Kayak with Rafts
By Mark Taratoot
After you’ve been kayaking for a while and have honed your skills, it’s likely you’ll get invited on a raft-supported multi-day trip. You should go! If you are a good team member, you’re likely to get invited back on more trips. I am grateful for all the invitations I had before I started rowing. Now that I have a raft, I get to bring a few kayaks on trips I’m organizing, and I can help support kayakers on trips they organize. You may have been joining raft trips as a kayaker for years. If so, there’s probably nothing new here. You might even have some more tips to share. Please do! If you’re a kayaker who is lucky enough to snag permits and is having trouble recruiting rafts for your trip, maybe you can make it easier for your rafters. Read on.
I have done some epic self-support trips where everything I needed for over a week was in my kayak with me. I still keep a self-support kayak, but any more I like the comfort of rowing. I sit up higher and can see farther downstream. I have to – the raft is slower to respond. I can stand up and stretch. I can even eat lunch without leaving my boat. I like that I can carry things to make camp more comfortable for myself and my crew. Self-support kayak (or canoe) trips have some advantages over raft-supported trips. Loading up in the morning is easier because you just don’t have nearly as much stuff to load. Boats are more likely to travel at the same speed. It’s just really fun to know you’re carrying everything you need in your own boat. Guess what - you can carry everything you need in a raft too, and you have room for things you don’t need but that you want. Paddling a kayak on a raft-supported multi-day river trip is also fantastic. Paddling an unloaded kayak for days on end is a blast. Lighter boats are easier to manage. Surfing is easier. If you have an out-of-boat experience, self-rescue is easier.
Rafters often like to have kayakers along. Kayaks are entertaining to watch. Kayaks can run big drops first, eddy out, and help rescue any people having out-of-boat experiences from rafts. When the group pulls in to an unoccupied camp that is not as nice as the one right around the corner, kayaks can go poke around to see if that lower camp is open. If so, they everyone else to come down. If that lower camp is occupied, the paddler can stash their boat, walk back to the upper camp with a frown on their face, and the group can decide if that will be home for the night. Another good reason rafts invite kayakers is because the kayakers happen to be awesome people who are great to be around but happen to paddle a kayak instead of rowing a raft.
Mixing kayaks and rafts at 24 mile in Grand Canyon, photo by Teresa Gryder
Here's a few things to consider as a kayaker on a multi-day raft-supported trip. Thanks to rafting friends for suggesting some things I neglected to think of:
First a safety tip: Kayaks are faster than rafts. Don’t follow a raft through a rapid. The raft might not want to run the same line you do, and you won’t be able to actually SEE your line because a bunch of rubber is in your way. Being faster, kayaks can catch up in rapids unintentionally and run the raft under. Not pleasant. It is unlikely you would could get stuck under there, but it could happen. At best you’d experience a self-induced keel-haul. Yuck. Get out front or stay far back.
Before you pack your drybag for the trip, find out how much space you have for personal gear. Try to keep it small, and be aware it is sometimes easier to load two smaller drybags than one large one. It’s easier for you to organize, and it might be easier for the rafter to put it in the load. It might even get split between multiple boats if needed. If you are allowed a LARGE drybag, that may not mean a GIANT drybag. Check in. Getting a good start like this sets the stage for a fun and happy trip.
Courtney and Dave drop a cooler into the raft frame at the put-in, photo by TG.
At the put-in or before, adopt a raft. Help the rower load the boat and learn how they do it. Rafters have quite a variety of different ways to rig. When you land at camp, help unload that boat. In the morning, help the oarsman get the boat loaded. Repeat as needed. Ask questions if you’re not sure. If you don’t get something right and the rafter fixes it, don’t take it personally. You are still appreciated! I always tell folks that, “This is the D-ring that you’ll miss when rigging.” It’s not universal, but it’s very common when loading up from the first camp they miss that D-ring. I show them. We fix it. It usually only happens once. Then again, I sometimes miss it too….
Kayaking with rafts on the Main Salmon, photo by TG.
Another safety tip: Mind the oars; stay out of their air space. Rafts are happy to carry snacks for kayaks. They are happy to give them to you while underway. They also welcome you paddling up to have a chat. Just be careful – those oars will hurt you. The rafter may need to use the oars to maneuver, and if you’re in the way, you may get smacked. Don’t get too close when the raft might need to maneuver. A kind rower will remind you where the danger zone is and TRY not to smack you. That said, it is a kayaker’s responsibility to avoid getting hit by an oar. Similarly, it’s a kayaker’s responsibility not to get run over by a fully loaded raft. Imagine surfing a totally awesome wave and seeing a raft coming downstream. The boat traveling downstream has right-of-way of your boat “traveling” upstream, but that’s not as important as the fact that the raft is less maneuverable and much higher mass (and momentum). Pull into the eddy for a moment to let the raft through. Don’t forget to give enough room for those oars! The rafter doesn’t WANT to hit you with their boat or their oars, but if you’re where they need to be, you may get smacked. You may have to get back in line before your turn to surf again, but at least you won’t get the new nickname “speedbump.”
When you get to camp, or if you stop for lunch, you’ll likely land on the beach before the rafts. Please move your boat out of the way. Rafts take a bit of space to land, rafts are more difficult to maneuver in tight spaces, and sometimes there are places that are MUCH better than others to land that raft. You might even help land the rafts. Bonus points if you pull your boat far away from where people need to walk back and forth to the rafts!
In camp, if you see some chore that needs to be done, just go do it. This applies to rafters and passengers too. If you see someone doing a chore and wonder if they need help, don’t ask. Just get up and help. If you’re getting camp set up and don’t know how something works, ask how to do it on the first day. Bonus points if you then adopt that as one of your jobs for the rest of the trip. This can be part of the kitchen or the groover or the hand wash. It might be as simple as filling up ALL of the water buckets and hauling them to the kitchen. More bonus points if you get all the group gear set up before going to find that really awesome place to camp. If you’re on one of my trips, I usually ask anyone who’s cooking that night to choose their camp FIRST and even let the rest of the group set up the kitchen (the way the cook team wants it to look) while the cooks go set up camp and change into camp clothes. Then while everyone else is getting camp set up, the cook team can get appetizers going.
Do not open any cooler that is not yours unless you are on the cook team and are in camp and getting ready to make a meal. Minimize opening the cooler. Know where the things you need are and get them quickly and close the cooler. Nothing that isn’t already cold goes in the cooler. That includes leftovers from supper and non-chilled beverages.
Camp-robber Raven waits for food to be served.
So it’s your night to cook. Wash your hands. This should go without saying, and unfortunately it needs to be stated! If you are coming in to the kitchen for any reason whether you are cooking or not - wash yer paws. Are you on the way back from the groover? Wash yer paws. Are you coming back into the kitchen after sitting down for a snack? Yep. Wash ‘em. Norovirus is real. Sometimes it’s nice NOT to share.
It’s happy hour! Yay! There’s chips and dip or maybe some Reese’s Pieces to enjoy while we relax and wait for supper. Enjoy the appetizers. Don’t reach into the bag. Pour some chips into your hand or onto a plate or bowl. Even though you washed your hands (you did wash your hands, right), don’t reach in the bag. You can turn those Reese’s Pieces into Feces Pieces. Yuck.
OK, so maybe it isn’t your night to cook. Stay out of the kitchen unless asked for help. Do you want to have your dessert as an appetizer? Don’t do it. If it’s your meal, you get to put the cookies out with the cocktails and have the charcuterie for after dinner. If it’s not your turn to cook – let the cook team do it their way. Many people I travel with suggest that the cook team eats last. Some say the cooks eat first. You can choose.
Dinner is served, and somehow you’re first in line. Please be mindful of how much food there is and how much you take the first time through; make sure there’s enough for everyone. There’s almost always seconds available. My favorite is when there is a half serving left after everyone has had enough to eat. Nobody is hungry. There’s usually volunteers to polish off that last tiny spoonful, and if not, you don’t have to throw very much out. Leftovers don’t usually go in the cooler because… they aren’t cold.
It is absolutely OK to be the last one up in the morning. Just not every day! Be ready to help. Try this to help your team get out of camp at a reasonable hour: Get up and grab some coffee. Go crash your camp. Bring your personal gear down and place it in front of the raft that is carrying it. Then go finish your breakfast and be ready to help your adopted raft get loaded up.
Everybody helps clean, dry, deflate and roll the rafts. Photo by TG.
When you get to the take-out, make sure to help get all the gear organized and packed. Help your rafter if they need it. It’s pretty easy to toss your drybag in your rig, tie your kayak on top, and split. If your rafter needs to deflate, help. If your rafter hauls inflated on a trailer, ask how you can help. If the groover needs to be cleaned, offer to do it. This alone may get you invited on more trips. It’s a shitty job, but someone has to do it. It’s really not THAT bad if there’s a SCAT machine and it’s working and you remembered to bring some one-dollar bills.
If your rafter is less curmudgeonly than I am, consider inviting them on your trip when you get a permit. If your rafter invites YOU back on another trip, you’re doing things right. Keep it up. We all share the river; let’s all share the joys and work when we’re there. Anyone want to join me for a trip?