shewhorn Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I've camped before back in the days of bicycle touring but it's been 23 years since I've done that. Technology has changed significantly since then and a kayak is a different vehicle than a bicycle (thank you Captain Obvious). Anyhow... here's some thoughts from a newbie's perspective of what worked and what didn't. Credit where credit is due, some of this comes by recommendation of Brad and some of it I figured out myself... Dry bags - I pretty much used 4, 5.5 and 7 liter dry bags. On the first trip to Casco Bay I had some larger dry bags (10 liters) but they were just too big. 5.5 seemed to be the happy medium for most stuff. They're easier to cram into tight spaces. The 5.5 and 7 liter bags were Gaia's which I bought at Small Craft. The 4 liter bags I bought from EMS. The 4 liter bags are nice because I found (at least in the Aquanaut) they fit on either side of the skeg box providing some protection for it when packing the rest of the boat. They also cram up nicely in the bow to hold whatever food you've stuffed up there in place until you can get something larger in there to hold everything else in place (cramming food in the bow and stern is one thing... getting it to stay there until you put your other stuff in the boat is another). Shoes - Obvious an individual thing but I bought a pair of Merrils from EMS (during their 20%/15%/15% sale). I wanted something that could handle light hiking but that wouldn't be too bulky. The soles are amazingly grippy and hold on to rock quite well. A regular pair of sneaker would have compressed even more but I'm glad I had something with a stiffer sole for scrambling around all the rocks one encounters on the typical coastline. Socks - Smart Wool! Very comfy. Never thought I'd be excited about a sock but these are great. Tent - 1 v. 2. I had a 1 person light weight tent for Casco. It packed up really small and was light weight but I couldn't really sit up in it an comfortably change a shirt. I bought a 2 person Sierra Designs which although it didn't pack as small was much more comfortable. I could get all of my dry bags in it at night which meant no unzipping and letting skeeters in. It also translated to convenience. Here's two things I've since learned... as far as 2 person tents go mine is on the large size, especially the vestibule areas under the fly. A slightly smaller 2 person with a smaller vestibule would have been the way to go as fitting it into certain campsites was a challenge. Another feature I'd really like which Brad had on his tent was a vent on the top of the fly. My tent has pretty decent ventilation but a top vent would have been really nice. Packing - This is where I did very poorly and in hindsight I don't know why I didn't think of this but hindsight is 20/20. When I packed stuff I had shirts in one dry back, underwear, socks, etc. in another, pants in yet another, etc. I'd have to open and pack 3 dry bags every day to get at what I want. I guess I figured I'd be changing out dirty clothes more often but... as reality has it I pretty much stuck to the same combo of stuff every day. Next time around I will have one back with... undies, long and short sleeve shirts (of the wicking variety), socks, rain coat/wind breaker, transformer pants (they're more than meets the eye... more on that next), and a fleece top all in one dry bag. Instead of having to open up and deal with 3 or 4 different dry bags I'd be dealing with just one. The others will have changes where I can cycle clothes in and out but repack them after I sub out one article of clothing for another so I don't have to deal with packing, compressing and closing 4 different dry bags at launch time when I change into my yaking gear. Transformer Pants - This was a happy accident but just before the trip I bought a pair of transformer pants. They're pants... but wait... they're shorts!!! With a limited amount of space to pack your junk, a garment that pulled double duty as both shorts and pants worked out great. Cookware - I pretty much only used one pot for heating water. That's all I need pot/pan wise (note... deploy pot handle BEFORE turning on your stove and boiling your water... deploying them afterwards is a bit of a challenge). I also had a bowl, a cup (which doubled as a measuring cup), a compact "gourmet cookset" (I used it once in Casco Bay for making pancakes and eggs which turns out to be somewhat of a PITA with the concentrated heatsource that a camp stove puts out), and a 14 oz Nalgene bottle (with measuring marks on the side). The cup can stay home as can the gourmet cookset. The cup just took up space. When I needed to measure a certain amount of water (for preparing freeze dried foods) I used the Nalgene bottle. The cup just takes up space... you can use the Nalgene to measure and drink from. The "gourmet cookset" (which has a mini spatula, scoop/measuring thingy, teeny tiny egg mixing wisky thingy, sponge, and a few other things) just took up space. Pretty useless. When I'm hungry, I'M HUNGRY and I want to eat NOW! Anything that requires those tools for me would be a waste of time and too much to think about. Heat water, add water, stir, eat = happy tummy. Utensils - Get something that's stainless steel. My utensils are already starting to rust. Also the utensils where the fork and spoon fit into a slot on the knife for easy packing... great idea but various food orts get stuck into the slot on the knife making it impossible to clean. Skip it... get separate utensils and go for normal sized stuff. Small is nice but I hate "sporks" and other various designs that are trying to be compact and clever. Water storage - I had 2 liter Platypus bladders and they worked great. Everyone is different WRT/water consumption. I went through about 2 liters of water a day. Brad on the other hand is a freakin' camel. I'd highly recommend being a camel if possible because it greatly reduces the amount of crap you have to carry. I had four 2 liter bladders and one 4 liter bladder and I still had to paddle over to Stonington to get a refill before the end of the trip. That's 26 pounds of water that I was carrying with me! Anyhow... four of the 2 liter bladders fit really nicely on the bottom of my day hatch (which also kept the water cool being next to the ocean. I put my pogies on top of the bladders and then put my other day hatch crap on top of that. The 4 liter bottle I put on top of dry bags near the fore or aft bulkhead depending on what I needed to do to trim the boat on a given day (your trim will change as you "eat your way out of your boat"... 'tis amazing how much space food occupies). Packing granola bars - In attempt to avoid having granola bars every where I up them in small ziplocks... maybe 5 to a bag. Don't do this. When you're first starting out it makes the boat a royal pain to pack. Just stuff the bars into the nooks and crannies created by the empty space available caused by the shape of the dry bags. Thermarest - In addition to whatever size Themarest you get for sleeping, I'd highly recommmend a small Thermarest as well. They making one about a foot square that rolls up really compact. It's great if you want to sit and chill on a rock or if you need to kneel down on the ground somewhere. This is what I had originally intended to use it for but I also discovered another great use which made a big difference in comfort at night... use it to trip your sleeping area. Ideally you want to pitch your tent on a very very slight slope with no roots, rocks or holes or off camber irregularities but ummm... nature doesn't work that way. Having that tiny Thermarest turned out to be a great tool to level things out. You can also use a jacket or something else to level things out but if you have a particularly annoying spot, that extra Thermarest made a big difference for me. Random thoughts.... rescues - Having the victim push down on stern while the rescuer pulls their boat up on to their coaming is not really taught anymore and I really think it ought to be. If you have an empty boat that's once thing but I weighed my gear at 95 pounds... add a 60 pound boat to that and probably another hundred pounds of seawater and the rescue that I see being taught now will... 1) crack your comaing 2) slice a hole in your spray skirt 3) maybe sink you (if you're also in a boat loaded with 95 pounds of gear and in my case... a 180 pound paddler plus an additional 15 pounds or so with life vest, water, etc.) Never got to try it fortunately but a heavy boat is a far more delicate boat and it just got me thinking that the current rescue techniques that are en vogue probably wouldn't work that well with a fully loaded boat, especially in conditions. I'm sure this comment will spark some debate. If anyone has done a rescue of a fully loaded boat with a fully loaded boat I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. Sunglasses - whatever you get make sure they have a floaty on them and spray them with Rain-X. Kayak Table ©2007 - Brad Gwynn - I made fun of it at first but I have to admit... kayak table grew on me. I'll let Brad cover that one! Tarp - of the ultra light variety. Fortunately Brad had one. This is a must IMO... I'll have one the next time I camp Line - I had some 1.5 mil 100 pound test with me that turned out to be more useful than I thought it would be. You also need higher strength line for the cases where you can't find the ideal pair of trees to hang your hammock from and need an extension. Your short tow can serve this purpose but you will need more line as well. Hand line and a weight - Useful for fishing of course but also useful for tying to your beer or whiskey (so you can submerge it in the ocean and pull it up later all nice and chilled). We found some bait bags on shore which proved useful for putting up to 3 beers in (there was no room for the beer initially... I made a special visit to Stonington for those towards the end of the trip where there was room in the boats to carry out the empties). "Tank Bag" - Ask Brad about this. I don't have one but I think I will for the next trip. Its utility and convenience became much more apparent to me over time... it also gives you more cargo space. You definitely need to be a high angle paddler to make this work for you. Solar panel - I had a little home made unit with me. It was JUST enough to get us a few extra hours on the iPod but it was kind of flakey and it had a very low current so it didn't charge all that fast. Also... the shadow from passing in front of it would freak out the iPod sometimes. Brunton makes a decent rollable panel for about $130 that puts out a lot more current and can still charge things with overcast conditions (from what they say). In addition it can also be used to charge things other than iPods (like cell phones, etc.). Verizon vs. T-Mobile - 50/50, coverage (in the Vinalhaven and Stonington areas) was spotty in most places, sometimes Verizon worked better, sometimes T-Mobile worked better. I'd say it's a draw. If you have an old phone though, update it. The newer phones tend to be more sensitive. Skeg pull line (or whatever they're called) - P&H boats come this way. If you're boat doesn't already have this drill a hole in the skeg and tie + braid a small length of line to it (I used 1.5 mil 100 pound test). It took me about 3 minutes to do on my Aquanaut. Freeing a stuck skeg with a loaded boat is a bit of a pain. Fresh Bath wipes - http://www.rei.com/product/730067 or something like them. I had a pack of these (you can get something similar at your local drug store or medical supply store) and they were great. I'm not a big fan of DEET but it's a necessary evil. Being able to wipe some of the chemicals off of me before slithering into my sleeping bag felt good... plus it made me less smelly. I'm sure I'll think of more stuff to add but I figured my experience of what worked and what didn't might be useful for others who are about to start kayak camping. Great trip overall... 6 days paddling out to Vinalhaven, circumnavigating clockwise via the Thoroughfare to the east side of the island, out to Stonington, back to the east side of the island, then completing the circumnavigation from the east side back to the west side and back to the mainland (the last day was a 22+ knm pull... we'd intended to camp one last day but decided to avoid the July 3rd traffic instead by making the crossing and returning home at night). Saw lots of creatures. Ospreys, a seagull that sounded like a cat in heat, bats, a puffin, loons, tons of duck families (saw a duck gang with about 50 youngsers in tow) a shark, and TONS of seals (I was followed for about 2 miles on a solo paddle and we were follow for about 3 miles when crossing from Stonington back to Vinalhaven). Almost makes me wish I had a beach ball handy. Such curious animals. Cheers, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEL Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 A few observations from a similar newbie. > >Dry bags - I pretty much used 4, 5.5 and 7 liter dry bags. I have found the Summit to Sea light, not super light, dry bags nice and can be moved/stuffed easily due to light fabric. Favorite sizes are 2 and 4 liters. Would not put sleeping bag, etc in them though. Anyone want to buy some 10 and 15 liter bags? > > >Cookware - I pretty much only used one pot for heating >water. That's all I need pot/pan wise I found a small teapot works very well for this and takes up less space than a pot, lid, holder. > >The cup can stay home as can the gourmet cookset. I tend to leave the bowl at home and take a cup with around 16 OZ capacity to handle a nice big brew up and to serve as a bowl. >Utensils - Get something that's stainless steel. I find the Lexan utensils light weight, tough, don't feel too hot or cold to touch, and inexpensive (wonderful attribute). When going light I take only the soup spoon. Being antiquated, I have a fondness for Opinel knives for kitchen/light camp duty. Love the fit of the wooden handle and ease of use. Inexpensive too. LaFuma makes a nice summer weight mummy bag (600 Extreme)good to around 45 that weighs just over one pound and stuffs quite small. Costs around $50. Just right if you don't mind a mummy bag. The nice thing about using light/small stuff is the added safety hauling it around during the trip and it enables the size of the wine bunker to be increased if not larder too so one can take all those neat little treats that make meals more enjoyable. Tarps are one of the best things going, but have stated my prejudice before. >Random thoughts.... rescues - Having the victim push down on >stern while the rescuer pulls their boat up on to their >coaming is not really taught anymore and I really think it >ought to be. I suspect you will hear that while this seems like a neat thing in calm water practice sessions, lots of bad things can happen when a boat is flailing about in rough water and a person is holding on to the pointy end. Have never attended a NSPN skills/practice session so don't know what is taught. Being old and weak, I use the capsized boat for support, lean my boat over and let the capsized bow slide over my deck, then right my boat and with luck use the momentum to break the seal at the the cockpit and lift/twirl the boat upright. If I knew what I was doing and lucky, I would time that with the waves and use their energy too. >Never got to try it fortunately but a heavy boat is a far >more delicate boat Do you mean your boat was tippier/twitchier when loaded or it had less ultimate secondary shoulder when edged? > >Great trip overall... 6 days paddling out to Vinalhaven, Envious, very envious. Did you go around North Haven as well? Stop at some of the islands around Stonington...hope that three mile crossing was for more than just water. Ed Lawson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shewhorn Posted July 3, 2007 Author Share Posted July 3, 2007 >A few observations from a similar newbie. >> >>Dry bags - I pretty much used 4, 5.5 and 7 liter dry bags. > > >I have found the Summit to Sea light, not super light, dry >bags nice and can be moved/stuffed easily due to light >fabric. Favorite sizes are 2 and 4 liters. Summit to Sea... thanks for reminding me... those are the 4 liter bags that I have. >I found a small teapot works very well for this and takes up >less space than a pot, lid, holder. But I'm half Italian... you can't make pasta in a teapot... or can you? :-) >I tend to leave the bowl at home and take a cup with around >16 OZ capacity to handle a nice big brew up and to serve as >a bowl. 'Spose that works too. Right now one of my fuel canisters fits just perfectly inside my pot which I pack in the drybag sideways and the bowl just kind of wraps around that but... if I could find a big cup that juuuuuusssssst big enough to fit the pot inside that would be even more efficient. >I find the Lexan utensils light weight, tough, don't feel >too hot or cold to touch, and inexpensive (wonderful >attribute). When going light I take only the soup spoon. It won't melt? I saw the Lexan utensils but they seemed kind of flimsy to me (or perhaps I'm just an animal when I feed). >Being antiquated, I have a fondness for Opinel knives for >kitchen/light camp duty. Love the fit of the wooden handle >and ease of use. Inexpensive too. > >LaFuma makes a nice summer weight mummy bag (600 >Extreme)good to around 45 that weighs just over one pound >and stuffs quite small. >Costs around $50. Just right if you don't mind a mummy bag. I have a Mountain Hardware Ultra Lamina which is also rated to 45 and packs small although it's 3 times the price so that's a good deal. I did discover a use for the hood which I didn't really need for warmth these past days... if you cinch it up enough you can cover your eyes in case you want to sleep late. I don't know if that was the intended use (I figured it was just to keep the head warm). I looked like Kenny from South Park but it let me sleep a little longer. >The nice thing about using light/small stuff is the added >safety hauling it around during the trip and it enables the >size of the wine bunker to be increased if not larder too so >one can take all those neat little treats that make meals >more enjoyable. FRUIT CUPS!!!! My new favorite camp food. It's almost worth towing a second boat just filled with fruit cups! LOL >Tarps are one of the best things going, but have stated my >prejudice before. Damnit... now I actually have to do a search >I suspect you will hear that while this seems like a neat >thing in calm water practice sessions, lots of bad things >can happen when a boat is flailing about in rough water and >a person is holding on to the pointy end. Yes... pointy things... hmmm... >Have never attended a NSPN skills/practice session so don't >know what is taught. Being old and weak, I use the capsized >boat for support, lean my boat over and let the capsized bow >slide over my deck, then right my boat and with luck use the >momentum to break the seal at the the cockpit and >lift/twirl the boat upright. If I knew what I was doing and >lucky, I would time that with the waves and use their energy >too. The current teaching is to tell the victim to flip the boat, slide it over your coaming and then flip it there. With an empty boat this works great but when you have almost no freeboard yourself at the beginning of a trip and the boat you're trying to lift weighs about 155 pounds loaded plus whatever water it's taken on (a very good argument for foaming out one's cockpit and removing the footpegs)... I wonder if I'd have the physical strength to do that myself. >Do you mean your boat was tippier/twitchier when loaded or >it had less ultimate secondary shoulder when edged? No, definitely not. The boat has so much secondary as to actually be comical (and the first time I sat in a fully loaded boat and leaned to test things out I actually laughed hysterically). By delicate I mean... a heavy loaded boat has far more inertia and obviously more weight thus I'm thinking that the likelihood of the of causing damage to both boats given the methods that are currently being taught while they may be great for an empty boat on a day trip, they may not be that wise for fully loaded boats in conditions. I'd actually like to try this one day (rescues with fully loaded boats when you don't have to worry about the integrity of your boat on a trip) but it's a pain and motivating people to get all their camp crap together and stuffing it in a boat for a practice session (with the possibility that their boat or spray skirt may get damaged in the process)... well, it may be hard to motivate anyone to do that. >> >>Great trip overall... 6 days paddling out to Vinalhaven, > >Envious, very envious. Did you go around North Haven as >well? Nope... North Haven is for another trip, we just did the circumnav of VH with a side visit to Stonington. > Stop at some of the islands around Stonington...hope >that three mile crossing was for more than just water. Yeah.... we camped out in the Stonington area for two days. The second day was pretty mellow. I paddled over to the town to pick up some water, beer, various munchies, and a lobster (fresh, right out of the sea from the local dock). In total about 70 natuical miles of paddling over 6 days so nothing too heavy. Very mellow and just what I needed to escape from wedding season. The weather was pretty much perfect and I don't think could have been any better. I was glad to be up in Maine during those 90+ degree days down here. Cheers, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsprag1 Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Where did you start and finish---did you paddle to Vinalhaven from Rockland(or elswhere on west penobscot bay) then do a side trip to Stonington and return or did you start from someplace else Also what islands did you camp on---I'm assuming Ram on Hurricane sound but there are two others on the East side of VH and a ton of them in the Stonington area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shewhorn Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 >Where did you start and finish---did you paddle to >Vinalhaven from Rockland(or elswhere on west penobscot bay) >then do a side trip to Stonington and return or did you >start from someplace else Also what islands did you camp >on---I'm assuming Ram on Hurricane sound but there are two >others on the East side of VH and a ton of them in the >Stonington area Started on West Penobscot, crossed to VH, traveled north through the Thoroughfare to the east side of VH, crossed over to Stonington and camped there for two nights, crossed back to the east side of VH, and on the final day we completed the circumnavigation and then crossed back to our launch. As for Ram, right on. That was the first spot on the west side and Little Hen on the east side. Brad mentioned he'll probably post a GPS route in a few weeks along with some pics. I'll be posting some pics as well but it'll probably take me a few months (I have about 10,000 other photos(literally) to go through from wedding shoots and that's just going to take time). Cheers, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shewhorn Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 Another item I was happy to have... an MSR Pack Towel. It packs really small and I was skeptical that would do anything other than push water around but it worked quite well and it dries fast. I hate putting on socks when my feet are still wet and it was also nice to have something to wipe off all the caked on dried salt. Other thoughts... I packed too much. Two pairs of smart wool long underwear and long sleeve shirts was excessive, one would have done. There's a lot of stuff I had with me that I just never touched. Clothes was probably the biggest offender. I guess I thought I'd change more often but... after 6 days on the ocean it really doesn't make a difference what you wear. You tune out your own aroma but even if you have clean clothes on you're still going to stink to other people so what's the point of carrying a lot of clothes? If I pack less clothes the next time around it will mean more room for fruit cups! Cheers, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyork Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 >crossed over to Stonington and camped there for two nights, Hi Joe. Where did you camp while in Stonington? Gary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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