immersion, we all rallied and kept going.The water at this level kept us busy, and the previous flooding had le ..read more

I was almost warm enough last night. My thick inflatable bargin sleeping pad was only thick enough if I lay my whole body evenly on the pad…curling into my usual side position dipped my hip to the ground, and that ground sucked the warmth out of me. When we did finally emerge outside the tents everything was covered in frost and ice. Brrrr. Our friends were warm blooded and were not excited by the frosty morning warning. Eventually the sun hit camp, and made the duffle shuffle go a little faster. How would we possibly fit all the food, beer and gear into our little boats? The inflatable ka ..read more

It was time for a river adventure. Our friends in Tuscon, Slow Ride and Shake n Bake (two thru hikers I met in 2008 when I was giving trail magic on the PCT near Elk Lake – and who have since become my trail angels numerous times) suggested a Gila River paddle about a year ago, and we’ve been looking forward to it ever since. Add in a global pandemic, the first coronavirus cases found in our communities, paired with a plea for people to isolate themselves, and we knew disappearing into the wilderness for a week was probably the smartest thing we could do. (We started our trip March 12)… Slow ..read more

It's been a minute since Kirk or I have posted here. We've been packrafting...a lot, but many of the trips over the past year or so have been adventures we've done before and written about, or are day-run road-side runs. Often Kirk will be in his hardshell while I'm in my Alpacka. Anyway, we got down to NM at the start of March (before the shelter in place stuff...but at the start of everything), and did a multi-day trip on the Gila River. I wrote about the trip over on my hiking blog, and now am posting it here for you! I got a lot of gopro footage. I'm sure I'll get stir-crazy enough to m ..read more