Desert Bikerafting: Learn to Pair Bicycles & Packrafts in Utah, Autumn Course
Want to Learn River Bikerafting Skills?
Please note, if a course you hoped to do is sold out or if you want to schedule a bikerafting adventure, please email us and we’ll do our best to schedule a course for you. Private courses cost the same as long as you have 2+ people. Click here to view our bikerafting trip options.
Course Introduction
Have you ever wanted to try something totally unique and unlike anything your friends have ever done? If so, try pairing packrafts and bicycles. What? No it really works! Roll up that packraft tight and put it on your handlebars. And then ride 3, 10, 20 (the sky’s the limit) miles to your nearest river. Take that boat off your bike, blow it up, take your bike apart and lash it to your boat. And then head down that river! It’s as easy as that. Well sort of. It helps to have experience with the transitions and navigating a boat with a bike on it. So we’ve got the course for you.
On this novice (Level 2) river bikerafting course, you’ll spend one full day learning packrafting skills on the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. Day 2, you’ll do a micro-bikerafting adventure also on the Colorado, riding local trails. You’ll then practice your skills in the backcountry on a three-day, two-night excursion in the Utah desert on the Colorado River and Lake Powell.
This course will likely push you over the edge of things you’ve experienced. But we feel certain you’ll walk away from this course with a deeper sense of enjoyment for both living in and utilizing human-powered tools to pass through remote landscapes. We want your experience to be the milestone in your life that you measure everything else up to.
Price: $1795
A 50% deposit is required when you sign up. The remaining balance will need to be received through 30 days prior to your course. The remaining balance is due immediately if you are registering inside of the 30 day window.
Please review our cancellation policy, which you will find on our Terms, Conditions & Cancellation Policy Page.
What's Included
An open Alpacka Classic packraft, PFD, paddle, helmet, all food for the backcountry part of the trip (starting with lunch on the first day in the backcountry and ending with lunch on the final day), permits, wag bags, sanitizing kits and camping. We do have bike bags to loan out. We also provide a group campsite the night before the course starts and the first night of the course. The sencond nig
what's not included
Transportation (though we will work together to ensure everyone gets a ride to the put-in), a working bicycle and bike gear (helmet, tools), adult beverages, whitewater boats, drysuits, river knives, whistles or throw bags.
You will need a drysuit for the first two days of this course. Rent them at a 15% discount by ordering them online at BackcountryPackraft.com We’ll give you the discount code once you sign up.
What You Will Learn
We base our learn basic river bikerafting and packrafting skills instructional courses on confidence and skill progression. We start slow and push you a little harder as we go, tailoring the experience to your own personal abilities.
For Beginner to Intermediate courses, you’ll learn a wide variety of skills, from the basics to more advanced river reading techniques. This is a list of some of the things you will learn:
- ✔️Basic packraft equipment use and care
- ✔️Self-rescue, partner-rescue and how to right your boat with a bike on it
- ✔️Dealing with currents
- ✔️Aggressive & defensive swimming positions
- ✔️How to navigate river hazards with a bike on your boat
- ✔️River dynamics
- ✔️Basic paddle strokes with a bike on your boat
- ✔️Using eddies
- ✔️River commands
- ✔️How to lash your bike to your boat and vice versa
- ✔️Transitioning from bikes to boats and vice versa
Instructors
Steve Fassbinder
Steve, aka “Doom,” is one of the country’s first Level 4 American Canoe Association Packraft Instructors. And he is a certified International Rescue 3 Whitewater Rescue Technician Professional (WRT-PRO) and IRF Whitewater Packraft Guide. Steve is also certified in Advanced Swiftwater Safety and Wilderness First Responder. An early adopter of packrafting, he has guided or instructed bike-packrafting to kids and adults for over a decade. And he has done remote packrafting expeditions around the world for over a dozen years.
Thad Ferrell
Thad is a Level 4 American Canoe Association Packraft Instructor. He additionally has advanced Swiftwater Safety training and he is a certified Wilderness First Responder. An early adopter of packrafting and life-long cyclist and bikepacker, Thad has accomplished some ground-breaking, multi-week climb-bike-packraft adventures in the desert Southwest. He is also an expert fly fishing guide.
