PACKRAFTing

Exploring lake Iso-Melkutin

By Erik Plankton

June 17^th, 2018

It's a rental

I have had the urge to test a packraft for a couple of years now and it finally became reality when me and Antti rented two boats from Korpijaakko, who by the way has an excellent outdoors blog - check it out. He was exhibiting at the Riihimäki Erämessut outdoors fair, so we drove there after work on Friday and pick up the rafts. After a brief instruction and tips session, we were ready to head out for our destination: lake Iso-Melkutin in Loppi.

MRS MICRORAFT

The MRS Microraft is available in two sizes. I had the larger (red one in the pictures) which has an internal length of 125cm and overall it is 235cm. It comes fully equipped with a removable spray deck, seat and backrest. It has 4 tie down loops in the front and two in the back to secure your backpack or other gear like a bike. The complete set (boat, inflation bag and four piece paddle) weighs in around 4 kg, which is really not that bad.

setup

Getting the raft ready is really simple with the inflation bag. Screw the bag to the valve, scoop some air and gently roll the bag up which pushes the air into the main chamber. For a novice it took less than 5 minutes to inflate the raft. Then we strapped our bags on the bow and assembled the paddles. Our goal for the weekend was to evaluate how the packraft and fishing work together. Our last year trip to Kaldoaivi was so nice, that we are going again and have plans of taking packrafts with us to combine paddling with hiking.

paddling

The craft is surprisingly stable so getting in and out is not a problem. The conditions were ideal with only a slight headwind along the way. You can manage about 4km per hour without too much effort. While paddling the bow of the boat makes a constant sway from left to right, but it tracks in a straight line. You get used to it very quickly and paddling is easy.

FIShing

Casting from the stable raft works nicely. The ergonomics are totally ok for a day of fishing. Unfortunately we didn't get to wrestle any proper sized pikes or perch. In calm waters the rod stays in place against your bag when paddling.

spraydeck

Initially I thought that the spraydeck would be unnecessary, but it turned out to be awesome. It keeps your legs dry from paddle drip and you can use it as a table when changing lures etc. It is simple to operate with the velcro closure. I will definitely test the raft in class I and II rapids in the future.

Setting CAMP

We set up camp on a narrow piece of land between two lakes. I set up my new Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL 1 and Q-Core SLX pad and Antti slept in his bug proof tarp setup. My initial impression of the tent is fantastic. A 300 gram weight penalty over the MSR Carbon Reflex 1 translates to a much sturdier free standing structure with a lot more room inside. A true 3 season tent, that I am confident taking to exposed tundra areas in Lapland. I will do a more in depth showcase / review after I get more nights in variable conditions.

Transparency disclaimer: I received the tent and pad free of charge as a part the Blackburn Ranger program.

camp vibes

A good paddling trip involves some quality beers. And mosquitos. Luckily I brought my Thermacell device, which worked great.

cooking with the vargo bot

The Bot is a versatile cooking / water container.

Seld made dry food

Antti bought a drier recently and made all of his meals at home. They turned out great and the taste was far beyond commercial freeze dried stuff that I had. You could really taste the different ingredients and the texture was like real food. The beef jerky was top notch.

Good morning melkutin

Lake Iso-Melkutin has one of the clearest waters in Southern Finland. There were a lot of divers exploring the world beneath the surface.

Sunday funday

After breakfast it was time to head out onto the lake for more paddling and fishing. Again the fish were avoiding us, but the perfect weather compensated for that. After a good float we went ashore and packed the rafts onto our backpacks. Walked to the car and returned the boats to Korpijaakko. The experience was so nice, that we ordered boats from https://www.packrafting-store.de/ the following week :)