Category: Out on the Land

Sam and I went packrafting a local creek. We hit up the largest of the creeks (Hans Creek). We paddled ~6km to Husky Lakes, and then hiked ~3km back to the car. The creek is pretty shallow, so wouldn’t be navigable in anything other than a packraft. There are a few trees, shrubs, and woodpiles in the creek; nothing particularly dangerous, but there are a few places where it’s easy to pin and swamp your boat (and lots of things that could puncture an inflatable boat). The shrubs that line the creek edge make portaging annoying, but it’s doable if necessary. Once you hit Husky Lakes, the terrain visibly changes and the temperature drops substantially. The hike out was a bit of a slog, at least until we got out of the marshy/shrubby area onto tundra. It’s possible to paddle around further on the lake, but we had a headwind and packrafts are not the best vessel for open-water paddling. The whole expedition took about 6 hours.