Now for the true Alternative method to crossing the Teklanika River. As many of you have read Jon Krakauer's book 'Into the Wild', you will remember that in Chapter 17: The Stampede Trail an unknown character appears, Roman Dial. Roman is an Alaskan that stopped in the Bus in August of 1989 enroute to crossing the entire 800 mile Alaska Range. The reason Roman could do this was with the help of something called a packraft. Roman Dial is also the author of a book called Packrafting! -An Introduction and How-To Guide. And guess what? Jon Krakauer wrote the Foreword to this book! The two have become very good friends in the past 2 decades.
A packraft can be an essential part of your gear in Alaska once you learn how to use it. Basically packrafts are miniature rafts that have enough room for 1 person and your pack is secured horizontally on the stern of the raft. This method is used when actually floating down rivers. The method I devised on my 2010 trip was to actually put my pack inside raft then wrap up the raft with a medium sized tarp, like a gunny sack. I then tied the tarp using some 550 paracord. I would then cross the river that was too dangerous to cross with a pack on and hold a strand of paracord that was connected to my packraft on the bank behind me. Once I crossed the river, I would just pull my raft across. Some attention needs to be make to river’s current conditions because remember the raft will be floating downstream while it also crosses. A picture below shows the setup before the raft is wrapped in the tarp.
Now a little about packrafting. There are two main boats that I have come to love. I started out with the cheaper Sevylor Trail boat (~$60 on amazon). The trail boat is great for crossing rivers like the Teklanika but if you plan on actually floating long distances I would suggest the more expensive (starting $790) Alpacka packraft. Some great websites to check out are below
http://www.aktrekking.com/Packrafts/
http://www.alpackaraft.com
