Right off the bat, I have to admit that I, personally, am something of a Luddite with regards to electronics of any sort while paddling. I don’t own a cell phone, GPS, or carry anything beyond a weather alert radio. Well, I guess I did bring a walkie talkie once, thinking it might have some safety value, but found it unnecessary and didn’t repeat the practice.
BUT
We’ve been doing gatherings in the Ozarks for quite a while now and those aren’t typical river (or BWCA or coastal kayaking type) trips. Its gotten to be a lot like a paddler’s family reunion. We “take over” a portion of a public campground in the off season and each day run shuttles to various sections of river. Its almost the only really practical way to organize for a group of twenty plus canoes and tents - can you really count on finding a sand/gravel bar every night that’s large enough for such a group on most rivers?
For nine years I used to lead a true Pnet (OK, Pcom) river trip on the Wisconsin, but that is an exceptional river with regards to large sandbars and nobody brought a computer on those trips. Its too likely to get seriously rained on or get sand in expensive equipment.
But at the Ozark campground gatherings, or perhaps other base camping setting, its a different story…
One year boyscout (once a regular poster and still lurking about, I suspect) brought his lap top and collected the photos of all the participants, did some editing, compiled them into a slide show, put them to music, and burned copies for all the folks who participated. Bob Seger’s Against the Wind it was - well suited for that trip and a bunch of ageing paddlers (c’mon fess up, you’re ageing too…)
That was a worthy endeavor IMHO. Kudos to boyscout on that…
But unless you have a project like that in mind and a place where you can do it without risking equipment damage, I advise against bringing a computer on the water. I’d suggest taking notes on paper and putting them on a computer when you get back. Just my 2 cents…