Idaho 2019 Packraft Roundup. Day 1 on the Cabargo River

The 12 days succeeding my Tatshenshini trip were kept free as I was uncertain of how I would feel after it. It turns out I felt great and still in the mood for some more packrafting. The Idaho Packrafting roundup was on and I was able to attend.

The Idaho packraft roundup was full on registration so I enquired further. As there was no reply, I left Seattle as it was raining, and headed north. The rain wasn't going to relent, it followed me up to Squamish.

An email came in from a person in the American Packrafting Association confirming that space was available should I wish to attend. I just arrived in Squamish BC when it arrived. If only the email arrived a bit sooner it would have saved 8 hours of driving. I mulled on it, looked at the forecast and decided that sitting in around for 3 or more days waiting for the rain to dissipate was not appealing. So 15 hours or so of driving later I arrived in Hot Springs campground ready for some more packrafting fun. (The cost of flying was prohibitive and I had the car anyway.)

I met some familiar faces in Marilyne, Chris, Megan and Adrian and later more from the Canadian Rendezvous so I was soon in the groove. This meetup is much bigger than the Canadian one, but not so big that one was isolated. Soon we are organised and off on a trip.

It is a bit more formal around here compared to Canada or Australia, in the USA many rivers have to be booked: population and capitalism I guess. A big river like the Colorado or Salmon could take years. We are lucky that is not the case where we are, but there is an expectation to pay for the facilities. In Australia we are lucky only having 25 Million people compare the USA with 330, some 13 times the number of people for everything.

Anyway, I digress. This is a very nice place to go on a whitewater holiday. There are many kilometres (or should I say miles) or whitewater rivers to play on. When I drove in to the camp, there were rivers flowing all along.

The Cabarton river was a good start with class II and III rapids to the end. I 'm wizened now, start gentle and work your way up. Mind you I was still on the Tatshenshini River so now it felt like I have stopped, even though the river did flow. It was sunny and the river was quite pretty.

At the exit point there is a nice technical rapid. It was great in that if you fell out you simply end up in deep water (albeit a bit downstream). We all made it down without issue

and some were keen enough to clamber up the bank to have another go. - not me though I was tired after that marathon set of drives.

The Hot springs camp grounds is on the by the river. It is at the base of a forested hill. Surprisingly there no insects - that I could see or feel - to make camping uncomfortable. There is a toilet and fresh drinking water. When we left for our 'river run' on the Cabargo there were not many people, coming back I found I have neighbours !

There are actually hot springs too, a simple stroll over the road and down the bank. (sorry about the bikini model). The water was very warm.

The camp is like a major community spring cleaning effort with our gear hanging out to dry.

We are a widely varied group of people with something in common - packrafting and the outdoors. My kind of people. We get an overview of the proceedings, nothing formal we are to gather in self organised groups; there are however introductory runs for beginners. It works, there are a lot of people and you will join a group with relative ease.

Some people also are doing advanced paddling courses and swiftwater rescue courses. These I'll be doing back in Australia this November (have a look at this Youtube video by Mark Oates : I didn't realise how famous Mark was until I came here !).

I am impressed again with the van set ups that people have. It is so tempting to do something similar back home. ( I am not in the league of a Mercedes though, it would have be a bit more downmarket).