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→Packrafting on the GPT
When I started planning my first long hike through Patagonia in 2013 I could not find a continuous hiking route south of Coñaripe (GPT16) because dense forest hides most of the trails on satellite images. But I could see calm rivers and lakes that bridged the gaps and wondered if there is a light enough boat to be carried in backpack to traverse these waters. I googled and found the packraft. This is the founding cause for all the packrafting options of the GPT: insufficient planning information. It was not until after our first hike that I could add additional hiking routes that render a packraft expendable on the GPT but not less beneficial.
In retrospective I’m so happy that I had such insufficient planning information at this time. Otherwise I would probably not have discovered the packraft as the ideal hiking partner for Patagonia. A packraft does not carry only you backpack but it carries you! What matters in this “parternship” is a good balance; you don’t want to carry your packraft most of the timebut benefit from it as much as possible. And this is the case on sections GPT17 to GPT39. Here the packraft carries you on up to 40% of the distance and this makes it a brilliant deal.Further north on sections GPT01 to GPT16 a packraft is probably more burden then benefit and I would recommend a packraft only if you specifically plan to expore a certain lake and the surrounding.
When packrafting on lakes and rivers we normally do not exceed hiking speed so the packraft does not make us faster. In contrast, all the packing and unpacking and the extra weight probably slows us down. But speed is not our objective. What we seek is diversity and we enjoy that the packraft open up completely new routes through Patagonia.
The required packrafting gear adds about 5 kg to a solo hiker’s pack or 4 kg if shared in between two. You need a boat, paddles, a dry suite, a PFD (personal flotation devise), an inflation bag and repair gear. A sail is optional. For an ultra-light hiker this is an unimaginable extra weight but if considering that the backpack weight drops on 40% of the distance to zero that’s not too bad.
What you need when packrafting is a dry suite; not only for comfort but as a life insurance. In Patagonia weather is volatile and water temperatures are normally low. If you get wet then hypothermia can disable and kill quickly and only a dry suite protects you in such situation. The extra weight of a dry suite is not that much if you replace your normal rain gear with it. And a dry suite is so much better than rain gear, also when hiking. It really keeps you dry and warm even when fording rivers. No rain gear does this.
If I can choose on a rainy day between hiking or packrafting than I do not need a second to make my choice. Sitting in my boat protected by my dry suite make out of a nasty rainy day an enjoyable day on the water. Without a backpack on my back and with only moderate exertion I’m not sweating nor freezing (provided that I wear appropriate cloth below my dry suite). Protected with proper gloves and a cap only the face is exposed to the elements. What stops us packrafting is only too strong wind, but no rain.
When we started investigating the GPT we had no pre-experience with packrafting or kayaking; we were complete novices. Looking now back I would probably have taken some packrafting or kayak lessons, just to get some practice and a better feel for such a water activity. Lacking experience we were quite careful even with small rapids and larger lakes in the first two years. But we grew with every river and lake that we paddled.
What is essential when packrafting is knowledge and respect of the hazards of water and good judgment. Great care must be taken to leave a river latest at the last recommended exit point because fatal rapids are often downstream even if you don’t see or hear them at the last exit point. Rivers change constantly with rising and falling water levels, rivers bed change over time and the weather in Patagonia is volatile. The fact that someone took a particular water route before does not mean at all that it is save anytime later. Therefore the track file for GPS is only an approximate guide and each packrafter needs to assess the situation himself; i.e. judge wind, waves and weather before attempting a lake or fjord crossing or scout a river rapid to decide if to paddle through or walk around.
===Understanding the Host Nations===
