After paddling over 200 miles this past year, I've come up with 10 kayak, canoe, and camping tips that I wish I knew. In no particular order...

10.) The quality difference between expensive and cheap dry bags is very slight. It's not worth spending lots of money on them, especially as they wear out.

9.) Having a weapon provides extra security for the wilderness. Being surrounded by coyotes in the middle o the night is much less frightening if you've got a knife or gun.

8.) Low water levels increase chances of hitting rocks or boulders. This might fall into the "well duh" category, but it's not always obvious on the water, until you take a spill.

7.) Planning a trip well is the key to its success. While I kind of knew that going into this year, what really saved my butt on a lot of trips was the fact that I was equipped with a map, GPS, and distance chart, as it allowed me to constantly navigate. Spending time before the trip going over the exactitudes of the route helped a lot too.

6.) Equipment can get stolen, and should never be left behind unsecured. I learned that the hard way in Morris this year. People will pick up and run off with your heavy boat.

5.) A good attitude will make or break your trip. Camping and boat is always a challenge. A bad attitude will infect and make a trip even more challenging than it ever needs to be. A smile and a can do attitude can fix and prevent many issues.

4.) Organized equipment will go further than a checklist ever will. The best way to not forget gear is to have things pre-packed. I've got a medical bag, emergency bag, fire starter bag, boat fix bag, and dish bag that basically keep all the same gear from trip to trip. I don't usually have to think about what goes in said bags, so simple things aren't usually forgotten. Please the repeat experiences of bringing the same gear help me be mentally aware of what I have/need to pack.

3.) Always pack bug spray, a bug head net, and sunscreen. Even for cold weather, you never really know when the sun or the bugs can come out to get you, and by then, it is too late.

2.) Pack good food. Canned foods and coolers might be heavier and take up extra space, but after 15 miles on the river, fresh food will hit the spot much better than any dehydrated food ever could.

1.) Try new things. Most of my adventure and excitement came from testing new routes, new gear, exploring, and pushing overall limits. I have no regrets, and plenty of excitement to keep pushing forward in the future. Being stretched might be exhausting at times, but it has always been worth it.

Crocs are the most effective camping shoes

Here is a nice resource for trip planning purposes:

Water levels at every gauge, along the dams of the major illinois rivers. 
It allows you to see river depth and flow. This is an embeddable resource that I've actually attached to trip pages already. Feel free to customize charts to prepare for your trips!

The best feature is that it allows you to see river depths, to tell if it's super shallow in a dry season, or flooding after a major storm. 

My starter kayak was hatchless. While I could access the back by reaching through the sides of the built in seat, it was a pain, and basically wasting the whole back boat interior. So, I installed a hatch!


The hatch was a christmas gift, but are affordable on the typical amazon/ebay. Screws weren't included, so I ran out to menards to get some flat ones. 

First, i took a sharpie and drew a circle around the inner hatch circle, giving me a line to cut out. Then I used a drill to cut an initial hole in the boat. It was a hole big enough for step 3, the tiny hacksaw i used to cut around the line. After sawing for about 20 minutes, I punched out a hatch shaped hole. From there, I gorilla glued and screwed in the new hatch. The glue is to form a water tight seal around the hatch. Since the hatch is located on a cargo depression of the boat, I wanted to made sure water wouldn't pool/pour in. Basically, the screws anchor the hatch in, and the glue seals it. Gorilla glue expands, so it would fill in all gaps as it dried.

From there, I just had to scrape off the excess glue (once it's done drying/expanding), and we are done!

Easy project, took no more than an hour of labor, plus dry time. 


Unfortunately, this was on my stolen kayak, but experience is worth something.

This weekend, a friend and I will be travelling 16.7 miles down the Illinois river, from Stratton State Park in Morris to Illini State Park in Marseilles. With weather in the 30s, the following chart on hypothermia should be helpful.

Without knowing the exact water temp, this chart won't be precise, but... If I take a spill in the water, I'm going to assume I've got about 15 minutes to reheat. Hopefully things won't come to that, but if they do:
-I've got 2 changes of clothing in separate dry bags, should one get lost or fail
-I'm packing handwarmers and heating pads. They don't generate enough heat on their own, but under insulation, they can increase skin temperature by a couple of degrees.
-I'm going with a friend, who can help in an incident.

Trip report to follow shortly!

Some oddball gear that I've found useful. Included are a a couple of shopping links too!

-Surgical tubing: For starting a fire. Air is a underrated tool towards getting some embers going. A surgical tube under your kindling can be used to get air to the most important part of the young fire.

-Barometer: Provided you know how to use it, you can get fairly accurate weather forecasting without a cell or radio signal. Decent battery powered barometers can be found for under $40 now.

-Radio: My favorite radio is a hand crank flashlight/battery combo. I still use my headlamp and keep a backup mini light. The radio is nice should you need a forecast or want to listen to something.

-Solar battery/charger: I've got a nice unit that is a 2x3 solar panel with a built in 8 amp battery pack. I use it to charge batteries, as well as the occasional dead phone. It's about a pound, but a good way to keep me from lugging a ton of extra batteries on a long trip. 

Quick tip I picked up:
 5 gallon buckets with a lid make an excellent camping tool.
A.) They make for a waterproof container. Oddly shaped, but usually decent for stuffing a sleeping bag and tarp. For car camping they work fine. Boat camping can be a little iffy. It's not terribly hard to strap one to a kayak on the outside. Backpacking? You can pretty much forget about it.
B.) They are an excellent camping seat/chair. Reasonable height for most people, and the lid makes it stable enough to sit on.
C.) Water Bucket: should you need to clean or carry water more in bulk than by the bottle.

In total, you've got a 3 use minimum tool. Obviously buckets are not as easy  to carry as a bag, but in a boat, that doesn't matter as much. 

By no means do I consider myself a fire starting expert. However, I almost always can start a fire faster and more efficiently than my friends. A few tricks I use to get them going:

1.) TINDER. It's underrated by amateurs. Anyone can add paper to a fire and hope that it heats up enough to light a log. The key is to progressively work your way up to said log, by using sticks. When I build a fire, I don't even put the log in until I've got some decent coals going from sticks.

2.)DRY and DEAD WOOD. If a stick cracks when bent with minimal effort, it's typically good for fire. If it bends, it's not dead enough (and dry enough) to be effective.

3.)Fire starters. I pack 2 easy ignitables on every trip. A Can of Sterno fuel (basically gel alcohol, with a pudding consistency), and toilet paper tubes stuffed with dryer lint. Dryer lint is very flammable, but doesn't burn as fast as paper. Stuff that in cardboard, and you've got a decent ignitable that will last for 20-30 seconds, which is usually enough time to get some sticks going. The sterno fuel is more of a fail safe. If I have a hard time getting it going, I'll knife out a lotion squirt sized portion or two into my tinder. Sterno burns hot and lasts longer than paper, increasing your tinder light chances.