Anyone do multisport trips? Specifically kayak touring + biking + hiking. I need security tips.
While kayak camping for several days in a remote area, what do you do with the bike? My idea is to stop at the nearest police station and ask if they will keep the bike for a few days.
While kayak camping, what do you do with the kayak while day hiking, assuming you paddle to the trailhead? I have a cable lock for it but that’s only a psychological deterrent. Don’t like to drag the kayak through the brush to hide it.
Choose your area carefully?
I routinely leave my boat or bike in the woods unattended, except by a symbolic lock. So far, so good…
Why can’t you just leave the bike in the trunk of the car instead of the police station???
Bike in trunk?
Well, maybe if it were a pocket bike . . .
It’s a nice idea
except most likely the police will say “no, we don’t do that”. Then what will you do?
We did a four month trip to Alaska
with our two mountain bikes, our two kayaks and all our packing gear.
We used our pick up truck with a cap on it.
Many times we were either back packing, or kayak camping or mountain biking.
We kept the yaks cable locked on the roof of the truck and the bikes and pack backing stuff locked in the back of the truck.
We would be gone on overnighters either kayaking, or back packing and leave our truck parked in the wilderness lots of times, and never had a problem.
We did one trip where we drove the truck for fifty miles on a one lane gravel road. then parked it and took off on the mountain bikes for a five mile trip on single track, and then left the bikes, (un locked) and hiked on a glacier for the rest of the day.
If you don’t take a few chances, you’ll never see what is around the next bend!
Jack L
hide it
Buy a few yards of camo cloth at any fabric store (or Walmart).
Drag the item (bike or yak) a few yards into the woods so it is not visible from the road or in public view, and away from where anyone is likely to walk to relieve themselves. Cable lock to a tree. Throw the camo cloth over the whole thing.
The odds of anyone spotting it are remote. And if anyone did spot it, most people are honest enough to leave it alone. The likelihood of anyone prone to stealing stumbling across it is remote. Dishonest people are not going to wander cross country through the brush looking for something to steal.
Is there a commercial outfit nearby?
You might be able to pay a small fee to leave equipment locked up at a shop or long-term parking concession.
Leave it with the Police?
A long time ago I had to scope out a job at the local police station. Most doors in the basement where I needed to go had security hasps bolted to the door frames and were secured by padlocks. I asked the Lieutenant who as accompanying me why everything was that way. He ruefully exclaimed, “If we don’t lock it up, they STEAL everything!” Hey cops are people, subject to the same temptations as the rest of us.
I try to leave my gear in as public a place as possible, locked up as best I can. Keeps the honest people honest.
plus, I can’t imagine
police want responsibility for it. That’s not their job. They’re going to tell her to rent a storage unit. Maybe she should try it first closer to home and see what kind of reaction she gets. At the very least I’d call ahead to the place she want to go and find out what they say ahead of time, if that’s her Plan A.
remove front wheel of bike and
stow in the car. most come off very easily, some with wingnuts. hide boats and cross your fingers.
Hiding it
I’m too lazy to bother with camo.
With bikes, it’s pretty easy to make it invisible because it’s so small. A few yards into the tree, it disappears from view.
Boats are a bit harder to hide. Turn it hull side up so at least it’s not showing its shiny yellow/red/neon-green deck from miles away!
If you can hide the paddle, it’ll make it VERY un-appealing to potential thieves (particularly if the location is roadless).