For moderate temps (50+ in the day, 30's at night), one set of long-jons and fleece shirt/jacket should be fine. Along with a T-shirt and wind breaker/shell. A change of socks and underware for everyday and you are set for 3-4 days.
No need to take an "outfit" for every day. Might smell a bit ripe, but who cares? most other on the trip will smell just as bad.
Good advice on the insect repellent Because I forgot insect repellant this past weekend!
I got bit by a deer tick, attached on the back of my neck, right under my hair. I didn’t discover it until I was home last night and had taken a shower.
I went to the dr today, brought in the tick Hopsing pulled off, and am on antibiotics for 14 days “just in case”.
reply Know your climate, check weather conditions in advance, but don’t take it in gold. Alcohol stoves are great and can fire up with the best of them. Check pitbulldesigns on youtube for all you need on them. Poncho liners/hammock/mosquito net maybe ideal and a lot lighter than a tent/with a sleeping bag, that takes up a lot of space. Dehydrate all food and pack in airtight bags when you readd water all the moisture content is added back into it. That should help out some if you are into camping that sort of way.
I like to take a fold-up table and chairs. They don’t take up much room and are sure handy when cooking and eating. It’s a bummer sitting on the ground when it’s cold and rainy. My wife and I have it figured out what works for us. We don’t like messing around with cooking fancy meals because of the cleanup and time wasted so we snack a lot and eat mostly freeze dried meals. Cooking greasy foods sure make washing dishes a chore. This is especially true if you’re worried about bears.
On a backpacking trip we try to keep the weight to a minimum but when canoeing why bother as long as we don’t get stupid or have to portage. We always bring our thick sleeping pads and a bigger tent.
It pays to be organized to save yourself time rifling through packs looking for things especially when it’s raining. Do a dry run with the gear and canoe so you can tell if you’re over the top. I made a mistake once of packing just before the put-in and ended up with bringing too much gear. The whole trip I was angry at myself for all the extra things I had to pack and unpack everyday.
I tend to plan for every emergency so I pack too much gear. I know that so I have to watch myself. My wife is the reality check.
On one trip I wasn’t careful and crimped the gas hose on my stove when packing. On the first meal of a ten day trip, I discovered when my stove burst into flames that the hose leaked gas. I threw the stove into water to douse the flames since I was afraid the stove’s gas tank would explode. I retrieved the stove but it was useless. Lesson learned: take care when packing critical equipment.
Make sure your clothes won’t get wet if you go for a unexpected swim. Made that mistake too when I was careless repacking the gear after a mid-day stop for a sponge bath and a change of clothes. We dumped in a river towards evening on a cold and rainy day. I was lucky that I had a ax and a Sawvivor so that I could get a fire going. Brrr, it was a cold night until I got a fire going and dried out.
Always wanted to do the West Fork. That stuff about trial loading is a very good idea. Our first tandem camping trip was 12 nights in Quetico, and we had no way to do a trial loading because our food was provided in Duluth sacks by an Ely outfitter.
The outfitter carried us across Basswood to North Bay, and then threw our canoe in the water and started dumping packs into it, well out in the middle of the bay!! He told us Canadian customs would not allow him to land on shore to set us adrift!
Well, it was a darn good thing we had an 18.5 foot boat, because everything somehow fell into place. If you want to see a canoe loaded for a rather long trip, email me and I will send you an old pic.
My wife had family in Greenville, PA, so we have gotten up there for day trips on the Clarion, Allegheny, Slippery Rock Creek, even the Shenango north of Greenville. I still haven’t done a NY river, except the East River in my rowing days.
One Other Packing Trick I think someone might have mentioned this, but here goes. As I’ve gradually acquired more camping stuff, one trick I use now is to “sub pack” related items in smaller bags which then go into a bigger pack. I figured out quite by accident that the little zippered stuff sacks from Cooke’s Custom Sewing are exactly the right size to stack horizontally inside a #3 canoe pack. Boy, is that ever handy. You can access absolutely ANYthing in your pack in a few seconds (pull out the sacks until you get the right one, and then the full-length zipper gives full access to everything in there), and have everything all packed again in almost as short a time. This doesn’t address your initial question about saving weight and bulk, but it sure makes life easier in other ways.
375 pounds I carry less than 100 pounds of camping gear, regardless of trip length. That includes gear, food and water. I organize my gear into kitchen, living room and bedroom. Obviously, bedroom includes sleeping bag, pad, tent. Kitchen includes cooking gear, food, and don’t forget a tarp. Living room room includes all that other stuff you want to have along. Could be camera, sketch book, Parcheesi, fire irons, folding chair, whatever. It also includes crap like sunscreen, bug dope, and all the stuff to make life comfy. But realize that there is the traveling stuff too, like gps, compass, maps, paddles, bailer, etc. 100 pounds of camping gear, 100 pounds of traveling gear, and 175 pound of flesh.
Simple but enjoyable Ness, I do not pack extremely light, but I don’t take stuff just because I have room for it.
I don’t paddle where portages are necessary, but to camp safely you may need to carry your boat and gear a good distance to get high enough, especially on rivers with reputations for quick rising water. You might have difficult or steep landings that are made harder by having a lot of gear with you.
On the other hand, there have been times I tried to minimize as much as possible and regretted leaving some things behind. I always take my chair. I dislike cooking on the ground. I find cooking much easier if I have a small table, so I take a roll-up table if at all possible. Things that serve dual purpose also help save space. I don’t take a lantern. I do take a good headlamp.
I’ve only needed my hatchet once, but I’ve used the folding saw on almost every trip. I always take a good first aid kit. A good sleeping pad makes my trip better. An assortment of tent stakes if I don’t know for sure what I’ll need. My first canoe camping trip was on a sand bar. I had plenty of tent stakes, none of which would hold in sand.
I’ve also learned that the more you take, the harder it is to find. It is never in the first bag you look in. Loading the boat is also simpler when you have less stuff.
But it’s all a learning process…you’ll figure out what works for you. Don’t worry if you take too much or too little at first. Just have a great time!
I needed my hatchet to chop the tip off my left thumb, while splitting wood.
Fortunately I missed the bone. There’s still a tiny scar, after 35 years.
That was on our 12 night Quetico trip. If I had to do it again, I think I might have taken our ultra-reliable, noise-polluting, SVEA 123, plus two weeks of gas. Would have saved all that wood-scouting, sawing, and chopping.
Think like a backpacker To become more efficient think like a backpacker, but a backpacker who isn’t that concerned about going ultralight.
-Instead of bringing that lawn chair, buy a chair converter for your Thermarest. It weighs less than a pound, rolls up inside the Thermarest and is extremely comfortable.
-Instead of bringing canned food look for some of the rice dishes (Zatarians and Uncle Bens) that come in the foil pouches.
-Instead of bringing your 2 burner Coleman camp stove, bring a backpacking stove like a MSR Pocket Rocket…or even 2.
-Instead of bringing your 6 person cabin tent bring a 2 or 3 person backpacking tent.
-Instead of bringing that gas or propane lantern or 18 million candlepower spotlight, just use a Mini Mag Lite or headlamp.
-Just bring one change of clothes. You’re in the woods, who cares if you stink?
If you save enough space and weight you can leave room for some luxury items like a cooler full of beer and steaks and a bottle of wine or two.
Also use stuff sacks. Lots of them. Compression stuff sacks for bulky items like clothing, tent and sleeping bags. It’s amazing how much room a few compression stuff sacks can save. Your sleeping bag roll, knocked down to about 1/4 its normal size. Your tent the size of a loaf of bread, your clothing for several days can fit in a very small package. Compression stuff sacks aren’t cheap, but are worth every penny you spend on them.
Poor Man’s Compression Sacks One thing I do, though it is quite time consuming, is to take ZipLoc baggies (of varying sizes) for compressible items such as clothing, TP, etc. I put the item in, zip it mostly closed and then sit on it on a couch cushion. Then zip it closed once it’s compressed.
This gives you a watertight (though don’t ever DEPEND on a ZipLoc baggie staying watertight) and compact package that you can then throw into a larger bag.
For food items that you may not want to actually sit on and crush, simply suck as much air out as possible.
The boat determines… what you can reasonably bring along. I’m in the process of getting ready for a paddle in trip this weekend. I’ve never packed my Artisan for a trip like this before. Yesterday I did a dry run of packing and it was an eye opener. What helped was I bought a tapered dry bag to take advantage of the space in the bow.
I’m bringing two changes of clothes (just in case)dry suit, liner, chota’s, food, water, tent, self inflating pad, small MSR stove, mess kit, small iron pan and a bunch of other things to make the trip pleasurable.
I didn't hear anything about taking the rod and reel ?? ........ That part of the Susquehanna is lit up with huge Smallmouth this time of year (especially in the feeder creeks) , as a matter of fact , all the other stuff you need to take is just extra required to support some great fishing or at least to me it is !! ....... do take your stove but for fun and practice make a rock stove and toss potatoes, corn and stuff on it wrapped in foil ........ ps., don't forget the instant Oatmeal and matches !! ......
It pertains mainly to packing a kayak for multi-day trips on open water like the Great Lakes, but many of the same ideas and list items apply to other types of trips too.
A canoe offers the luxury of space, and two paddlers to propel it, so take what you think you want and add or trim stuff for your next trip.
This thread has been growing for so long, I may have missed or forgotten some of the previous comments, so I may be replowing plowed ground, but here's my contribution.
Everytime I pack for a trip I do a spreadsheet with the documents, boat gear, personal, camping, food, etc. catagories, and columns for "purchased", "ready", and "packed" columns. For all the stuff I already own, or when I've bought it, I check off the "purchased" column. When I've found it and dragged it into the room where I'm packing, I check off the "ready" column. When I've packed it in the dry bag and put it in the tote, I check off the "packed" column.
I save the spread sheets in a "Gear list" folder on my computer. Now when I'm planning a trip I grab a gear list file from a similar previous trip and make what modifications occur to me. Then I add the new file to the gear list folder. If I were truely organized I would modify the file right after the trip to incorporate lessons learned on the trip, but I don't believe I've ever actually been that organized.
As far as the actual packing. Before the trip for which I was best organized I dragged my kayak into the living room the day before I left on the trip. With everything spread out before me, kneeling on soft carpet, with good light, good music playing, and a glass of good wine at hand, I organized my gear and packed the boat.
I tried to organize things so I could associate an item with a location. All the food and cooking gear were aft (this tended to keep metal items away from the compass) and tent, sleeping bag, clothes, etc. forward. The tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag furthest from the hatch and things like clothes and rain gear closest to the hatch. The important thing is that if you have a packing system and the system is logical for you, you will tend to remember where things are.
After all the packing was done, and with the wine in hand, I reflected on where everything was and tried to impress it on my memory. On that trip I could find everything when I wanted it, and I could pack my boat quickly because everything went back in the same place. It may seem simple and obvious to eveyone else, but I'm a simple guy who has trouble comprehending the obvious.
