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The sound of rushing whitewater crescendos quickly. As I paddle around the bend, the calm river transforms into a playground of multiple channels, chutes, and drops. I take out at the bank to scout a possible line from the safety of the shore. Everything looks runnable, but not without the safety backup of other paddlers. Alone and far from civilisation, I am acutely aware of every risk factor – and in this context even the most minor river feature seems threatening. I settle on paddling the first entry rapid and portaging the rest. If things go awry, there will still be time to self-rescue (though I’ll need to be prompt) before the real drops begin.
I relaunch my packraft back onto the water, secure my thigh braces, and take a last look at my line before peeling out into the flow. Waves lash my face and soak my drysuit. Confidently, I charge through the rapid before eddying out at the first moment possible, then get off the water to hike my fully loaded packraft downstream, bypassing a few more serious rapids. With the river gradient expected to considerably increase again up ahead, I get back in my boat and paddle just a few hundred more metres to complete the first packraft section of my journey.
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