Questions about packrafting the Escalante/Lake Powell in September. Need help!

Duketogo13

Duketogo13

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Jun 29, 2021
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Just to quickly cover things I've done a good amount of hiking/backpacking around the general area IE Coyote Gulch and many of the other various hiking options along hole in the rock road. But I've never packrafted before. Because of that I find myself with the challenge of trying to determine just how much time things will actually take in terms of distance covered via packrafting. I've got the gear, general knowledge, and over all hiking fitness that I'm mostly just requiring him in the scale of time.

It would be extremely helpful if someone was to give me a general idea of how realistic a time it should take to do my desired itinerary and from there I can adjust.

Ideally I'd want to hike into Willow Gulch, go up to Explorer Canyon, go down to Fiftymile and explore it. Then to clear Creek/the cathedral and then head back up and hike out of Davis. I could cut pieces of out it but I think this would take between 4-5 days?

Also I'm interested in hearing if people think it's worth floating into fiftymile from escalante to check it out or instead if it's better to enter after going into Davis via the sandslide?

Sorry if I'm a bit all over the place. Please feel free to ask me more specifics and I'm happy to answer. But any opinions, thoughts, knowledge bestowed upon me is greatly appreciated.
 
regehr said:
I don't really have specifics to add but here's a trip report from a trio of first-time 40-something packrafters in S Utah that may be vaguely helpful here:

Floating the Dirty Devil River – Embedded in Academia

blog.regehr.org
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Loved your trip report. I hadn't heard of packrafting until seeing people's descriptions here on BCP in the past year or two. On the one hand, I think I'd like it, but on the other hand, I think I'd be nervous. What do you do if the raft gets a hole or slow leak???
 
Janice said:
Loved your trip report. I hadn't heard of packrafting until seeing people's descriptions here on BCP in the past year or two. On the one hand, I think I'd like it, but on the other hand, I think I'd be nervous. What do you do if the raft gets a hole or slow leak???
Click to expand...
packrafts are really tough-- we hit innumerable rocks on the DD since it was often not possible to see them through that water, and the rafts were always fine. but yeah I was worried about that too, especially since it's such a long walk out of some parts of the DD canyon. we had repair kits, but I imagine we could have easily taken half a day to find and fix a tricky leak.
 
regehr said:
packrafts are really tough-- we hit innumerable rocks on the DD since it was often not possible to see them through that water, and the rafts were always fine. but yeah I was worried about that too, especially since it's such a long walk out of some parts of the DD canyon. we had repair kits, but I imagine we could have easily taken half a day to find and fix a tricky leak.
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Great to know they're so durable. My husband and I were recently musing if we want to try something new when we turn 60 (the way we tried backpacking when we turned 50 and have loved it so much) and whether packrafting would be something to try...
 
Janice said:
Loved your trip report. I hadn't heard of packrafting until seeing people's descriptions here on BCP in the past year or two. On the one hand, I think I'd like it, but on the other hand, I think I'd be nervous. What do you do if the raft gets a hole or slow leak???
Click to expand...
Alpacka has a video for field repairs if you're interested (note Tyvek tape as a quick option):
 
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