Far off towns in Alaska are known for attracting some oddball characters, but even for them the Frenchman who paddled into town on a pack raft had an exceptional kind of lunacy.
Florian Gomet had been walking the Iditarod Trail until he reached the a river and paddled into Unalakleet. From there he inflated his raft and paddled into town. It had become routine for the young man over the past 4,000 miles.
A reporter for the Alaska Dispatch News caught up with Gomet in the rugged bush town, and boy did he have a story to tell.
Gomet had apparently pack rafted, walked or biked 7,000 miles across the Northern Territory from the eastern most tip of Canada beginning in Labrador, Canada 15 months prior.
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By the end of July, Gomet is expected to reach the western tip of North America in Wales, Alaska. To prepare for the journey, Gomet told ADN he completed five other expeditions including walking and biking through the Arctic.
He said he was motivated by a book about the Canadian Rockies, saying he chose to travel through the north because “there’s too much road in the south.” Choosing that route, however, isn’t easy.
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Gomet covered 3,000 miles by bike before trading it for a packraft and either walking or rafting the rest, saying he found the people in the native communities in northern Canadian were especially kind.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
