Tolt

I biked out of my house on a foldable bike, with packraft and all accompanying gear (paddle, drysuit, pogies, safety kit, etc) in a backpack on my back. I met up with a friend, and we biked up together to the put-in. There, I folded my bike, strapped it onto the packraft, and floated down; and, once at the take-out, I biked all the way back home, all under my own power 🙂

The Tolt River was running high, at ~1000cfs. At the logjam towards the start (some 7-10 minutes downstream of the put-in), the usually-dry right channel had some water: not all of it deep enough to float in, but enough to lead the packraft on a leash and occasionally to jump into the boats. It made it a lot easier than portaging with the bike strapped in.

Just past the end of the portage (a ~15 minutes walk), there was a river-wide fallen tree. After discussing the necessary move (and what Plans B and C would look like if the current proved too powerful), we successfully crossed the river using our boats, and portaged around the log on the other side of the river. There were no more logjams beyond this point, though we did have to keep our eyes out for wood hazards, and stepped out a couple times. The river was beautiful, and the wood added a puzzle element to the trip.

Our total time on the water (including the portaging/walking) was 1h:43m, covering 5.5 miles. I also did a total of 2 hours of biking, covering ~12 miles. And the setup and teardown of the boats took another 1+ hours.

It was great to be able to do such multi-sport self-propelled mini-adventure; and even to encounter some surprises (the previously-unfloatable right channel, the need to cross the river to avoid the river-wide log) along the way :-)