Day 3 – 3/16/16
16.6 GPS miles
44.6 miles total
Somehow after only 48 hours out, we had a lot of town chores to get done. We walked about 3.5 miles into town back to Jason and Kim’s house, where we exploded our gear in their garage and added our stashed food and packrafting gear. Then we hit up the grocery store and a gear store for a few other odds and ends.
After 3+ years of faithful service, my Neoair finally sprung a leak, causing me to wake up every hour last night and blow it back up. The good news is that a leak that fast is easy to find, and I patched it quickly once I got the bathtub filled with water and the mattress submerged.
With the packrafts, a new 4 days supply of food and everything else, our packs looked and felt ridiculously overloaded.
Thankfully our suffering was a short lived ~2 miles of road walk before we put in the Colorado River. Getting into the water, I wished I’d brought more clean drinking water from town.
Anyway, the packrafting was a blast!!! This is admittedly our first time packrafting (other than my 5 minute test run in the Willamette), and I’d say it went better than expected. The great weather certainly helped.
As soon as the sun went down behind the steep canyon walls it was definitely time for camp, brrr! We ended up finding a sand bar near Jug Handle Arch and called it a night. We have ~30 more miles of packrafting left. Wee!!!!
That looks so fun! I want to packraft!! Inspired/obsessed now!!!
Pack rafting looks glorious!
Thanks for all the gorgeous photos! You are having a truly awesome experience.
Wow, that’s a long distance (30). Perhaps you’re actually raft packing??
How do you inflate the rafts?
Loving the Stars and the rock formations !
Looks as if you are having some real fun. I just returned from Texas where I did a few days of kayaking; I love being on the water. Hope your journey goes well.