I hurt my foot running Kesugi Ridge three weeks before the Wilderness Classic, so I became a bikerafter for two weeks to stay off my feet. Overall it was fun to learn some new systems. Charlotte, Erin and I had planned to do Sanctuary River, but we pivoted. Charlotte had actually also hurt her foot, couldn't put much weight on it, and was also planning on doing the Classic. So much in common. Catherine told us she had booked Tangle Lakes Lodge along the Denali Highway. She planned to bike 120 miles from Cantwell to there, spend the night and then bike back in preparation for the Dalton Highway in a few weeks.
Bikeraft #1: Nenana
This was a good shake out for rafts on bikes. We did the car shuttle as a bike shuttle instead, so there are unlimited rafts you could do in this way. Charlotte used panniers for all her stuff, and put her raft on top of the frame. I attached my raft to my handlebars with ski straps and put my paddle sticks in there as well. I borrowed an under the seat bag and put my dry suit in it, with my life vest around the top and bottom of it with my combing. My bike was full suspension but it still worked if I put the front of the life vest facing up. I had a bag to attach to the bottom of the bike with my spray skirt and gloves. In my fanny pack I put my phone, multi-tool and pump. I put snacks between my legs in a bag attached to middle, and attached my paddles around this. Erin attached a dry bag to the bottom of her seat with her life vest around it (impressive). We thought biking with our rafts would be a lot harder but it was actually cruiser to the put in and then we stashed our bikes. We figured this river wouldn't be the best to try out having the bikes on our rafts for the first time.
Bikeraft #2: Maclaren
After seeing Catherine and spending the night at Tangle Lakes, we put our stuff back on the bikes and continued on the gravel road from Maclaren Lodge. The road starts across from the lodge and about 1.5mi towards Cantwell. We parked at the take out across the lodge and biked the road. We biked almost 6miles cruiser. You would need a mountain bike but the road wasn't too rough. Then we came to the West Fork of the Maclaren. We could see that people had picked up driving on the other side, but with how high the water was it seemed no way someone could drive through it. We tried testing the water without our bikes first, but it deeper than mid-thigh and we decided no way with carrying bikes and rafting stuff, even if we did it in multiple trips. It took us a long time to brainstorm what we wanted to do from here. We thought about going back to the other side of the river to see if there was a road. We also looked at different areas that we could raft across with the bikes. The main thing was that we had never paddled with the bikes on our rafts, so we weren't sure how they would handle. Finally we decided to attach the bikes to our rafts and try paddling in an eddy. Then we would assess if we felt okay ferrying the river, or if we would turn back and at least we learned how to attach our bikes to the rafts. We did front wheels off on top the bike. I did bike seat towards me since I had a drop seat, and put cardboard between the brake pads just in case. Four ski straps into each perimeter spot on the front of the boat and around the two bike parts was surprisingly secure. Forward paddle strokes were limited. 
We then biked around 4 more miles until the road came the closest it was going to get to the river. Since we were running short on time to get back to Anchorage, we stopped here and bush whacked over. It was less than half a mile but swampy and some bushes. Honestly not bad though. What was really funny and fitting was that this was Erin and I's first bike ride together. We transitioned fast at the water because the bugs were insane. We floated the 8miles back to the car in 2 hours. It was all under Class II. With more time you could bike further to the glacier and walk the last bit. Maclaren River Lodge does jetboat on this river so look out for them.
Bikeraft #3: Knik
I roped Adrianna into making her first packraft a bikeraft. She had run 20 miles the day before, so she was willing to tolerate my life of less exercise and more shenanigans. You can start at the parking to fat bike out in the winter is (down East Buckshot Drive) if they allow it or Alaska Glacier Lodge and bushwhack down. The ATV trail came to Hunter Creek and we rigged up to cross. We ferried across but discuss comfort levels with Adrianna paddling with the bike on, and decided we probably shouldn't paddle Knik. Initially there was going to be three of us, but with just me it could be interesting even with the calm water. We biked out to where the trail crosses the Knik and then turned around from there. You could easily ferry the Knik here and bike closer to the glacier, raft around the ice, and then back to whichever point you want from there. Another option is to bike the north side of the river which I believe is 23 miles and has crossings.
Bikeraft #4: Portage
This was my first bikeraft on a gravel type bike instead of a mountain bike. This bike I received not working but it mostly works now, so decided to gamble on it. There's a rack on the back so I used a new set-up of some old panniers I found for free. They're a little nasty so I put a trash bag in them which waterproofed my stuff anyway. This time I put everything in one of them, raft on top the rack, and life vest piled on top. There were actually great trails for gravel biking mostly along the road to the put in. We ended up stashing our bikes for ease and rafting back to the bridge where we had left the car.
There are many more rivers you could do this with, using bikes to replace the car shuttles or more involved on trails or roads you wouldn't drive on.
Body is a temple of bug bites and scratches:
For updates on ways to advocate to keep the Susitna River (the Macclaren flows into the Susitna) flowing and not damned sign up for the Susitna River Coalition newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/bvZKWwA
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