Packrafting or Bikerafting or Raftpacking

I have never been in a raft or kayak, but I find them both extremely interesting! Why you may ask? This is a bicycle touring/adventure blog, well I think that my interests are piqued due to the self powered nature and adventure expanding possibilities a water vessel brings in! And to be honest, I think that is why I love cycling so much as well. You are in complete control of your adventure destiny as it pertains to movement. 

Enter Bikerafting! or Packrafting or as I have been referring to it Raftpacking, like Bikepacking or Backpacking. Basically it is the combination of bike packing with rafting thrown in. Bikerafting now gives you the ability to be even more self sufficient as it expands your movement to not only land based adventures, but water as well. while being able to carry yourself on land or water! This is just really cool. The way it works is that you would pack on to your bike a blowup raft, a personal flotation device or a PFD as they are referred to and a double sided paddle that comes apart in to about 4 pieces. This is in addition to whatever you are packing for your style of tour. You may have camping equipment or possibly you are going light weight or ultra light where you are staying in hotels along your trip. 

Alpacka Ultralight - weighs 5lbs packed and holds 400lbs!!

In most configurations the bike has 1 or two wheels taken off and is strapped to the raft usually in the front to offset the total weight of the vessel as you are in the back. I have seen some images of people bringing another raft/flotation device to hold the bike which would tether to the raft.

I am not going to attempt to write the book on the topic because there is an excellent article written here:  https://bikepacking.com/plan/bikerafting-guide/ There are also boat loads [ pun intended ] of videos on the tube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzBotWhSzD4&feature=youtu.be

Spooky Texas

I had never been to Texas before which made me even more excited to get there. I was heading down to see my team in this location for the first time. As I normally do, I try to get a ride in location while I am there. Typically I will borrow a bike from someone locally and go super early in the morning before work or after before the sun goes down.

I did a bit of scouting prior to getting there to see if there was a park, or bicycle trail that I could try out. I am a glutton for punishment and I like long-ish rides that eventually lead me to leg pain. I don't want to speak for all cyclists, but it seems to be in the genetics of the ones I do know. It is either speed or distance or elevations or all 3. We like to challenge ourselves. So in my search I found that there is a park, somewhat close to the hotel I was staying at... AND there was a ride share/rental bike place a quarter mile away. I figured why not try it out, I've ridden so many types of crappy bikes, how bad could they be?

So I mosey'd over to the bike share location which was in the parking lot of a company's campus. I think that they probably wanted their employees to cycle from building to building instead of driving. #gogreen. Im not sure, but let's go with that. :) 

This pic was taken after I returned the bike and why it is so bright out. I left the hotel at about 5AM which from the pictures below you will see how pitch black it was.

So the bikes are from the Zagster bike share. Link here:  http://bike.zagster.com/upgrade/  The bike is about as good as it looks. It is a full sized, 26" wheeled heavy bike with a basket, a giant lock on the back and a metal rack. What could I do - I had no bike and I wanted to explore. The first hour was FREE... yes FREE, so all in it was about $3 for the whole rental. I dont want to bash the bike, it worked, it was cheap and it was easy to use the software. A great item on the bike was the front and rear lights. The one on the front was ok, good for city streets, but thankfully I had brought my own light for when I entered the creepy "forest of darkness". :)

Now to the fun stuff, where exactly was I going. So before I got to Texas I was checking out google maps and found 2 large parks near my hotel. One was the Wynwood Park which I ended up going to and the other is a nature preserve. My 21.5mi strava route is below and the first activity on my SteveCyclesTheWorld strava account: https://www.strava.com/activities/2388480068

So after I picked up the zagster bike I took off on a main set of well lit roads for the most part and winded my way to Wynwood Park. The roads were clear, one other cyclist on a quite fancy road bike. Yes I was ashamed of my basketed ride for the morning. :) So after he zipped by I made it to the Golf course which was NOT as well list. As you can see to the picture to the right, I needed to use the light I brought as a handheld spotlight to see where I was. The Zagster was great on streets that had lights, but in pitch black, it was close to useless.

So this being February, the trees were pretty much still in hibernation mode and the sun didnt come up until about 7:30am. I got there at about 6am!! So I made it all the way to the tip of the park where there are benches, picnic tables and a little bicycle sculpture that almost made me wet myself when I flashed the light on it. I thought it was a "spirit of the forest". LOL :)

The feeling of the park in the twilight of the morning was as creepy as the pictures depict. Im not really scared of the dark, but I checked behind me a few times while I was riding. I kept thinking about those Silent Hill video games I would play when I was in high school.

The ride back to the hotel was pretty uneventful EXCEPT that the traffic at 7:30am was WAY more congested and intense with people trying to get to work. I would recommend NOT riding your bike at that time.

And finally at the end of the day I made it to a real BBQ place! Between the creepy ride and eating my weight in salty meats - it was mission accomplished on my first day in Texas.

Little guy who freaked me out

If a swamp witch floated over the lake I would not have even blinked. This place was made for a horror movie

There was no way on this earth I was leaving Texas without having BBQ each day.

Until next time Plano ....