I planned a route but it entails crossing a river with a backpack

Self inflating raft, grappling hook.

So yeah, the question is: how do I cross the river?

>>1022828
Don't have a raft. Was thinking about tying a rope over the river, putting the bicycle and backpack on it and guiding them to the other side while swimming myself.

>>1022831
You need some floats. Even a kiddie pool inflatable toy would be preferable to nothing at all. Pool noodles even. Something.

>>1022825
why the fuck do you have a 20kg backpack and a bike? don't you have panniers?

as for crossing,, you normally want 3 points of contact, a stick or staff is recommended.

if you don't know how deep it is what makes you think you can cross it?

Ropes and carribeaners

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>>1022825
put your pack in its rain cover or a trash bag, it should be less dense the water for sure. unless you pack bricks.

then just swim over pulling it behind you with the open side up like a dead bug.

with the bike empty your water bottle and fix them in place. to get some extra bouncy then do the water rescue backward swim.
start crossing upstream from where you want to go on land on the other side. don't try to touch the bottom you might get snagged and drown.

if its really just 5m and really slow it should be easy as fuck. a fallen tree can spann that easily too.

dont forget even slow water has a lot of power

> in before op wants to cross Teklanika River

My Fatbike is completely buoyant on its own in water. I have forded a few already with ease.

My recommendation would be to carry an inflatable pool matress (twin size is fine) and lash the inflatable to the side of your bike on the left side. Then once in about knee deep, lay the bike down on the left-hand side, chain side up. Place your backpack in the triangle of the frame with 2-3 sticks placed over the triangle for more support.

You can either swim across first with a line attached to the bike, then pull the bike across, or try swimming with the bike tethered to you about 5-10ft out floating on its own. Id recommend the former.

The inflatable matress wont weigh too much if you are biking around, as opposed to carrying that in your pack.

Alternatively if you already have a sleeping pad like a neo air, just use that with no extra weight gain. Just ford early in the day so the pad can dry off before night time.

if your bike is steel, make sure you drill a weep hole in your bottom bracket so water can drain out. Also Frame Saver.

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>you chose to caulk the wagon and float it
>disaster strikes
>you lost a bicycle and 20lbs of food
>op has drowned

>>1023049
OP drowned from dysentery