In February we are organizing a workshop covering:

Kayak Repair and Outfitting

A Gear Swap

and Kayak packing.

At this point in time Gerry Smith, Brian Nystrom and Michael Brokenshire have everything covered except for the Kayak Packing Section.

I am looking for somone with kayak camping experience to demonstrate how to pack a kayak for a camping trip.

If you are willing to volunteer for this, please e-mail me @ jason at kates dot org

Thanks -Jason

As soon as the group has a date in mind for this, please let me know and I will reserve the Gould Barn unless the plan is to do this someplace else.

Thanks,

Suzanne

Yes, and pay attention, Jason. No more putting my back out just lifting your bow loaded for a mere two-night trip, in hotels no less. ;-)

Mark, there is a reason that I am looking for someone else to teach kayak packing.

This is how I explain why I am still not qualified to pack a kayak for trips:

Growing up I used to Canoe camp with my family and we had 3 old town trippers ( http://www.oldtowncanoe.com/canoes_tripper.php ). Each year we would go to the Alagash for two weeks, paddle the lakes and the river. (One year we took 3 weeks and also paddled the lakes back in the reverse direction back to the car, that year we saw 49 moose and 17 dear).

Canoe camping you get trained that you should always over pack. A loaded canoe doesn't have the windage issues of an empty one and as it floats the extra weight wasn't an issue.

We used to have large cooler full of frozen food (The largest cooler that would fit in the boat). I still think that the chicken cooked over the fire at round pond was the best chicken I have ever had.

We would also have large totes for the dry food, stove cooking pots etc. In case you had to stay at a camp site for more than one night (In the past we had large storms with chop too large for a loaded canoe which would extend the trip). We always carried extra food to prevent an extend trip being an issue. Along with the normal spare food you would though spare bags of, potatoes, onions carrots in where there was extra space between the totes.

Thus moving from my Old Town tripper that could hold 1,100 LBS to my Nigel Foster Shadow was a culture shock packing for the Knubble Bay Camping trip. Packing for that trip I decided that my backpack was able to hold more than my boat.

All that said I am ready for the kayak packing class.

-Jason

Brian is currently working on finding a space for the outfitting workshop. The Gear Swap and Packing workshop/demo will use the same space.

who can live for a week out of her Romany 16.

Liz N.

Hi Jason -

In March there will be a kayak camping workshop. One of the topics was kayak packing. If you cover it during the Feb workshop, that's cool. For the March workshop, we can either just lightly touch on the subject or go into more detail - whatever the group wants. But if you don't cover it in Feb, we'll definitely cover in detail in March. Just a thought...

Cheers,

>In March there will be a kayak camping workshop.

Great to know this is coming up. Hopefully there will be a trip or two on the calendar to provide chance to put theory into practice for attendees.

BTW, do you find the Anas fine for weekend length trips?

Ed Lawson

There may be folks in March who do not participate in the Feb workshop so I think packing should be an important part of the camping workshop. I know, from personal experience, that it can be frustrating to be on the beach with a full kayak and a pile of stuff still waiting to load A big part of packing, of course, is careful selection of what and what NOT to bring!

Remember - keep the ferrous metals away from the compass!!!

I've done overnights with the Anas. Not much room in the rear hatch and the small front hatch makes packing tricky. My sleeping bag is bulky so that takes up much room. If you go very minimalist, it works, but I like some camp comforts, so much prefer taking the explorer camping.

After talking with Sean and Paula we have decided that it makes more sense to include the Kayak packing workshop with the Kayak Camping workshop in March.

I would like to thank Linda Lacey and Michael Crouse each have volunteered to run the workshop (depending on the date). As long as the date works for them we will have leader for the workshop.

-Jason

When is the camping session in March? There is nothing on the calendar.

Bill

I am afraid that the dates haven't been established yet. As soon as they are established the dates will be posted on the message board and the calendar will be updated.

-Jason