I was kidding below.
Here’s the real story. I was telling Bo just the other day that I’m not yet into kayak camping. I prefer car camping and day trips from a base camp.
Doesn’t mean I haven’t tried a few different dry bags. (Close your eye’s for a second, Flatpick.) They’re well tested in a pre 2007 Tempest, too. (OK, you can open them now.)
If I were to give advice though on exactly what to pack or how to pack efficiently for a multi day trip, I certainly wouldn’t be speaking from experience.
There, I came clean.
Paul S.
Camping with SOT
I love camping with my LL Manta Ray 14. But you do need a large dry bag for the tank well. I used one of those huge canoe portage packs back there and it worked very well. I just bought a dry duffle bag to use instead but haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. The duffles make it easier to access the stuff in them.
Sil?
To all who posted:
Maybe dumb Q, but what is a “Sil” bag?
… is Sil a brand name?
OR
… is Sil short for silicon?
A lot of gear is already waterproof
Most of what you pack can stand to get wet and does not need a drybag. And a lot depends on how dry your storage space is.
I do not drybag:
tent
tarp
small folding chair
thermarest pad
canned goods, including fuel for the stove
any food item that is sealed in waterproof container, including dry foods that I put into zip lock bags (and sometimes a jar)
the stove
containers of water
cookware, plates, silverwear
tools
liquor flask
DUFFEL BAG – very important because you need something in which to carry all the loose gear. Put the bag in the boat last so that it is the first thing out. That way as you retrieve the small items you can put them directly into the bag. Small loose items get tucked everywhere between larger items. The area around and behind the skeg box is useful for many small items.
Another “last-in, first-out” item are my hiking boots. There’s often a goodly amount of walking between your camp site and where you land your boat, and I’d rather walk in the hiking boots than the neoprene booties. My front hatch has generally stayed bone dry, and I stuff the boots (with socks) in there as one of the last items. Boots are odd size and don’t nicely fit into a bag, so they go as is. So far, I have been lucky in that they have always come out as dry as they went in.
Stuff I make sure stays dry:
sleeping bag, goes into a nylon coated bag that will protect it from a bit of leakage, but will not withstand total immersion.
change of clothes, goes into a smallish seal line drybag
matches, first aid, pers. hygene items, toilet paper, book, pen & paper, spare batteries, light, into a smallish drybag (seal line)
Typically, three small to med drybags are all that go into the hatches, and everything else is loose.
Also, you may find useful waterproof containers from the recycle bin of your house. These will vary depending on products that cycle through your house. I have several quart and gallon, plastic, jars (in which Trader Joes sold Soy Powder). I transfer any dry food product from its commercial packaging into a zip lock, squeeze all the air out of the zip lock, and then you can toss them into the jar. In burbed zip lock, the products nestle in with each other, and you can get many days worth of powders, bisquick, rice, oatmeal, nuts, dried fruits, soup mix, and what-have-you into one of these jars, which also have the virtue of separating your food from smaller critters like chipmunks. In bear country, you might want to use something different.
That’s how I do it and it has worked for me over about a dozen kayak-camping trips.
Chip Walsh, Gambrills, MD
Siliconize Cordura
Ultra-Sil is a trade mark name for siliconized cordura. Ref:
http://www.seatosummit.com/products/display/7
Paul S.
Salt water of fresh?
BT, enjoyed reading your post. Do you use this packing method in salt water? I wouldn’t want any metal or fabric that I cared about sitting in salt water, myself. Wouldn’t want the gunky river water around here in the fabric, either. Nice clear mountain lake water might be ok. Wondering what kind of water you’re on. Given your location, I’m imagining all kinds, but wanted to ask.
Paul S.
test results
A month or two ago I collated the dry-bag test results from jwbasecamp.com (free site) and backpackinglight.com ($25 a year and well worth it, for me, for the last three years), plus my own experience with two brands. The upshot was:
Buy: Seal Line’s (Cascade Designs’) Storm Sack and vinyl bags (the latter heavier than all the rest listed here but waterproof even flooded in whitewater), Pacific Outdoor Equipment’s WXtex, Outdoor Research’s Hydrolite and Hydroseal lines, Camp Inn’s #7912,
Avoid: Granite Gear, Sea-to-Summit silnylon, probably all silnylon.
– Mark
Yep, salt & freshwater
Places I have kayak camped are Assateague (salt), Potomoc River (non-tidal–fresh), Patuxent River(brackish), & Moosehead Lake (crystal clear, fresh). The salt issue hadn’t really occurred to me. Over time, perhaps I’ll see some salt damage. The only item corroding, so far, is the reflector for an REI candle lantern, and it is only marginal–probably places where the surface was scratched. But you know how corrosion is. As Neil Young wrote, “rust never sleeps.”
~~Chip
I’ve tried them all
I have tried everyone that was available from every manufacturer. And all of my bags now are Seal Line. The others were given away, thrown away or returned. I’m not going to say anything bad about any company but I put bags through hell and Seal Line bags are the only ones that held up. I just finished a 49 day kayak trip. The bags are scratched up but no leaks. The 25L is ideal for putting on top of the bow and the 5L is wonderful for snacks and the little things you want to keep handy. The deck bag fits well on the stern.