kayak camping
The tried and true method is to travel light and make friends with a rafter that can carry a lot of your groups’ equipment.
rule one…
you will either take too much or too little gear!
break it down into categories and you will do better.
BED!
what do you need to sleep on and in?
BEDROOM!
do you want/need a tent or tarp or?
BATH!
what do you need for a toilet.
KITCHEN!
what do you need to eat and cook on?
MISC!
water filter?
first aid?
repair kit for tent and boat?
book?
Map & Compass!
Instead of a list, think Concept and you will do better.
THEN…
pack you kayak with al lthat gear and ask yourself, "Do I wan t opaddle my boat, myself and 150# of junk?
If not, thin it out (do you really need two water filters and two stoves?) or buy smaller and lighter gear.
I never use half the junkl I take kayak camping but i always find myself hauling it there and back.
tent
Sometimes it is better to bite-the-weight and carry more.
I just did a week on the Colorado River and lived out of a tiny back-pack tent so small and light I had to change clothes outside!
I wish I had brought my larger and heavier tent that had room.
Simmer down
– Last Updated: Mar-31-14 4:43 PM EST –
Not sure what I said that was all that offensive and got your panties in a bunch. First, I own a 12' sit on top and put many miles on her before switching to sea kayaks. I did read the post and offer some suggestions unlike your response.
Some SOT's do have hatches but the majority don't. Some have places to strap stuff, some don't. Paddling with a tub strapped between my legs even for a short distance, sounds uncomfortable and awkward.
I suggested packing light and using drybags. The original poster suggested towing a second boat full of gear. Go ahead pile as many dry bags on a SOT as you want, it would still be easier than plastic tubs or towing something.
I don't care if they are on the water 15 min or an hour, towing anything is tough, unwieldly and not the safest thing to do. Even tow belts have a release mechanism to unteather you from whatever you're towing.
I think you do need to make some sacrifices when kayak camping, you can't bring the kitchen sink. Do you really need the two burner coleman stove or will a pocket rocket boil the same water.
Jack
What do you mean by “tether”?
I believe this link should help.
It’s a good starting point on what to take and prepare http://youtu.be/RFgTngo-P3U
tons of tips on Youtube
Plenty of cooking, packing, maps, plus more videos on youtube. Just search on there.
Towing
Towing another boat might be easier than people think. Just realize you are going to be slower – especially in a head wind. Down wind i don’t notice a difference. Once I get base camp set up, i can do day trips with an empty yak. I can carry months worth of food and water, folding chairs, shade structures, etc. Also, the inflatable canoe i tow is a safety feature. If i capsized the yak and couldn’t get back in, i can climb on the stable inflatable.
It’s nice a way to get out for weeks at a time.
forget that idea and PITA
are little derisive. You can pitch good ideas without belittling others. I still maintain that a short trip across flatwater is shuttling gear and different than true kayak camping. You can choose to limit yourself unnecessarily for the sake of making a really unlikely problem even less likely, but I wouldn’t.
Tied down
jack L
…or just rent a canoe
You can do all of the things mentioned here, or just rent a canoe, bring a cooler and fill it with beer and steaks.
Belittle?
Again, I fail to see where I belittled anyone. I provided my opinion and then said towing gear behind is a PITA. What, should I have said that it’s a good thing and easy, it’s not? No personal attacks, no derogitory comments about the poster. The poster was looking for info and advise and I provided it like 99% of the rest of the posts. Everything else I said was spot on about packing.
Nothing belittling in Emanoh’s post
Gosh, an awful lot can happen in one hour of paddling. Say you’re lucky to have good conditions on your trip to the campsite. What about the return trip? Wind and waves can turn one hour into three hours or strand you.
I agree that there are different situations that allow you to take some liberties. I camp in two places where I have a short paddle to my site and on those trips I might bungee a more comfortable air mattress to the deck. I wouldn’t do that for a longer trip. On my last trip when I bungeed an REI Campbed 3.5 to the deck for the brief crossing, the return conditions were really bad and I had to make a long detour in and out of coves to stay out of the waves. The trip on the first day may have been a shuttle, but the return trip was not.
I would say the same for towing something behind—might work in calm conditions, but calm conditions are never guaranteed. And the OP needs to know that towing anything is always laborious—again turning the trip into more than the planned one hour.
.
Thank you
Thank you.
That’s true
Kayak camping should always permit a bit more weight, volume, and comfort than backpacking. That’s an advantage of kayaking over backpacking. In fact some kayaks can carry 3 to 4 times the volume of a backpack. That means, for example, that one person can reasonably carry a three-person tent, which is a very comfortable size for one person—lots of room for spreading out and changing clothes, and great on a rainy day when you’re stuck in camp. That might weigh around 6 to 7 lbs and pack to about 8" x 23", which is reasonable for a kayak. A two-person tent weighs about 5.5 lbs, so a 3P isn’t that much more weight.