Floating the river

 

This year's remote hunt was a float trip. We used inflatable rafts to carry us, our camp, and the deer meat down the river. 5 deer on the bone weigh on the order of 400 pounds, and our camping gear and food, while on the lightweight side, is also a lot of weight. So we use big rafts with inflatable floors that can carry a lot and do not draw a lot of water.  They are also durable so we did not mind dragging them fully loaded along the rocky bottom.

The biggest of our rafts can actually carry weight-wise an entire Beaver floatplane cargo load. Of course it does not have enough room to carry all our gear and us too! 

We used 3 rafts so that each of us could have a raft of our own. The rafts were all different sizes and came with different names (SOAR names not ours!). The smallest is called 'squirt', next up is 'blaze', and the largest one 'canyon'.  We found the names humorous - especially 'squirt'. As we went down the river we often went at our own pace and often paddled alone for long stretches.  We used VHF radios to keep in touch with each other.  Nothing better than floating through the Fall colors on a river!

Patrick