Point Reyes Packraft Biking

Packraft – Biking on Point Reyes

Matthew paddling across the bay with bike strapped on front

Eric and Matthew

Sept 22, 2019

40 miles biking
2.5 miles packrafting
4.8 miles hiking

I flew down to California for the weekend and we embarked on a multi-sport biking+packrafting+hiking overnight trip Matthew had been planning for a while. We started in the morning at the Pt Reyes National Seashore visitor center and picked up an overnight permit to one of the backcountry boat-in campsites. We left the car around 11:30am and biked up 15 miles on highway 1 with packrafts and overnight gear strapped to our bikes.

The route

At the town of Marshall we found a nice put-in and inflated our packrafts. We then took the wheels off our bikes and strapped the bikes to the fronts of the boats. It was a bit awkward since it limited our paddle stroke length, but we could still fit in the boat and fit the spray skirts on.

We paddled a little over a mile across the bay to a sandy beach on the other side. It was a bit crowded with other people, so we stashed our bikes in the woods and paddled a bit farther north on the coast to No Name Beach. There we found a small flat area and pitched our tent for the night.

The next morning we started paddling just before sunrise in dense fog back to our bikes. We then repacked the boats onto the bikes and started biking up a steep gravel road. We continued biking south until we hit the southern end of the point at Drake’s Beach.

Camping on No Name Beach with star trails

There we inflated the packrafts and again strapped the bikes to the front. Matthew led the way out into the ocean. It was tough because the waves were crashing on shore, but he waited until a big one crashed, then quickly paddled out before the next one crashed.

I was not quite as fortunate. After a big wave crashed I towed my boat out and quickly started paddling. But I reached the next wave just as it was breaking, and it broke into the boat. The boat got swamped with water and I was pushed all the way back to shore like a surfer.

The next time I was quicker and I made it out to Matthew beyond the breaking waves. From there we paddled about 1.5 miles along the shore to an inlet, then paddled in behind a spit. We

Paddling on the southern end of Point Reyes

decided to intercept a mountain bike trail up the inlet. We pulled into a muddy takeout, deflated the boats, and packed them back up on the bikes. From there we biked up along the coast and met back up with our old route. We wanted to climb Mt Wittenberg on the way, but also needed to be back to the car by 3pm. So we decided to first get to the car, then if there was spare time we would tag the summit.

We ended up reaching the car by just before 2pm, so had some buffer time. It was a 4.8-mile round trip hike, so we would have to be fast. We ended up running most of the way up and all of the way down, finishing in 48 minutes with plenty of time to spare.

We made it back to Palo Alto that evening and I later flew back to Seattle the next morning.