Canoe camping is my preferred way to camp. It’s peaceful and quiet and an awesome way to get away from it all but if you’ve never tried it, then you need to know what to expect.
It ’s a sort of romantic way to experience life in a way that’s similar to the people that lived on our continent many years ago. Paddling, portaging, sleeping and eating on the edge of the shore. There’s nothing really like it. There’s nothing like paddling across a hidden lake that not too many people even get to see. At the right locations you may not even run into another person or group.
Because of the isolated nature of camping this way there is one thing that you need to think of above all else. Safety. Because the odds are fairly high that you may not run into anybody else when you’re on a paddling trip then you need to be prepared with the safety basics. You’ll need life jackets and make sure you wear them. It’s amazing how tired you can become when trying to recover from an upset canoe and it can happen fairly easily. Canoes are not the most stable craft in the water and I’ve been thrown into the water from them myself. Because of their low sides and somewhat “tippy” nature you will need (and are required in most places) to carry a bailing bucket to help empty your canoe of any water you may have taken on, and a throw rope for emergency rescues from shore or even other boats. Throw ropes come in a bag and are designed not to be an entaglement hazard before they’re deployed. In an emergency you simply grab the free end of the rope with one hand and throw the heavier bag to shore or to you’re would be rescuers. I was forced to use one of these ropes when I accidently swam the rapids of a river by falling out of my kayak. A man on shore had one at his side and threw it to me,helping me get out of the rapid water. I was glad he had one nearby.
The key to keeping your boat stable when canoe camping is to ensure that you pack all of you equipment with the heaviest stuff on the bottom and the lighter stuff on top. I always make an effort to use dry bags to keep all of my things in and I always clip them to the gunwales of the boat to prevent my belongings from going to the bottom of the lake in the event of an upset. I’ve seen people use garbage bags on canoe trips but that will only keep your things dry from splashing. They’re not very robust and they rip easily and will eventually allow your stuff to get wet, not to mention they won’t prevent your stuff from sinking if you flip.
