Six Mile May 1

We couldn't find any open water other than Six Mile and it was up to above 9.5 feet or so which makes it a bit challenging for a first boat of the season if you're a packrafter. It'd be my 2oth day of boating since Jan 1, but that's 'cause I had a month in New Zealand, unlike Forrest who'd been skiing all winter and Brad who's been his usual international man of leisure.

We had the new Witchcraft to try out, but I couldn't coax Brad out of it in the first canyon, but by the middle of the second canyon he was willing to let it go. Unfortunately by then we were done, wet, and cold....

Forrest tried out a thigh strapped boat for the first time and reported that once he realized that he had to have his knees fully engaged in the straps, with feet flat on floor and not pushed against tubes in the standard Alpacka position, that he could sit up and use his stomach muscles, then he got it -- but that, too, was not until the end of our go at the second canyon.

Brad has yet to use a thigh strapped boat in moving water.

A couple kayakers (who had skied Sunburst before they boated Six Mile) got in the Witchcraft and really liked the hull shape, despite it having lost pressure and we unable to get it hard again. We packrafters are not yet used to its tippiness yet.

"More data needed," commented Brad. Next weekend I will try it in moving water. So far I have only been in gently moving water with it.