Recommended read: Packrafting | Korpijaakko

I’m waiting my Alpacka Denali Llama packraft to arrive from the States and to pass the time while waiting I’ve been reading about other people’s packrafting trips. So this list of recommended reads is mostly about packrafting blogs and trips.

If you find yourself asking “What the hell is a packraft?” then it might be good idea to start with Alastair Humpreys’ great Packrafting, an Introduction post in Rohantime blog.

The book: Packrafting!

Before listing the blogs, I’d like to remind you that the printed media also still exists and has things to offer. The best resource for getting introduced to the techniques and possibilities of packrafting is likely Roman Dial’s book Packrafting! It’s also available directly from the man himself for US $24,95 including postage anywhere in the world. It’s very inspiring book and highly recommended. Though I’d liked to see more illustrated and thoughtful advice on techniques required when in the water. Now the book is more about ways of combining water and land travel, introducing the basic, giving some tips and a lot of inspiring  stories. Still, highly recommended!

definitely worth reading!

The blogs

Roman Dial’s blog The Roaming Dials is maybe the ultimate packrafting blog including historical aspect as well as the latest cutting edge development, trip reports as well as tech talk and links to incredible videos! Check it out!

Erin and Hig have been utilizing packrafts on their journeys and about everything in their life seems to worth reading and admiring. They have a blog full of interesting things. Erin has also written a book about their great 4000 miles journey on the Wild Coast. There is also an award winning movie but it’s not yet available on DVD. But here’s a little teaser to get you excited:

The Ed behind the Edventures blog is Alaskan based, so no wonder that the blog has a lot of nice packrafting related posts.

Eric Parson, who also makes the cool Revelate Designs bikepacking gear, lives in Alaska so also his Captain Swallowtail blog includes packrafting (and bikerafting!) stuff.

David writes the Bedrock & Paradox blog which covers – in addition to many other cool things – also packrafting.

The Republic of Doom blog is full of inspiring bikerafting trip reports. I wish I has a decent bike…

Brooklyn based Packraft and paddle blog is also worth checking out as the name already implies.

Phil Turner from Edinburgh UK and the man behind the Lightweight Outdoors has also a packraft. And for variation it’s not an Alpacka raft but very lightweight Flytepacker from Flyteweightdesigns. I’ve heart that Flyteweightdesigs are coming up also with a new more durable design…

Chris has an interesting site about Adventures Inflatable Kayaks & Packrafts. There are very good writings about Alpacka Denali Llama and Yukon Yak rafts.

Hendrik Morkel who is the man behind Hiking in Finland blog lives, as the name implies, in Finland. There are already some packrafting related posts in his blog and I think that there is more to come…

Sven Schellin and crew have just put up a new blog about Packrafting in Germany, Europe and beyond. Unfortunately it’s only in Germany.

Sabone Schroll is also about to do very interesting packrafting trip in Finnish Lapland this summer, so it’s good idea to keep an eye on her blog.

Alastair Humpreys has a blog covering also packrafting trips in Scotland and in Iceland. In 2010 he and photographer Chris Herwig crossed Island unsupported on foot and packraft. The journey is also covered in Alastair’s blog . But what is even better is that they made a great video about the journey. There are several version of the video. This 10 minutes version is the longest (and best) I’ve come up with. It’s highly recommended so give it a go:

In addition to blogs I’ve also stumbled upon some nice packrafting galleries. For example Sven Schellin’s and Mark Kreinacker’s trips in central Europe and Harald Iggesunds trips in Northern Scandinavia.

And a packrafting related epicness

The well known long distance wilderness traveller Andrew Skurka has also been utilizing a packraft. His Alaska-Yukon Expedition wasn’t exactly a classic packrafting trip but a lot more! 1270 miles of packrafting is really quite something! There is a great video of Skurka’s presentation on National Geographic live. I highly recommend getting a cup of coffee and spending the half an hour watching the video if you haven’t yet seen it. Or even if you have, it’s worth watching again! 🙂

If you know other packrafting related blogs or books or similar, please share them with me and other readers!