I’ve never been much of a water person. More a terrestrial type, really. Once I nearly drowned getting caught in a frothy rip at Newport Beach, California, along with two kids who, terrified, tried using my flailing body as a life raft and almost took me down with them. Luckily, we all survived. Barely.
So when I finally mustered up the courage to YouTube how to inflate my new 2.25-pound Alpacka Raft Ghost and give it a whirl, my palms grew clammy. Blood pressure rose a few points, even though the seven-point plan I’d outlined was embarrassingly safe:
1. Squish the boat into my Ultimate Direction 25L fastpack.
2. Run seven miles of trail up Missoula, Montana’s Clark Fork River.
3. Find a convenient put-in and inflate the thing.
4. Float downriver back to where I’d begun.
5. Deflate and stuff it in my pack.
6. Run home.
7. Eat a cheeseburger.
This would be a front country microadventure—within cellphone range and never more than 20 minutes from a coffee shop. It was also something I’d dreamt about doing for years: watershed travel! To combine elements of running trails with running water. After all, it’s…
