A family of three, out for a first packrafting trip.
The setting: flat water on a lake. The boat: an Alpacka Raft Oryx.
Still, the day’s real focus wasn’t paddling, it was getting in the water.
The lake was surprisingly warm, and before long more time had passed swimming than sitting in the boat.
Less packrafting, more lake side water play.
Heading deep into the backcountry is one of packrafting’s big draws, but so is this: driving out to a lakeshore, floating, swimming, climbing back into the boat.
That ease and freedom is thisispackrafting too.
Time spent in the boat isn’t the only thing that counts as packrafting.
Climbing onto the shore to pick up stones,
looking for whatever lives at the water’s edge,
then back in the water to float.
It’s all part of the same stretch of time.
The boat isn’t just transportation, it’s also a toy for moving freely between water and land.
The lake stayed warm even into the evening.
As the sun dropped, the wind settled, and the surface went still, that stretch of time had its own particular comfort.
Being able to play in the water without getting cold, all the way to the end of the day, might be a mark of Hokkaido summers now.
Lake Toya has long been a favorite, a place visited regularly, but lately its appeal as a field for spending time in the water as a family stands out more than ever.
Serious river touring.
Backcountry packrafting.
And time on a lake spent simply floating, swimming, laughing.
All of it starts from the same single packraft.
That range might be this sport’s biggest appeal.
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