This week we had the opportunity to do something I haven’t done in years, and Jenna hadn’t ever done.  We went to the Knik glacier.

Our plan was to hike up to the glacier with our dog Bear, spend the night, and then packraft down to the Knik River bridge and get a ride back to where our car was parked. As is usually the case though, things didn’t go exactly to plan.

The first day of our trip, we got off to a late start. We didn’t start hiking until almost 3PM. The weather was good though, and we were making good time. Since we had started the hike on the south side of the river, we had to inflate the rafts to cross over to the north side at one point. I tried to convince Bear to get into the boat with me, but he wasn’t interested. Once he felt the current about halfway across the river though, he changed his mind and decided he wanted into Jenna’s boat. Of course Jenna had her spray deck on, so he wasn’t able to get in, and had to swim the rest of the way.

Once across, we took a short break and then continued our hike. Our next crossing was at metal creek. The water was knee deep and moving very fast over bowling ball size rocks. The crossing was about fifty feet across. We decided it would be easier to just ford the creek than to inflate the rafts again, and walked across.

By the time we reached the glacier, the sun was setting and we needed to make camp in a hurry. We headed back to the top of a steep embankment overlooking metal creek, and tied our tarp to a small spruce tree. We had a small camp fire, and using our new favorite camp stove, cooked up our dinner. Though we hadn’t heard any stories of bears being out of hibernation in that area yet, and we didn’t see any bear sign, we still put all of our food into our Bear Vault BV500 ‘bear proof food container.’ This was our first trip with the Bear Vault, and it was more about testing it out in the pack, than it was about actual protection from bears. It was noted that it does in fact work great as a stool, and the lid also doubles as a dog food dish.

We brought our 20 degree bags for this trip, as we had seen the low for the Butte was predicted to be 36 degrees. We failed to take into account that our distance from the Butte, and our proximity to a 25 mile long, 5 mile wide chunk of ice, might adversely affect the low temperature for the night. We’re not sure how much colder it was, but we know that the puddles outside our tarp were frozen solid in the morning before the sun came up. As we tried to sleep we quickly realized how uncomfortable we were, and tried a couple of things to increase the warmth in our bags. We put the rest of the clothing we brought along on, cinched down our hoods, and when that wasn’t enough we emptied our backpacks and stuffed the feet of our sleeping bags into them. It was then that I noticed I had actually thrown a space blanket into my pack for just such an occasion. I gave it to Jenna, since keeping the pregnant wife warm is priority. She was instantly much warmer. With Bear snuggled in between our bags like a little furnace, we finally found a way to stay warm enough to get some sleep.

In the morning we woke to the sound of a plane buzzing along between the mountains. When we got out of our shelter, we saw the plane fly over us, and then turn around in an incredibly small circle, and fly over us again. On the second pass we waved, and the plane waved back with a tip of it’s wingtips before flying away towards Lake George.

We made our way down to the glacier so Jenna could fulfill a dream of hers; to actually touch a glacier. Once many years ago, her family had visited the Matanuska glacier, but they had only driven up to where they could see it from the highway, stopped to look at it, and then turned around and driven home. Then, a couple years ago, We visited Exit Glacier. We hiked up to the tongue of the glacier, only to be met with a rope barricade monitored by a park ranger, and a sign that read ‘no touching’ or something like that. Here, there was no rope barricade, just a small fast-flowing glacial stream.

We were across the stream in no time, and then Jenna got to touch her first glacier. That wasn’t enough for me though, so we decided that if we were REALLY careful, it would be okay to hop up on the closest big chunk of ice for a few pictures. There was a series of steps formed by cascading blocks of ice, that let us get on top of the main ice sheet. As we walked to a spot where we could look out over more of the glacier to the south, we stepped over a small gap. In the crack we could see a tunnel with water flowing through it, and then into a corresponding hole on the other side of the gap.

We took some photos, and then decided to get off the glacier. As I went to descend the small ice staircase, something happened. It wasn’t the same way I’d come up, but another block of ice that just looked similar. As I stepped onto it though, it gave way and fell down into the world’s smallest crevasse, only about six feet down to gravel. I, of course, fell with it, and slammed my head into another block of ice. I got a few small abrasions and cuts on my left temple, but being a head injury, they immediately started to gush blood. Jenna started to cry and Bear started to try and lick the wound. I put Jenna’s bandana on it though, and it stopped bleeding before long. I felt a little dizzy for a few minutes, but after walking a ways I felt fine again.

Having had enough of the glacier for one day, we decided to try and packraft down the Knik River and go home. There ended up being two problems with that idea. The first problem was that the river was still frozen completely across every few hundred yards, where it sits in the shadow of the mountains.

The other problem was that our dog Bear is a terrible packrafter. First he refused to get into the boat. Knowing that he would be doing a lot of swimming, we turned his dog backpack into a dog flotation device, by stuffing empty water bottles into the side pouches. Eventually I got him into our boat, and we floated for a short ways with him laying on my legs and being a good boy. This did not last however. Soon he wanted to look at Jenna, and at where we were going and the things we were passing. He tried a variety of positions, including standing on both tubes, standing on my backpack, standing on my shoulders, and everywhere in between. With each position change, he would rock the boat wildly, and I would cuss at him. Eventually he was shoved out and forced to run along the banks.

Soon, we ourselves had to get out of the river too though, because the river went completely under the ice. The ice was very thin though, so we couldn’t just get out and walk on it. We ended up having to lay across the rafts and scoot them along with our paddles and feet. The process was slow and draining.

In one spot, to avoid having to cross thin ice again, we ended up climbing up the side of the mountain, around some cliffs, through the brush for a ways. Eventually though, we had a spot of river, less than a mile long, where we really got to use the rafts. The current was swift and progress was fast. The only problem was, Bear couldn’t decide which side of the river he wanted to be on, so he kept swimming back and forth across it. Though he could cruise pretty well with his doggy water wing, he was getting very cold.

We took the rafts out of the water, and walked the last few miles back to our car so Bear could stay warm and dry. Though our trip didn’t really go to plan, it was a lot of fun. We traveled about 22 miles in total, and saw a lot of neat country. It’s been our first real overnight backpacking trip since our return to Alaska and we needed it badly. We also found a nice moose antler that I packed back all the way from the glacier moraine, so we have a souvenir as well.

…and for as much snow as we got this winter it seems to be melting away pretty darn fast.  As is the case every year though, Jenna and I are not content to wait for breakup to end before we get out and start pretending it’s summer already.  Since the snow melts fastest down at low elevations close to the salt water, we often find ourselves spending a lot of time along Knik and Turnagain Arm this part of the year.

The other day, Jenna had a little bit of spare time before her evening shift, and we decided to drive down to Beluga Point. After we climbed up on the rock and took some pictures, we headed over to McHugh Creek to see how soft and slushy Turnagain Arm trail was. It was so warm that I was sweating in just a long sleeve t-shirt. We will be making a video of the Turnagain Arm trail here in the near future.

I also got to do something the other day that I’ve always wanted to do. I always thought it would be neat to paddle amongst sea ice. Though I still want to do this at the toe of some big glacier, I got to live my dream for now amongst the ice flowing in the tidal current off of Pt Woronzof.

Then tonight we returned to Point Waronzof to see how much more of the sea ice had disappeared since the last time we were there. As we walked south along the beach, we watched the tide go out, and noticed that it was carrying far less ice than even just a few days ago.

We also decided to eat our first ‘camp food’ of the year. It gave us a chance to test the cat food can alcohol stove in the field. Again, it was a really nice day out there. Jenna had a packet of honey lime chicken, and I had a spicy sausage pasta, both from Natural High. It just feels so great to be able to walk around in running shoes with a long sleeve shirt and enjoy the sun.

For those of you reading this who were not already aware, the Last Frontier Adventure Club will be doing it’s first camping trip of the year on April 28th thru the 29th at Gull Rock. It’s going to be a good time, and if this breakup continues the way it has been, the trail should be in good shape. Hope to see you all there!

This summer, I and a couple of friends, will be doing a trek from Kantishna to Healy. Because we plan to packraft part of the way, we have to add in the weight of the rafts and paddles. Because we plan to hike through Denali National Park, we need to add the weight of an approved bear-proof food container. To keep my pack weight down, I’ve decided to focus on the parts of my kit that have the most room for improvement. With that in mind, I decided to try out a lighter shelter option.

Sleeping on the overturned raft is very comfortable, much more so than any other outdoor sleeping arrangement I’ve encountered thus far. The only real downside that I can see, is that the tubes of your raft are sitting in the dirt and rocks. You need to be particularly careful about picking a spot to set up, so that you’re not grinding sharp rocks into your tubes during the night. If you’ve been packrafting a while though, and have used this method in the past, I’d love to get hear how it works for you. Leave a comment in below, or drop us a line.

I figured a lightweight bivy sack would be the best starting point for keeping the rain off of me.  The biggest challenge that presented though, was the bug net over the face.  I needed some kind of a fly to cover that.  I briefly thought about getting some nylon and cutting out a small diamond shaped tarp I could stretch between two trekking poles.  Then, I thought, why bring along another piece of material, when I already have a couple large sheets of water repellant fabric in my kit that won’t be in use while I sleep.  I have the spray deck for the raft and I have a rain jacket.  The spray deck proved to be ackwardly shapen for this application, but the rain jacket seemed promising.

I fiddled around for a while, and came up with the shelter in this video.  This is an experimental setup at this point, yet to be field tested (though I will be doing so once it warms up just a little more out there.)  Any feedback or input is welcome.  Again, just drop a comment below or contact us. I know packrafters have been experimenting with ultralight shelter setups long before I took interest, so I’m eager to hear from any of you with experience.

- Erik Halfacre

I’ve been interested in Alpacka Rafts since about 2010, when it started to occur to me that if I had such a craft I would be able to reach much more remote wilderness, where river crossings had stopped me in the past. I did some research. I bought Roman Dial’s book ‘Packrafting!‘ and read the whole thing cover to cover in an evening. While down in Florida, two years ago, I decided that I would need to get an Alpacka once I got home. It became a frequent subject for my day dreams while stuck in class, or riding my bike trying not to get run over by crazy Floridians.

This year I designed the 2012 Alpacka Raft Calendar and Women of Packrafting Calendarfor Alpacka Tracks. That’s right, I do design work for those of you who don’t know me. So, in designing these calendars, I spent a lot of time looking at 26 very good photos of people enjoying their own rafts. So come tax refund time this year, we made the plunge. I ordered a Denali Llama for myself and a Yukon Yak for Jenna.

I had two extra inches in length added to the Llama. I sat in a standard Denali Llama at Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking, but it was just a tad short. We got the cruiser spray decks rather than the new whitewater decks that are more similar to a kayak. The cruiser decks are lighter weight, and since we’re going to be doing a lot more backcountry river crossings, and low class whitewater we didn’t need the whitewater decks.

The rafts arrived within about two weeks of placing the order. We immediately inflated them in the living room and installed the seats. After getting in and seeing how they fit, there was only one thing left to do… wait. As anyone living in the Anchorage area knows, there’s no real open water out there other than the inlet, and we’re not ready for that yet. Luckily though, the Palmer High public pool has a kayak night on mondays.

The first thing I noticed when I put the raft into the pool, was that boat doesn’t really cut through the water. It seems to slip over the surface. It feels like driving on an icy parking lot with bald summer tires. Next, I tried falling out of the boat and then getting back in, in water too deep to touch bottom. It’s actually very easy, and the raft is very stable.

Next, I needed to find some water outdoors. Luckily, the Eklutna hydroelectric plant gave me the opportunity to do some paddling. The water from the plant in the Eklutna Tail Race, is warmed up enough to stay open even in the winter. Getting in and out of the boat when it was in the water was easier than I expected. Once I got out where there was some distance to travel, it only took a few minutes to get the hang of moving the raft in a straight line. Unfortunately the water in the Tail Race is barely moving at all.

It’ll be another month or so before I can get some decent open river to run. I’m really looking forward to trying the boats out on some rapids, and doing some backcountry trips with them. The snow is melting now though. The roads or already getting sloppy. It won’t be long now!

Last week we went to the BANFF film festival to see some great films, and network with the Alaska Adventure Community.  One of the films we saw there was “Journey on the Wild Coast”  by Erin McKittrick, Bretwood Higman, and Greg Chaney. It was an excellent piece on Erin and Hig’s trek from Seattle to the Aleutian chain. I was particularly interested in this film as I had been following Erin and Hig’s blog for a couple of months.

Since I found out I was pregnant with our first child, their blog has been a huge inspiration to me. I had begun to wonder how many adventures I would have to miss out on. I was getting worried that once baby was here my time would mostly be spent trapped inside. Luckily for me our friend Jed White told me to check out Erin and Hig’s stories about trekking with infants. These two have taken their babies, Katmai and Lituya, on adventures that some adults wouldn’t face. The kids have gone on long trips and even packraft with their parents. Reading some of their suggestions, and seeing that it’s possible to keep adventuring with kids has turned my worrying into excitement. I can’t wait to share my love of wilderness with my child, and I’m glad I’ve got good advice to help me do it!

After seeing their film, Erik contacted Hig to see if they would be able to do an interview with us.  A couple days later we were on our way to Homer to meet the couple. We left Anchorage Tuesday evening, tackling the 200+ mile trip on empty roads. On the trip south everything was gorgeous with a full moon lighting the landscape, and occasional northern lights overhead. When we got to Homer it was midnight, but with the moon so bright we decided to walk along the spit.

That night we slept in the car. We were lucky to have warm weather that night, and slept comfortably until the sun came up.

After wandering around Homer in the morning we met Erin, Hig, Katmai, and Lituya, at a bakery in downtown Homer. It was really wonderful to meet them, and we got to know each other over lunch.  Erik and Hig discussed their websites, while Erin and I talked about babies and pregnancy. Katmai warmed up to us after a little while and told us about how he likes to draw, especially trucks! On discussing where we would do the interview Hig suggested a friend’s house. Bjorn and Kim live in a cabin on the beach. They were both really great people, and let us set up our cameras in their living room. Shooting the interview was fun and informal. In between shots we all chatted, and the babies played. The setting and the people were all incredibly Alaskan, and the experience was great!

Later that evening we went to Erin and Hig’s presentation at the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center. The presentation was called ‘Life on Ice‘ and told about their trip to Malaspina Glacier. I didn’t watch the presentation, deciding instead to watch Katmai while his parents presented. We explored the Visitor Center, and Katmai told me all about the starfish, sea lions, and other animals that he saw.  Erik got to listen though, and told me about the beautiful images, engaging stories, and interesting science.

After the presentation we said goodbye to the family and hit the road. Erik drove most of the way. Then when he got too tired, I took the wheel. In between Girdwood and Anchorage I saw a lynx walking along the highway, I was surprised as I’ve only seen one before in my life, and this one was completely out in the open.

All in all it was a great trip. We met some really cool people, and got to enjoy beautiful Homer. We look forward to seeing them again in the future!

- Jenna Halfacre

Be sure to check out Erin and Hig’s site Ground Truth Trekking.  It’s full of great adventure stories, photos, videos, and even some science!

Photo by Bretwood Higman of Ground Truth Trekking