“How am I going to carry all this junk?!” You may ask yourself right before you head out on your first bikerafting trip, and I want you to know:
1) Your previous outdoor gear is not junk (but maybe there’s a way you oculd go lighter still?), and…
2) It’ll fit, I promise, especially if you’re small aka efficiently packed as I am, and…
3) Make sure you have the right bags with you (and the right amounts of them). That being said, let’s get started!
Bikerafting will require you to get to the water before any rafting can be done. That requires decreasing the distance between you and the water – with all your gear. It’s up to you whether you choose to take a large backpack (aka the “Round Motion” mode of travel) or a bike bag + a bag you can strap to your bike. That’s what I did, but feel free to play around with the gear list as you need and see fit!
This list once again has: The Specific and The Base.
The Specific list contains weight, retail price I found online (on occasion varied greatly from what I actually paid in the outdoor stores I frequent here in Berlin), and reviews. There are so many gear lists out there, I would recommend a quick google search before heading off to buy gear.
The Base list contains no weight or price details, as this is the collection I’ve built up over the years and have a good grip on. If you’re putting your base together for the first time, then I’d recommend to stick with the table layout I used for The Specific.
I’ve added the prices for the curious minded, but REALLY want to ask you to keep in mind that:
– most of these items can be bought second-hand or borrowed. Bikes don’t need to cost a lot to be good. Just look my trusty lil’ Red. Packrafts are as easily borrowed from canoe stores (that also ship them out) as they are bought. Please think twice about whether you will need a piece of gear for a long while, or whether you can lend it somewhere for the adventure.
