McKenzie Packraft Adventure
Our adventure blog officially begins today, at the very onset of 2022. It seems like a shame to start with a blank slate, especially since I have a cold and our normal backyard trails are still snowed in from a recent storm. So rather than waiting for the snow to thaw, I’ve selected what I believe to be the pinnacle of our 2021 adventure portfolio: The McKenzie Packraft Adventure.
Exactly 364 days after hearing the word “packraft” for the very first time, I found myself embarking on a hike up the McKenzie River Trail with a 35lb pack (roughly 4x the weight of my normal backpacking setup). It’s hard to imagine the transformation and long journey that took place over the preceding year, beginning with googling “packraft” and culminating in the near-drowning of my best friend in a strainer on a backcountry river trip that I (very naively) organized. Hard lessons were learned, self reflection was had, and that is the state I found myself in on the McKenzie River Trail in July 2021.
Among the many lessons I learned in my aforementioned poorly planned and even more poorly executed trip was this: if at all possible, scout and test run whitewater without dogs and camping gear. Baby steps, right? With that lesson fresh in our minds, my human partner and I set out to run the McKenzie River the day before we embarked on our overnight. As we scouted Fish Ladder (Class III), the largest rapid on the run on the drive up, our hearts were marinated in terror. We learned an important lesson that day - sometimes rapids look worse from the road than they do from the river. Despite the quiet voice in the back of our heads telling us we were definitely going to die, we went through with the run and had a spectacular time. The next day we added the final ingredients: dogs and backpacking gear, and the rest is history (as documented in the video).
What is it that made this trip so special that it earned its place as the adventure of the year? It’s hard to beat the natural beauty of the McKenzie River corridor, and the marriage of contemplative hiking with the demands of navigating technical whitewater was glorious. Charlie and I are also on the steep part of the whitewater learning curve, so every rapid is still an exercise in teamwork and a test of both our gear and skill. The fact that we made it through and we had a great time suggests so many possibilities for future adventures. We still have so much to learn about water - but the journey of learning is my favorite part, despite the many failures that define our path forward.
Trip Stats
Hike: 11 miles, 1,000’ elevation gain
Paddle: 9 miles, continuous class II/III
