Issue 78 of Packraft Addict, a series running in the trail-culture web magazine TRAILS, covers a day of packrafting down the Shisorapuchi River in Minamifurano. The author is Tomoki Kokubun.
The Shisorapuchi is an upper stretch that doesn’t get paddled much, even within Hokkaido. This account, which takes in everything from the clarity of the water to a chance meeting with locals, carries a sense of the field that doesn’t come through in secondhand information alone. Anyone with an interest in Hokkaido’s rivers should read the original piece.
The Shisorapuchi River
The Shisorapuchi is the upper reach of the Sorachi River, rising at Mount Kamihorokamettoku in the Tokachidake mountain range. In Ainu, the name means, roughly, the true Sorachi. This trip covered about 36km, from the upper reach down to Lake Kanayama.
The Route
The trip started where a forest road reaches the river, running about 11km down to the Ochiai area, where it meets another river. From there, roughly 15km more, including the course used for the 1989 National Sports Festival’s canoe slalom event, brought the group to the finish — around 6 hours total. The three paddlers each ran a different Alpacka Raft model: the author paddled a Classic (cruiser deck), a fellow guide ran a Caribou (self-bailer), and the third paddler used a removable whitewater deck setup.
Water and a Local Connection
The water was clear enough to wash a face in, and clean enough to drink straight from the paddle blade, by the account. In Ochiai, the group ran into local guides and canoeists by chance, and got a taste of local culture through a riverside goemon-buro bath and a barbecue.
Related Link
→ TRAILS: “Hokkaido’s Shisorapuchi River — A Day of Packrafting | Packraft Addict #78” https://thetrailsmag.com/archives/74794
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