Episode: 2208
Title: HPR2208: Kayak Camping
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2208/hpr2208.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 15:45:44

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This in HPR episode 2,208 entitled Kayak Camping, it is hosted by ROOPS and is about 25 minutes
long and carry a clean flag.
The summary is, Kayak Camping is a really fun and affordable way to explore the outdoors
and get away.
Today's show is licensed under a CC by NCSA license.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
At 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.
Better web hosting that's honest and fair at An Honesthost.com.
This is ROOPS and you're listening to Hacker Public Radio.
Today I'm going to take a diversion from tech content and talk to you about camping out
under the stars.
More specifically my favorite type of camping, which is via Kayak.
Now I recently did a 5 day trip and it was so good for my soul to get away from technology
and be one with the outside world.
I did bring my cell phone and it was turned off most of the time and it was really for
emergencies and to let my wife know that we were still alive and also to take a few pictures
and send them to her to make her jealous.
I also brought my GPS so that I would know where I was and be able to do all kinds of
nerd stuff with the data that generates when I get back home and I am not the perfect
outdoorsman.
I don't do everything properly.
If you want to see a flame war then you should read some camping forums and look for advice.
Everyone has stuff that they really stick to.
Camping is something that I did a lot of as a kid and like a lot of people who are starting
out or a lot of people that I see I always brought way too much stuff and the more stuff
you bring the less fun it is.
Now I've got a good mix and I want to share my experiences and hopefully you can learn
something, improve on what I do and get away from the world for a while.
Again I'm far from an expert, I like to be comfortable, which usually means warm and
dry at night and a little ranger in the day is not going to kill anybody and I like to
leave places better than I found them.
This past October my wife and I took our little kids to explore the Mid-Atlantic coast
and we car-camped all the way up and back.
We camped outside of Washington DC for a few days and we explored that great city, totally
smelling like campfire and we've taken the kids on several such adventures and as a family
we have car-camped all over the country.
Often when it was too cold for most people to camp out which means there was way less
people around and car camping I should explain is camping with your car carrying everything
which is great with kids but it limits where you can camp.
Often we find a spot in a national forest where we can camp away from the quote camping
areas and instead you know explore off on our own.
Now camping near others spoils it a bit for me but it might make people who are new to
camping a little bit more comfortable but sometimes it's unavoidable with the car.
I've done a lot of backpacking we go to Arkansas a lot and I spend a lot of time at some
of my favorite places there and carry things and my backpack for camping when I'm
carrying things is totally different than when I bring when I'm car camping and it's totally
different when I'm kayak camping and this episode is actually about kayak camping which
is just the most awesome way to camp and I've also taken the kids to do this.
So every year after Christmas some cousins and I go for a long trip exploring a new creek
in Louisiana and we've learned from our mistakes we've had some cold wet nights and we've
got it down to almost a science.
So camping shouldn't be expensive and I don't have any high end gear.
The trick is to add your kit every time you go.
So in a hacking analogy to this no one boots up their laptop with all the tools that they
need the first time you totally learn as you go and there's no need to buy a ton of
new stuff to try camping out most people that buy camping stuff use it once or twice
and that's about it because they buy way too much stuff and make it too much of a hassle.
So borrow their stuff and we started our kayak camping trip in a borrowed 14 foot aluminum
John boat with the three of us in it paddling this boat and a John boat is a aluminum flat
bottomed just basic boat they're hard to steer they're hard to paddle they're uncomfortable
and we found that kayaks give you a lot more independence and stealth and kayaks are
just awesome and let's let's talk about kayaks.
I can live from my kayak for a few weeks really easily it's not fancy it's not a expedition
kayak it's an old town vapor it's 10 feet long it's plastic and it was really built
for fishing for a few hours but if you don't bring way too much stuff it'll totally hold
all your gear and we do a lot of winter camping out of our kayaks and Louisiana winter like
we have the governor's issued a proclamation about the winter we're having right this
second because for the next few days it's going to get down to like 20 degrees Fahrenheit
and it might ice or it might snow and everybody's freaking out so Louisiana camping in the
winter is usually like the 30s or 40s it's got a nice but the sleeping bag and the
sleep system that I bring is the stuff I bring when I'm going to get down into you
know a little bit above zero degrees Fahrenheit.
So my sleeping bag and my sleeping pad strap onto the top of my kayak my food all goes
behind me and my tarp and my backpack all fit near my feet I had to take the floats
out of my kayak to make some room which is kind of stupid because if my boat sinks I don't
have the little star foam floats anymore but I have enough gear it traps enough air it keeps
the boat on top when I cap size I paid about $300 American for my kayak about 10 years
ago and that was really well spent money but we didn't start with the $300 boat we started
with a borrowed John boat from somebody and now but you should be able to and you should
be able to find a place that you can borrow a boat or that you can rent some kayaks I like
the sit-in kayaks as compared to the sit-on top as I go a lot in the winter and you get
a little bit less wet in a sit-in kayak and I also feel a lot more stable with all my
gear having it on the bottom of the boat right next to the water so it's kind of weighted
at the bottom I use a single bladed paddle which I paid ten bucks for or a double bladed
paddle which I paid $40 for depending on how thick the trees are on the creek now when
I say a creek I mean a small little stream that people do not live on there are several
everywhere I've lived kayaks need less than a foot of water so they can go places that people
with motors can't go which means people don't live on it and it means people aren't there
hunting and fishing and doing things which makes it much more peaceful like I can from where
I live right now drive 30 minutes in pretty much any direction and find a creek that I can spend
days on without seeing another person which is awesome I lost my train of thought now sometimes
in these little creeks we have to drag them over stuff for around things but it's usually time
for a bath and break anyway so that's okay in a small creek we average about 12 to 15 miles a day
and sometimes there's a proper boat launch that we can put in and sometimes we just have to stop
at the edge of a bridge and just kind of drag the boats down the hill and put them in the water
flow and water totally helps and so does having a vehicle parked where you plan on getting out
there's nothing worse than getting out and then having to wait for somebody to come pick you up
we like to stop where there's a restaurant except for five days of eating campfire food
it's really nice to kind of pick out so let's talk about sleep systems I've experimented a lot
and I've comfortably slept in below freezing temps and an old army surplus sleeping bag
that usually runs like 50 to 100 bucks with the very important thing an insulated ground pad
which you can get a little like foam one for 10 bucks or you can get like a nice air one that
self inflates and the army bag is four pieces that all fit together there's a summer bag a winter
bag thing summer one fits inside the winter one there is a Gore-Tex rain shell which is like a
raincoat for your sleeping bag and there's also a tough little bag to carry it all in it's kind
of heavy for hiking but it's great for kayaking because the boats carry in the weight and I stuff
all the bags put together into a garbage bag and then I put it into its case and this keeps it dry
and it also allows you to get the air out of it so that it's not sticking up so high I have it
right behind my head and sometimes you have to duck under trees and it's nice not having a giant
sleeping bag hanging out behind you it's something low and it's not the best bag by any means but it's
really cheap and it works and that Gore-Tex liner for it which keeps it waterproof or mostly waterproof
is just awesome because I hate tents and I use one with my kids I have a little $40 tent that I bought
for them to play with in the yard and it's turned out to be a really really nice tent we have used
it all over the country we've used it in Louisiana rain we've used it in Upper Peninsula rain
the wind and Montana picked it up with my wife in it and kind of carried her like a kite that was
kind of cool and it's just a great little tent and it's got some burn marks in it because I'm camping
with kids and sometimes we're too close to the fire and sometimes they're playing with the fire
and they're just covered up with electrical tape and it just works great if it's going to rain
really bad I'll put a tarp over the top of it in the summer I like to sleep in a hammock which I
paid $15 for it is not a fancy you know double nest all the crazy stuff and in the winter I
sleep on the ground I always put a tarp over me to keep off the rain and the dew on my recent five
day trip it rained two of the nights and I stayed nice and dry under the tarp the Gore-Tex bag is
really nice because it keeps that sleeping bag dry as rain will splash and it'll build up on the
the first night it rained a torrent in our kayaks way too close to us and it was splashing water on
my face so I literally slept with my feet out in the rain in a puddle and stayed nice and dry
talking about tarps I took some students camping a few years ago and we didn't have any trees to
hold up the tarp so we just laid out underneath it when it started raining and laid the tarp
on top of us and we could feel the rain beaten on us it was kind of cool those poor kids it never
been like for real camping and they got a lot tougher that trip but if you're working hard enough
at your camping you can easily sleep through anything as long as your warm and dry so my dislike
of a tent comes from not being able to look around tents can keep bugs off of you which is
sometimes really nice but are just tiny little rooms out in the middle of nature like if you're
raining and you're locked inside this tent or if it's raining you're locked inside this tent like
that's miserable I like having some air I like being able to look around and see what's going on
and a good sleeping pad is essential to me is it insulates you from the cold ground when I was
really kind of learned how to camp in the winter I had this zero degree bag that did not keep me
warm in 30 degree temps because I didn't have that ground pad you know when you compressed your
sleeping bag it kind of loses all its thermal properties all right so it is so as it is now
you've found a stream hopefully that's small but but passable you've borrowed the smallest boat you
can you've bought an insulated pad you've got a small tarp from the hardware store and you've
found a you sleeping bag so you're pretty set up and you can totally do this now now you need some
clothing and food clothing is something you already have I don't have any specific camping clothes
even though I love to go camping we do a lot of hunting like just in normal life and also on our
kayak trips so I wear greens and tans and something kind of durable but nothing camping specific
I just layer a lot padlin will totally keep you warm and if I can get away with it I will wear
shorts and sandals which I have done every winter in Louisiana for our long trips this way if I
get a little wet or if I have to step into the water or if I have to help somebody else I don't
have to wet all day boots suck and every time I wear boots to go fish in or kayaking I will find
water that's just a little bit a little bit deeper than my boots and I like to keep some wool socks
in my pockets to keep my feet nice and dry they're at least warm now let's see my raincoat comes with
me as well as a fleece and some insulated pants and shirt and if it's cold enough I'll bring a scarf
I always have a hat to block the sun or to keep the rain out of my face or sometimes just to use
with the campfire to grab a pot that's really hot I like to wear a subdued baseball cap
and I always have a dry pair of underwear and socks in case I fall in
everything that I want to keep dry goes into plastic bags I don't have any
waterproof bags those expensive things you have to roll up I use
generic ziplot bags because the ziplot brand always just seems to leak so I just
get some cheap bags at the grocery store freezer bags are a little bit more durable than regular bags
and I never can dry my wet shoes when I'm camping so I wear sandals because they will dry really
easily by the fire we don't have rocks in Louisiana to heat up and stuff in them so you know
my shoes so sandals work really well all right so food food is one of my favorite parts of camping
food is part of my favorite parts of normal life I bring food that won't spoil during the trip
and we fix the stuff that will go bad eventually we fix it first breakfast is usually eggs while we
still have them bacon you can bring some fresh bacon for the first few days and it pre-cooked bacon
the rest of the time oatmeal is wonderful I don't do oatmeal packets but we make our own oatmeal
honey is wonderful after I like to snore and snore out in the cold mix my throat a little sore
so adding a little honey is awesome I always get good local honey because it costs just a dollar
more and it tastes so much better lunch is usually some biscuits that I make before the trip
some cheese some sausage snacks I love snickers and I love fresh fruit as it'll keep the whole trip
and it's already waterproof and it biota grates supper is the big meal because when it gets dark
you want to have your tent up or your tarp up you want to have your fire going and you have lots of
time to sit there and kind of cook the first night we usually do kebabs as you can cook it on a stick
which is really easy cleanup I will totally chop up everything put it in some generic ziplot bags
and marinate it and then freeze it if it's not going to be all that cold on the trip and just
carry that in the boat and plop it out we eat it easy to clean up it's so good this this trip I made
a fresh duck gumbo our second night I cooked some rice before we went because cook and rice on
a campfire is a pain in the butt and I made a roux and had it in a simple bag before we went
because that takes forever I like to bring everything in plastic bags so we can burn them in the
campfire and please don't blame me for that we've really burned the hell out of them and that's
probably not the most correct thing to do but it keeps us from having to carry trash around
we'll bring instant potatoes which are just dehydrated potatoes that's always a hit because it's
warm and filling and I try to cook real food as the weight's not really much of a problem with the
kayak and real food just tastes awesome on a campfire sometimes I bring a cast iron skillet other
times I have it just a cheap old skillet that we've replaced the handle on there's no need to
buy fancy expensive camping cooking stuff now for hiking I'm not bringing a cast iron skillet
not bringing this big old skillet but it all fits in the kayak it's okay I use a bowl that I
got as a three pack at a dollar store as well as a fork and spoon from the dollar store you can
buy titanium camping you know sporks for seven dollars or you could buy a real lightweight cheap
fork that'll last for years for you know a quarter I bring a fish turner to cook with as it's
awesome it's kind of funny shape spatula and I also use it on my stove at home dishes are done
with creek water and a brillo pad and the creek I like to bring a cheap tea kettle that's made for
home use as it's got a big old fat base and it's short just a regular tea kettle campfire
kettles are crap and expensive you have to clean now you have to clean the soot off of if you use
your home stuff to cook and you can do that when you get home or you're going to enjoy just the
campfire smell for weeks after your trip every time you cook now nobody wants to spend time with
me if I don't have my coffee so I bring a french press everywhere I go I have a plastic one for
backpack in and I have a nice insulated metal one for kayak and car camping and I bring a
thermos too so I can have coffee all day instant coffee is horrible cowboy coffee is gritty and bitter
that's where you just put the grounds in the water and boil it camping coffee pots are fragile
I bought one for twenty dollars once and broke it the first trip and they just you have to babysit
them too much with a french press you just boil it some water let it sit for a second so it's not
boiling anymore brings it down to that optimal temperature pour it in your french press and it's
really where it's at I always have really good coffee and tea when I'm camping now I try not to bring
too much pre-made food but some homemade biscuits and beef jerky or you know a wonderful thing the
next time I go I'm going to totally make fried bread tacos and I'm really excited about that I can
make all of that camping I like to cut up everything at home while I have a table and a radio or
TV or someone to talk to is compared to trying to bend over a fire and do it now water is the next big
thing some places we just boil the creek water and use it it's great in Louisiana we have really
dirty water and I bring three methods to filter it once we ran out of clean water and didn't have
good coffee and that was a bad trip so my main filter I bought this immediately after the trip where
we ran out of water is a catered in ceramic filter which is awesome but super expensive and if I
was doing that purchase again I'd probably get a gravity set up instead and with the catered in
there's a hose that goes in the in the creek there's a hose that goes to your water bottle and you
pump it it's 90 to 100 pumps to fill up a standard size Nalgene bottle with the gravity set up
you can kind of just fill it with a water and forget about it for a while my second filter is a
Sawyer squeeze which is like 15 20 bucks which was my my new purchase this year and it allowed me to
fill a water bottle from the creek valves in my kayak put the filter on and just drink it which
caused me to drink way more water which is a really good thing and the third is the standard just
we bring a tea kettle and boil the hell out of the water which is really good for survival but
it's not really good for coffee it's it's really great for tea tea we'll filter some nasty water
or not filter but retaste some some nasty water for you now others that I camp with have this
little UV filters you fill up your bottle and turn the UV filter while shaking the bottle up
but you have to charge it and it doesn't filter out the murky water and I don't really care
for drinking water that I can see crap floating in it um for hygiene in first aid baby wipes are
your friend I get the little travel pack so that they're small and so is some ivory soap um again
we hunt and so after you clean out an animal it's really nice to wash your hands is some ivory soap
it also floats if you drop it I bring a small tube of toothpaste regular toothbrush some deodorant
and if I'm feeling a little frisky the first aid kit um is the mint is the before mentioned soap
some tweezers in case you get a splinter in your hand or tweezers are wonderful um some tile
and all and for headaches I bring some pills to make your poop and some pills to stop you from
pooping there's no need for anything fancy if I get a bug bite I'm gonna wash it with some soap and
move on with my life um if you know I cut myself we'll tear some strips out of something to make
a bandage like it's okay you don't have to bring a bunch of band aids and you're spore and
you'll be hung eventually so on me my person I have my everyday carry pocket knife
I've had a bunch of knives the one I love is not real crazy um it's just a little
then twenty-dollar knife that clips to my shorts or my pocket and I used to bring a fancy
camper knife but it was really just big and heavy I don't bring an axe or a hatchet
firewood is never a problem you can break it by hand or put it against the tree and kick it
or you can just burn it in half so um I have a big lighter in every bag and in my pocket
in a ziplot bag it's ready to roll file started fire started with some birch bark or some fat wood
I have a cheap um LED headlamp I think it was like 15 bucks it runs on two triple A batteries
and I also bring a small flashlight that runs on one triple A battery I also used to bring like
big powerful awesome flashlights but never used them for hunting I bring a little single shot shot
gun we have eaten a lot of ducks and squirrels on these strips we sometimes see deer and wild hogs
raccoons and beavers and nutrients and all kinds of emergency food that's just kind of walking
around um it's fun to eat something that you kill on the trip and it tastes really good and we
also have a lot of poisonous snakes so it's really really nice to have this a little single shot
shot gun to be able to point and click them away from you so camping and getting away from the world
is awesome um not having your phone out while doing it is so much better and uh most of the the gear
you already have or you can get real cheaply secondhand kayak camping is awesome because you don't
have to carry everything it's so different than normal life we see way more wildlife while we're
in our little stealthy kayaks then we're when we're hiking through the woods so go find a boat
in a creek and you're almost ready to go and if you have listened to this this whole thing and
you can get to Louisiana and want to come with you don't need to bring anything but some clothes
and some food I will gladly take you kayak camping so this was droops or this is droops
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