How to pack for Kayak Camping

all right folks it is that time of year it's almost october it's late september the leaves are turning the acorns are falling got a little rain out there and what's missing off this rack is nana that's because we are about to go kayak camping so i've had a ton of requests to do a video on how i'm doing kayak camping as far as gear and how i pack the boat nowadays not much has changed since the last video but it's several years old and dated and i figured i would revisit that today and show you everything we got going on how i pack it where i pack it exactly what i'm bringing and this will change a little bit depending on the weather the distance that sort of thing where we're going to be but basically this is everything i use when i'm kayak camping so i'm heading out in the morning with brian greg dirt dauber iowa matt and bobby darin we're about to go hit the catawba river here's my loadout for a three-day camping trip check it out let me basically just start from the front and work to the rear i'll show you everything i got going on with the boat uh the first thing i have you may notice is a compass i don't use it all that often but when i need it it's always there and very handy so the yukon expedition has a double hatch has a plastic cover with a neoprene top okay there's a couple things you need to think about when you're packing your boat and the number one thing you need think about is weight you don't want to stuff the front with a lot of heavy items because that's going to drop the bow it's going to make your boat not perform the way you want it to you want to be pretty much even with a little edge to the weight in the back if you have to choose now you want all the heaviness the heavy items to be kind of towards the center of the boat not out here on the ends whether it be in the front or the back so the further out to the end of the boat you go you want lighter items so you don't want weight out there that way you can turn and maneuver a lot better so in the front of my boat i've got my jet boil and then this is a woobie which is like a blanket i always take a woobie on a camping trip the cordage for my tarp my tarp and you can kind of start packing things you're going to use together because that makes sense i got the footprint for underneath my hammock and then here i have my hammock itself up in the nose i have a bunch of freeze-dried food that i'm going to eat on the trip and that's basically everything i've got in the front of my kayak the hammock i'm taking is a war bonnet blackbird and it's a fantastic hammock i've got a video up on that if you want to see it the tarp i'm taking this weekend is my ugq winter dream that's been my go-to here for about uh about a year i just really like that tarp jet boil not a whole lot going on there and that's pretty much the front compartment i may stuff some snacks or some other little things like that in there that i can get to pretty easily during the day when i take a break but i really don't clog that up with a lot of weight and i want to have those items that i need together kind of up front when i land i want to set up a tarp everything i need to set up the tarp in the hammock is right here and it takes no time to do that all right now we'll move on to this front deck area of the boat so start off with my thermos got a little hydroflask here for any drinks i want hot or cold on the river that works great here mounted in front of the or right behind the deck bag is a scotty mount that holds my gopro and that'll be tethered off to this little locking with that tether i'm using the gopro now so you'll just have to trust me that's where it goes this can pop out if you ever want to remove it film with it whatever you want to do that's that's there super easy the sky mount has worked out great over the years and uh meant to take that out so show you something right behind the scotty mount you'll see my etrex 20 a garmin etrex 20. i keep that on and i've arranged my dashboard in such a way that kind of shows me my speed moving speed pardon the disruption so this is my everywhere so right behind the the scouting mount here is my garmin etrex 20 and this kind of has a little mount that kind of allows me to adjust and i can turn it a couple different ways but i keep my dashboard on all day so i can always look up there and see the distance i've gone the speed i'm currently traveling max speed you know kind of see the track i want to but i keep it on the dash that way i can just monitor what we're doing so i can forecast when we're getting to a waypoint or how far we've been going or do we need to pick up the pace or are we good to just relax very crucial tool when you're actually doing a long trip and you're trying to stay on a schedule or itinerary of where you want to be by the end of the day midday if you're trying to hit a restaurant by lunch that might help you from getting too hungry or from getting there too soon you know if you have a little time it's just one of these tools i really enjoy stays right there does a fantastic job so next right here the obvious deck bag and this is an overboard deck bag i love it i've had a different one for almost 10 years i did a bunch of miles with the other one i looked and saw what was out there did not see anything better so i bought another one and so this will be the first trip with the new deck bag and uh virtually exactly the same as the old no complaints got a little waterproof zipper up top i would normally put my phone up in here so i can access it during the day inside i have a viking tactics tactical med kit that's for some serious injuries also a tourniquet if anyone gets crazy in the camp with a hatchet or a knife or something and is actually bleeding out you'll be glad you had a tourniquet if your medical training doesn't allow you to use that in good conscience do what you want to do but i would have no problem throwing a tourniquet on somebody who was bleeding profusely and we couldn't stop it then we have a little medical bag not a big deal behind that a hammock with some homemade cordage uh so that's kind of like a break hammock if we just stop and we don't want to pull everything out i don't want to get to my other hammock but i want to sit and eat lunch or take a little nap i've got a little hammock easily available readily accessible ready to go even though i'm much less likely to use the medical stuff i put that up front so i can get to it quicker if need be if someone else has a medical condition that requires special medicine or you know an epipen or something i might have that right here too and everyone on the trip will know where all this stuff is in case something happens to me or if i'm not around or if i need them to get the stuff while i'm attending somebody anything like that okay so right behind the deck bag and all this uh gadgetry with the gps and the gopro is a double carabinered 550 cord length of rope and i keep it tight in there because i don't want it catching on a lot of stuff the more loose rope you have everywhere it can be a snag hazard and you kind of kind of watch that but um i like deck lines for the big boats on rivers gives you something to grab no matter where the boat's coming at you and this is about three feet of rope not that long oftentimes when we tie boats up along rivers there's just room for one boat to get to the route or the post or whatever we're tying off to and this allows us to just simply click into a deck line run it through the front grab loops or whatever else all the boats and well you can usually get four or five other boats tied to the one it has some other uses um i don't recommend towing anything attached to you or your boat unless you know how to do that and you have a quick release on a rescue vest and that's called a a cow tail or some other ways to do that pretty controversial because if you do it wrong you're putting yourself in grave danger so before you get too crazy with that just know you need to be real careful you need to get some training there's a lot of other uses for this but it's a quick tie off stays tucked out of the way like that if i need it i can get it it's kind of neat all right now we're to the cockpit area the working area of the boat where i'll be sitting as i paddle and i'll be using a rpc3 performance tour paddle the blade shape is much like a white water paddle but it's uh just a full carbon layup touring layup with an aggressive blade and for what i do that's that's perfect i don't need a full-on white water paddle it would be too heavy i don't need a full-on touring paddle because i would like a little more blade i like a wing paddle if i'm in the ocean going nothing but straight but as soon as you get into a river and you need to use an active blade kind of technique style where you're working and feathering your blade the wing paddles don't really work great for that at all so that's why i don't use a wing this allows me to get a bigger bite versus a standard touring paddle and it just works out perfect all right if i'm anywhere near rapids i'll have a helmet and i don't bring my full face on this kind of stuff because i'm likely not going to be in that kind of environment if i flip in this boat i will stay in because i'll lock my knees and i'll roll up the skirt i'm using will not hold me in the boat like a neoprene skirt wheel on a white water boat nevertheless i don't plan on coming out i plan on rolling and if that's the scenario you need a helmet on because it doesn't take much to hit your head on a rock and ruin your whole day your adventure knock you out give you a gash needing some stitches wear a helmet always a great idea if you're in 100 feet of water on a lake it's obviously not necessary if you're in the middle of the ocean a helmet is not necessary but if you're on any kind of river that's going to be posing a flip hazard and there's a lot of rocks around put a brain bucket on that way you can uh have good stories later and not forget what happened to you because you were knocked out and i talked about it just now but this is the skirt this is a seals sneak 1.7 fits this cockpit just right and it is not the super performance oriented skirt i use white water paddling it's got a zipper entry so i can reach down there grab a snack or a map or anything that i need while i'm paddling a couple little pockets on the outside it's got a little ribbed piece of plastic that kind of holds the deck up so water doesn't pull down it's got a little suspenders on there and unless i'm extremely hot and just don't care i will almost always wear this because it keeps all the splash out the yukon is a little bit of a wet boat in that it goes through features not over them and that gives you a lot more control and a lot more down river speed and agility you're also going to be a little bit more wet than a boat that rides over everything with a you know big flared up turn bow just know that the deck bag also helps deflect a lot of the water but you'll probably want to skirt if you're doing any kind of long distance trip and a yukon for my touring i use an astral v8 and the reason is it has a high back with this mesh area allows it to breathe but it also allows my back to sit against the high back seat without having a bunch of padding interfering with the seat back which becomes very uncomfortable and it causes a lot of people to want to take this off because they can't get comfortable so you do need a life vest you do need a pfd get the proper one in this case it's all i need it allows me to sit comfortably all day i don't even know this thing's on there and uh great company astral i use astral for all my white water needs i've got my kids in nashville it's a great pfd astro v8 in the astral v8 i have a couple things sometimes i bring these if i'm doing a lot of paddling like flat water sometimes i don't my hands don't really need them but if you do a week long venture and all you're doing is paddling because you're on some flat water you're going to wish you had gloves because you're going to be wearing the skin off the tops of your thumbs in those areas i learned that on my way to the coast 240 miles i was duct taping my hands first purchase i made when i got home in the same pocket i have a small fire starter that is waterproof just flick it a couple times you got a flame that's on my person because you never know where you'll be when you need to start a fire or if you'll be with your boat even so i always have that fire starter my dad gave that to me years back and it's been the perfect little tool in the other side of my vest i have a rescue link that's a rescue beacon basically pop that lift it up and if i hit the power button everyone in the world is coming to my location and they have all my information my wife gets a notification another couple people get a notification swift water rescue team sheriff's department coast guard everybody's getting this they get my grid and this will save your life if you're in an extreme emergency and you need to be extracted or someone in your crew does if you ever use the acr rescue link they will send you a free one in return so it's a one use thing if you use it they give you a new one can't beat that this can legitimately save your life it works with geosynchronous satellites and which is the ones that stay in place as the earth rotates they rotate with it and they work with orbiting satellites you're likely if anything's going to get a signal these guys will it's not a device meant to coordinate your location with everybody all the time like a spot or some of those others but just look and see what's out there there's some good stuff blistex because when you're on the water all day for a few days sometimes your lips take a beating and then i also have uh these little rudder attachments and cable swages for rudder repair and if you have a yukon and the rudder goes out you're in trouble because they don't like to go straight which is what gives them their ability to handle the white water but in yukon expedition you definitely want your rudder to be working all the time if you're on any kind of flat water so that's what i keep on my person in my pfd most trips like this i'll be wearing either crocs or river booties as it gets a little colder i start migrating to the river booty because i can wear my dry suit and this will protect the feet of my dry suit a little better than my crocs wheel but um just have some quality footwear if you're on a dangerous river also in here is my cockpit cover keeps critters and bugs and snakes out of your cockpit it also keeps your cockpit dry if you're traveling you may want one of these you may not it's in there my throw bag and my rescue pfd on my white water this is sitting right here and i pop a clip and i pull it out it's always on my person i don't have that pfd when i do the touring but this is always here in my lap there's also a length of rope with the carabiner i can use that for walking the boats through shallow water there's also a secondary throw bag as well as a throw bag that will be i've got it in a box because someone else is going to be having it in the boat there's another throw bag i make sure at least another person or two have throw bags while on the river very important i also have a paddling hat for if the sun or the rain gets annoying throw that on there and a dry top not gasketed so this one is for comfort it's more of a splash top it's not a dry top but if it's raining or if you're going through a little bit of splash area that will keep you dry if you don't need full-on immersion wear and then since we're paddling through a lake i have my sail which everyone makes fun of me for but when the wind's blowing and you're on some flat water it's blowing the right direction you throw that up everybody is happy and everybody is suddenly your friend and wants to be real close to your kite holding on because you'll be going down the river pretty fast the last thing i have up here is my suitcase and that's a ridiculously big box but when you're running a youtube channel and you need three gopros a phone some other electronics camera you need all that to be running you have to power that somehow and inside here are all my gadgetry and uh power banks uh the the voltaic battery system for charging this cord will be running from my solar panel up through the cockpit into that and we'll be charging during the day while i'm on the river vital piece of gear for me i love it i wish this box was a touch smaller but um i just get it up front it's not an issue okay behind the seat i have several things as i showed you the other throw bag one needs to be in front of you if you have another one behind the seat that's fine whatever day of paddling my lunch is there so i don't have to dig that out i'm just using mre in this instance um bring whatever food you want mres for me are quick and easy they're a little heavy but when you eat them and they're gone you throw the trash away you got a lot more room in your boat's a lot lighter so as the day goes on you get you get happy a bunch of bottled water you don't want to get dehydrated that's easier to do on the river than you think because no one wants to stop and drink people start getting dehydrated so keep water handy a pen kit um i do that in case we get a boat pinned on the rocks and with my ropes i can work that and put a three to one pulley up and get that boat out or break it in half trying one way or the other this will give you an incredible advantage when you're applying force to a boat to get it out of a pin situation hopefully i'll never have to use that but it's always in the boat white water or and touring behind the seat are three pelican boxes as well inside are you know my cameras this is my spare box with a bunch of charging gear my my third camera and um that sort of thing bunch of components this is the main box this has all my batteries all my sd cards my gopro seven i'll have the eight up front the seven in the back or vice versa depending on what i'm doing this has everything i need to quickly change things out during the day and um works out perfectly those are 1120s and i have one more in here got my tag yak sticker on there because it's a black box and i couldn't sharpie my information so in this one i have another rav power some batteries there'll be a few more double a batteries in here and whatever else you need to keep dry to keep things going battery wise or you know sometimes people hey you've got a place i can stick my phone i'll throw that guy right in here and it's good to go that's everything in the cockpit and there's a lot going on here and i know that but uh it works for me if i was to ever swim it might be an incredible yard sale so it's important to note anything in the front with you in between your legs or up near your feet it's important not to tether that off not to tie it off because if you need to get out of the boat you don't want anything in there that could grab a foot or a piece of your clothing or gear or anything you want to be able to come out of the boat if an emergency happens now here behind the seat i'll run a little length of cord with a couple little carabiners just make a loop and tie it into the hardware behind the seat so that if i do swim and i'm flopping around the important stuff will be still with the boat when i get the boat back otherwise uh those boxes will float it'll just take a little bit more time to find them especially if the current is sufficient enough to flip you and make you swim and give you a lot of trouble so just you can tether behind the seat keep the front of your boat clean no ropes no tethers no nothing whatever's in there needs to be able to come out with you or allow you to get out without the impediment of getting caught in a road okay so now we're to the back deck and the stern compartment area of the boat and so right off the bat you've noticed the solar panel and that's the 17 watt voltaic system solar panel keeps all my electronics going i've done it for hundreds and hundreds of miles on the river uh close to a thousand and it keeps everything going so it just attaches to the deck line with the webbing and buckles and it's got a waterproof little line there that has a connector and i'll run the other line through the cockpit rim into that box and that's what charges me all day so it just connects with the little webbing and buckles to my deck lines and that's the 17 watt panel which gives me the ability to keep everything charged all day this little connector here connects into a little line that runs through my cockpit up into the box and so while i'm paddling during the day this is receiving a charge the voltaic battery in there can also process the signal from this and simultaneously charge other devices off that while it's charging so i can charge both rav powers and that battery from this panel during the day while i'm paddling in any case at the end of each day i'm 100 on power on all the devices and that allows me at the end of the day to recharge all the gopro batteries my phone the gps whatever else i need to charge i can do that off the power banks indefinitely and so it's a little bit of gadgetry but it has kept me going for a week at a time several times and also on some other things i was doing this would power me for two weeks at a time several times a year so i love the solar panel very rigid very durable no issues with the panel riding right there for all the river king trips good piece of gear right under that is my spare paddle and this is another rpc3 this is the adventure tour slightly different take but it's a same carbon layup the smaller width of the blade allows you to pull less water which gives you the ability to kind of like a bike going up a hill with the right gear you may pedal more but you're not wearing yourself out so you may paddle a little more strokes you may not go quite as fast as if you're getting a full bite but it can protect your shoulders your arms your elbows any joints it also won't wear you out quite as bad so that's another option i prefer the performance tour but this is also a fantastic paddle i have one of each so i just use this as a backup always have a backup when you're on a river um it's the one piece of gear you're really kind of stuck with other than the boat you need a paddle to get down the river uh more than anything else so on my trips everyone brings a spare paddle it's it's on the packing list just bring your own spare paddle things happen you can ask my uncle matt who is out a little bit at sea and uh the end of his paddle granted it was not an rpc3 but the end of the paddle he was using fell off the shaft and left him with a one-sided blade and he was fighting current wind and tide uh to get where he was going and um he did not have a spare paddle and he started laughing because he always made fun of me for carrying this thing and uh he suddenly realized that maybe it would be a good idea and now he always carries one so thanks to uncle matt uh for letting me tell the story even though i didn't ask and you didn't know i was gonna do that it's um it's just a good example of why i should always always always have a spare paddle in my white water trips either i'll have a four piece breakdown in the boat or i'll have hand paddles stuffed under the bags in the back either way you can break a paddle in any kind of water white water is definitely no difference and maybe maybe even more likely so i always have a spare paddle no matter what kind of paddling i'm doing it's good business that brings me to the ram mount ram ram mount 24 inch pole that i put my gopro tail boom on and i like this because it screws into the deck if i hit a log i'm going under or if the boat flips and this is interacting with the bottom of the water or a rock or anything else a giant wave comes over or something this will just move down without snagging without breaking the boat without breaking the camera it's just gonna move and if it's got enough pressure on it it will break at the ball instead of breaking off the boat in theory i've never tested that but that's that's kind of how it's supposed to work but i have had this several times be bent down by uh sticks overhanging trees things like that it's never caused me an issue and i love the design i can just stand it right back up kind of adjust it however i want it and i'm back in the money back paddling on the water without having to get out and figure out where it is i also have the camera tethered always that wraps up alongside this pole floats so this pole right here should float the camera but it doesn't matter i've got it tethered to the boat anything you have on the boat on the deck tether it cameras gps's whatever you don't want lost a little tether be safe there's no extra wrapping that goes in here there's no quarters to be caught anywhere you don't want to get yourself entangled in ropes hanging out everywhere so the tether should be as small as possible tucked away discreetly but if you don't want to lose your camera tether it up the rear hatch is the same you got your plastic cover and then a neoprene inner that keeps it really dry great system right off the bat i have a dry suit um the weather is kind of borderline for even needing that and and i thought about not bringing it but just to be smart since i had a little extra room because it's not that long of a trip i'm just going to throw it in there anyway and uh that way if i want it i will have it water i got plenty of water on a trip like this on a river like this i plan to use all bottled water the catawba river runs along i-40 for quite quite a ways it's picked up a lot of little cities and towns and municipalities so there's going to be chemical contaminants at least a possibility of that in that river and my filtration systems don't get that out so once a river starts going through bigger cities i stop drinking that water if i'm way back country in a wilderness kind of environment then i'll filter the water when i get into lowland farm areas valleys with a lot of agriculture cities roads all that thing there's all kind of chemicals that can leach into that water system if i can get a feeder stream coming off a mountain that's pristine then i'll filter that but this river is not going to be that way still pretty clean pretty clean water but i'm just going to play it safe bottle on my water so i've got all the water i need also have a camp chair because nobody likes to sit in the sand or the mud after a long day of paddling i've done it myself and i went out and bought a camp chair so always have my little camp chair a little extra fuel for the jetboil which is a never bad idea very important piece of gear here folks this is a boat repair kit and inside i have some repair tape you can get that at lowe's g flex plastic boat repair some gloves some zip ties a gerber tool in case you need to work screws or or bolts or nuts um a little bit of everything in there to fix your boat another thing i have that's not in the bag but is very important is duct tape and so i can fix paddles boats cracks gouges we fixed the gudgeon on squirrel's rudder on the new river once if you're going to be out there you're sticking yourself out in the wilderness or just in an area where you're not going to have access readily available to you to fix a boat basically if you're on a good trip out in the wilderness have a way to keep your boat repaired because that's the difference between really enjoying something that takes about two hours to fix at the most or maybe having to call the trip and get extracted just have a way to fix your boat several different options also have a couple more mres for lunches on other days i have two of these top quilt bottom quill and that's for the hammock they are pretty light and i've got them stuffed way back up in there you may play around with where you pack everything yourself to achieve your um the right weight for your boat where you packed it all and this works for me the other bag i have in here is all the clothes i'm going to have for this trip and first off there's no cotton everything i own everything that's on this trip is going to be quick dry but in here is some silk weights to sleep in a full change of everything for at camp the silk weights will never be used except for sleeping and i know with my quilts the beanie in here and the silk weights no matter what happens to me over the course of the trip each night i will sleep warm and dry and that's a big thing if you're mixing what you're wearing with what you're supposed to be sleeping in and this gets wet you're sleeping wet so i always recommend one pair of clothes and i use silk weights which is like a kind of a polyester thin pajama kind of material um kind of spandexy but they keep me warm and dry during the night and it only gets used for sleeping i take them off i don't wear it during the day and no matter what happens to me on the river over the course of a trip every night i know hey i'm going to sleep warm and dry and that's a mental thing that'll keep you going also in here are a full change of pants shirt i got an outdoor vitals puffer jacket a synthetic jacket like i said i got the the fleece beanie and a couple pairs of socks and that's really all i need for this trip uh anything that i'm wearing i can wear under here as well and stay warm and dry but it's not really going to be that cold of a weekend and i usually over pack a little bit but most of the time all the clothes i bring fit in a bag like this sometimes during the winter i'll have a second bag for just a couple items that are a little bit too bulky to go in there so that's basically everything i take on a trip this time of year it can vary a little bit depending on the weather depending on the distance of the trip but that's my breakdown that's how i pack it that's where i pack it and it works out pretty good one thing i haven't shown you that will be in this boat and i'm about to go get it now got to go out and get some lunch and while i'm out i'm going to get some snacks like clif bars granola bars any kind of snacks like that applesauce i like applesauce have those in your boat as well you don't want to run out of food there's nothing worse than being hungry on a trip you're supposed to be enjoying all right so that is the current loadout i've taken on this trip on the catawba 50 miles three days some fun guys the weather's not terrible so should be a good time this setup won't really change much even if i'm going for a week or more at a time hot weather cold weather all that changes some insulation on the hammock some clothing concerns and maybe maybe the tarp will change you know that sort of thing sometimes i bring an extra tarp if the weather's bad if i missed anything please comment below if you have another way of doing things that is better that you like better or it's just something i've never tried i'd love to hear about it i'm always looking for new gear new ways of doing things new ways of using gear and this is no exception so please write that in the comments below i hope this worked i hope that explained everything and thanks for watching you

Channel: River Kings

Views: 42,878

Rating: 4.9536681 out of 5

Keywords: Kayak Camping, Kayaking, Survival, Outdoors, How to Kayak Camp, Jetboil, Prijon, Wilderness Systems, Backpacking, Camping Hacks, Warbonnet, Hammock Camping, Hammock Gear, Kelty, Epic Paddles, Voltaic Solutions, Stealth Camping, Backcountry Camping, How to Kayak, Adventure Kayaking, Adventure Camping, Multi day kayak camping, kayak camping packing list, how to pack for kayak camping, kayak camping gear, kayak camping gear list

Id: W-LmvPB9hno

Length: 33min 54sec (2034 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020