We’re both, but that doesn’t mean
that we pack the same for both endeavors.
Kayak camping means LUXURY!
36 lbs is bit low
I weighed my gear for 14 days of early-fall kayak camping and it came out to about 70 lbs. I did not need to carry extra water as we could filter as we went. And of course 14 days is twice the food as 7 days’ worth.
Since you are in FL and do not have the desert’s extremes of hot and cold (day and night differences can be huge), you need less clothing and can get away with summer-weight sleeping bags.
I’d guesstimate that you’ll end up with somewhere around 45 to 55 lbs.
Yes, but…
The wine gets pretty heavy…All those little boxes.
It’s easy.
Put your boat in the water, load everything you want to take. Keep your boat level. Then once you have everyhting you want, get in it to see if it still floats. Weight yourself and all the gear that fits, see what the max load of your boat is and make sure you don’t overload it. What doesn’t fit, don’t take.
whatever you do dont over pack
Nothing like hanging over a chickee, undoing a hatch and trying to get something out and you pick up the entire kayak!
Then you fall in.
Kayak Camping - packing the boat
Ok guys thanks for the help. You’ve told me the best way to pack the boat. Now I’ve got a game plan. I’ll up my training weight to 50lbs. I’ve got 2 months to train. And,I will resort to some of my minimal survivalist, techniques to keep the weight down.
MRE’s,and instant coffee. And, my cook stove will be a can of sterno and a tin cup to heat water in. I can do without luxuries for 1 week.
I’ll start by weighing my food, emergency communication and first aide stuff and then build up from there with the goal being 50lbs. Thats a weight that several people said was possible with careful planning .
I hope I didn’t give the impression that my Looksha was missing it’s hatch covers. It DOESN’T have hatches. I do have a Wilderness System Epic with hatches but my Looksha is my work horse. Heavy but almost industructable, with all kinds of stability. I use it to fish, crab and haul the grandkids in innertubes. Also I thought the higher volume and open space in the bow and stern would be easier to pack and hold more stuff than the Epic.
bmach1 to answer your “why water” question, my post says that I have to carry everything EXCEPT extra water.
Thanks Again For The Help
Light doesnt mean not eating well
dehydrated (by you) food is great…almost anything you can eat at home you can eat camping…MREs sounds ecch to me… I would rather have a nice lentil stew or curry or chowder or beef stew or chicken tom kai or a raisin carrot slaw than a MRE or a freeze dried fake something from the outdoor store.
A backpacking stove is a little better than sterno…plus you can bake…those little Betty Crocker mixes are very nice on a backpacking stove with a diffuser plate…or muffins.
Betty Crocker Mixes Are Great!!!
– Last Updated: Mar-10-09 1:09 AM EST –
I especially love the triple chocolate fudge brownies mix, it only needs water!!! Done in an outback oven, oh so good!!!
For the OP:
Really though, why limit yourself to MRE's? As the above poster stated, you can dehydrate most anything yourself or just wander through your local grocery market - I know I was surprised at the amount of lightweight mixes only needing water. The quality of your trip is greatly affected by what you eat. Most people do not really care for mre's. Why ruin a good trip by bad food? Just plan carefully and think through what you are eating. Good foods don't have to weight much more than mre's do.
Make a home made diffuser plate and you can bake most anything. There are a ton of mixes that only need water - from brownie mixes, to garlic cheese bread, to rolls, other freshly baked breads, etc. etc.
When backpacking I eat ok, but when kayaking or canoing (especially when canoing) I eat really well - better than I do at home, to tell the truth. The boat does, after all, carry the weight most of the time anyway.
Kayak Camping - packing the boat
You guys are great, you are sooooo funny. I must have wierd taste buds because I actually like most of the MRE’s.
I should be in bed but, you’ve just forced me to go and examine my “stash”. YUMMY 24 different hot meals to choose from. I don’t which ones to take #22 Jambalaya, #12 Black Bean & Rice Burrrito, #9 Beef Stew, #19 Roast Beef w/ Veggies, #16 Chicken w/ Noodles. And, then theres brownies, pound cake, cookies, assorted candies and a mixture of both hot and cold drinks. I just need to strip away all of the unneccessary paper and condiments to lighten the load.
I often take these on day trips and at lunch time when every one else is eating cold sandwiches they want to know where the hot food came from.
I hope all of my traveling companions share your dislike for MRE’s then I will not have to share my food with them. Again, thanks for all of the help.
Kayak Camping - packing the boat
WOW !!! I just got an e-mail from someone at Paddling .Net directing me to an article by Tamia Nelson “The Complete Boatpacker”.
It looks awesome - details, lists, diagrams showing a properly packed boat and loads of hints and suggestions. Thanks to whoever sent this to me I will go over it very carefully.
Backpacking for several years…
and this year will be my first kayak camping trip. I’m sticking mostly to my backpacking regimen of less is more if less includes the right stuff. MSR Pocket Rocket stove, water filtration system are a must, Only cotton in the pack is for around the campfire. Luxuries I can allow myself in the kayak are a bottle of wine (or two) a three legged camp chair (saves my knees), a nice towel, and extra water. My heaviest ever backpack was 53 pounds (once, and never again). I’m now down to +/- 30 pounds for three days of hiking. I expect to keep my kayak camping weight at 50 pounds or less. This year I’ll be paddling a Tsunami125. End of the season I’ll be looking a little bigger.
I’ll have to see if
I can find that article as well. I ordered a new boat yesterday that will be the one I camp from. A leftover 17ft Eclispe. But the Zephyr 16.0 is on my list for my next boat. Now I need to start getting rid of some of the ones I don’t use any more. KK
to me luxury means not having to schlep
150#. But I agree, it’s nice to pack some creature comforts.
Having said that, I’ve gotten by with a load similar to what I used to pack, on a summer trip. It was nice taking a relatively stripped-down approach, and packing sure was easy!
this is really helpful
I’m only doing 3 days in April, but this is good info, THANKS!
Have MRE’s improved that much?
The only experience I have with MRE’s is the old fashioned cold war army surplus ones. And, those, to say the least, were not very good. And, after a few days they did “strange” things to your insides… Never again will I eat those…
Modern freezedried foods aren’t too bad taste wise, but very unhealthy due to the cholesterol and salt levels. And, after a week or so, they just don’t seem very good… On extended trips I try to start with fresh foods and only use this style food towards the end of the trip, and even then, I don’t care for them. I would rather carry a little extra weight and have real food!!!
It starts out that way but…
you’ll find that since you can carry creature comforts so easily they sneak into your boat (especially as you age).
We backpacked for decades before we started kayaking camping (another decade ago). We still do both but go as ultralite as possible on the trail and take all the luxuries in the kayaks.
The exception is trips where we have a portage or portages. Then it’s back to less is more.
yep
its much easier to go from backpacking to Yackpacking, then the other way around! When yackpacking i take such luxury items as my 10 pound USMC combat tent. 3 pound Army inflatable air mat, Frozen steaks, for the first nights food. Tripod chair. Stuff I would never take if I had to haul it on my back. Still I have seen folks take stuff like Bottles of wine, cast iron skillets, aforementioned Dutch ovens. Full blown lawn chairs. Fire logs. All that stuff is great as long as you have somebody else that’s carrying it!! yeah I enjoyed the wine, and the cobbler made in the Dutch oven!! However if you are going any distance, even in a yack you notice the weight after awhile. Basically go backpacking for a week and you will see what you really need, vs what you don’t. and if it fits in a back pack it will fit in your boat!!
Big difference is land vs. water
With hiking, all your clothing is land clothing. It’s interchangeable. For paddling, some of the clothing is best differentiated (neoprene booties for paddling, something else for walking). Therefore, you end up with more clothing.
With hiking, there is no paddle, spare paddle, float, pump, PFD, VHF radio, and NO DRY BAGS. Dry bags do not weigh nothing, even the thin light ones.
There is also the kitchen sink mentality, which seems more common in paddling than in bike-camping or backpacking. When I compared my gear on the same trip vs. my husband’s, I couldn’t believe how much more stuff he brought. Must’ve been 20 lbs more than I had. He used to take a luxury ThermaRest, till I convinced him the Prolite 4 would be comfortable enough and MUCH lighter and more compressible.
Hikers bring dutch ovens?
The only people I’ve seen doing that are river rafters.
You’re training by paddling loaded boat?
I’m impressed. I’ve never trained for a trip by paddling the loaded boat (other than shakedowns to test my packing distribution). Hell, most people I know don’t even bother to get in paddling shape, period, before a trip (which is why I won’t go with them).
I found that the speed with a loaded boat dropped maybe half a mph at first, but by the end of the trip I equalled or exceeded normal unloaded speed. Obviously, the longer the trip the more time your body has to adapt to the higher demands.
Now, for backpacking, I will train specifically for hiking with a load, because in that case it’s not just speed that’s affected but my creaky ol’ load-bearing joints, LOL. The gym training is well underway now, and the next step will be carrying the pack on our daily dog walks.
In case you don’t know, there are camp stoves that are tiny enough to fit inside a very small cook pot. Check out Snow Peak’s smallest stove, for example. I have one made by Markill/Vaude that folds up into smaller than my fist’s size. It’s light, too. Sterno does not get hot enough to cook things so you’d be limited to canned foods and other precooked items (I’ve tried it). As long as you like MREs it’s OK but after a while you may want more choices in food. Also, I consider my stove one of the two backups for the water filter (boil the water to purify it). The other backup is Katadyne pills that you put in the water and let sit for several hours.
Anything that can serve double-duty or triple-duty will save you weight and space, overall.