Back to the Reserve: Wandering a Familiar Place with a Packraft and a New Friend
At the end of last November, I took a 4 day-3 night trip across the Avalon Wilderness Reserve’s paddling route. This was my third time tackling this journey in three years and first with my new Alpacka Packraft. I had previously test hauled the packraft on a trip this past August. Check out Twelve Days of Bush Living On Your Back for a round up of that particular trek. On this weekend though, my main objective was continuing preparation for a first paddling/backpacking crossing of Newfoundland’s wilderness. That is slated to begin this upcoming Spring, 2017. For this training expedition, picking late November worked out great in my favour. The water levels were the highest I had ever experienced in the AWR. It was a paddler’s dream. A fall riddled with rain caused the rivers and ponds to swell like a hot apple pie. I would estimate that the depth of water…