Caribou

Combining light and durable tubes with a full strength 840d Ballistic Nylon Floor and our innovative Late Rise Bow, the Caribou is the ultimate backcountry front end loader. At just 4lbs 12oz (5lbs with a Cargo Fly), the Caribou is also the lightest full sized packraft on the market. It’s the perfect packraft for bikerafting and big ultralight backcountry adventures.

Thirty-one years ago I had never heard of anybody else lashing a bike onto a boat before. It was my own idea, with my first mountain bike in 1987. I wanted to explore an area for moose hunting on the far side of the Delta River, a big glacier river in the Alaska Range. I used a Sherpa Packraft to get across. I rode buffalo trails, ended up shooting a moose, used the bike to wheel meat to the river, and then I ferried it all over in my raft.” ~Legacy Ambassador, Roman Dial. He acquired his first Alpacka Raft in the early 2000s.

For many years, the only way to carry your gear on large, multi-sport packraft adventures was either inside the boat on the floor, or mounted to the bow. However, in 2011, we changed the game completely when we invented the Cargo Fly internal gear storage system. This design not only kept your gear drier, it also dramatically increased handling and whitewater performance. However, it didn’t solve the problem of carrying large bulky items like bicycles, big game animals, and large packs on the bow.

Welcome the Caribou with our latest innovation, the Late Rise Bow, that combines the stability and load carrying ability of a rockerless hull with the whitewater and wave performance of a rockered hull. Unlike anything else on the market, the Late Rise Bow still provides a rocker to shed waves and whitewater, but it moves beginning of the rocker in front of the bow’s mounted load. The result is a broad stable platform for mounting bulky and heavy items like bicycles that carries them high and keeps them out of the water when paddling. And, the load remains balanced and stable on both water and land.

To keep the weight and bulk at an absolute minimum, while preserving our legendary durability, we utilized the same lightweight 210-denier high count nylon fabric as the Scout and the 840-denier floor featured in our other packrafts. The result is an ultralight, full-size bikeraft or ultralight hunting raft that rolls up small for stashing in a pack or on your handlebar roll. It’s also available with a Cargo Fly, for keeping bulky gear on the bow and loose gear inside and dry.

Note: Due to the specialized bags utilized by most  bike-packers, Cargo Fly models do not include internal dry bags or internal attachments for clipping dry bags in place. However, internal dry bags can be purchased separately and used in the Caribou without the internal attachments.

 

Features

• Manufacturing:¬†Made to Order in Mancos, Colorado
• Hull:¬†Classic with Late Rise Bow
• Tube Diameter:¬†11.7-inch
• Valve:¬†Temper assist valve for inflation and deflation
• Attachments:¬†4 bow strap plates, 2 stern grab loops, and 1 bow handle
• Seating:¬†Classic Seat Bottom
• Build Configurations:¬†Open
• Cargo Fly:¬†Optional (roll-top internal dry bags sold separately)
• Materials:¬†Proprietary ultralight 210-denier high count nylon hull and 840-denier ballistic nylon floor (Made in USA). Sorry, no custom multi-color or Vectran options.
• Includes:¬†Inflation Bag, Stuff Sack, and Basic Repair Kit
• Recommended Gear:¬†Aqua-Bound Whiskey,¬†Manta Ray, or¬†Werner Shuna¬†paddles,¬†Astral V-8 PFD
• ¬†AQUASEAL WARNING:¬†Using the Aquaseal in the repair kit will expose you to toluene, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to¬†www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.

 Specifications