• Easy-to-prepare meals that don’t require refrigeration
• Dehydrated food packs (rice, noodles) from the grocery store
• Military-surplus MREs
• Fresh veggies and fruit
• Peanuts, raisins, pretzels, and energy bars for snacks and lunches
• Ground coffee beans or tea bags
• You lose a lot of electrolytes when you sweat, so add something like a Nuun tablet to your water to help with rehydration

Tips:

• Choose food that does well in the heat (sweaty cheese is not terribly appetizing)
• Organize your food in bags according to the meals (all breakfasts, all second breakfasts) or the day
• Use different-colored small dry bags, or bags within a large dry bag, to stay organized
• A kayak trip isn’t a great place to experiment with a new diet—stick with stuff you like
• Try meals at home first if you’re a picky eater

Dry Bag for tent, clothes, gear, food:

• To compress as much as possible, invest in a bag with an air valve like the Granite Gear or SealLine (complete with fancy window)
• For a tapered bag (tapered end works well with space in bow or stern of sea kayak) that keeps gear dry and has an inflatable safety portion, go for something like the Pacific Outdoor Dry Bag
• Long portages? Check out the SealLine Canyon Pack with comfy shoulder straps
• Light-colored bags will stay cooler than dark ones

Small Cases:

• For a padded and waterproof case, check out the Outdoor Research SeaVault
• For small and specific cases, look at camera- and electronics-specific cases
• A touring kayak will handle a waterproof deck bag (Harmony) so sunscreen, snacks, and maps are easy to grab

Tips:

• A wet sleeping bag and soggy food make for a lame and often dangerous situation. Your backpacking stuff-sack won’t be sufficient for a kayak trip—invest in good dry bags. Fiberglass and Kevlar boats can have rough spots, so keep durability in mind too.
• Attach all your dry bags and cases to the inside of your kayak (rope plus D-rings and seat bars). This way you won’t send a dry-bag SOS to the world if you capsize. But don’t have tons of excess rope either—entanglement during capsize is not the way to go down.
• Don’t carry/portage your kayak when it’s loaded down with gear. It puts too much strain on the hull.

• Tent, or if the weather’s warm, footprint-and-fly setup, or tarp with a light mosquito net
• Sleeping Pad: the more compressible, the better
• Sleeping Bag: down or synthetic (synthetic will stay a bit more warm if you’re camping in a wet, humid area, but down will compress more)
• A canister stove, liquid-fuel stove, or a Jetboil. Don’t count on being able to build a fire—many places won’t allow it
• Cookwear, or if you want a compact system, go for one of Jetboil’s cooking systems
• Matches or a lighter
• Bring a waste bag, go for a full kit on long trips, or get a poop tube—whatever you need to do to make sure there’s no waste on the shore
• Get biodegradable TP, and pack it out in a plastic bag. Don’t just leave a wad behind

Tips:

• If you’re going on a whitewater trip, you’ll really need to pare down what you bring—like packing for an ultralight backpacking trip.
• There are limited places to camp when you’re close to the water, so for everyone’s sake, be serious about packing waste out.

Start with this packing list and add anything else you need.

food
paddle shirt, jacket, shorts, pants
sun hat
sunglasses
extra socks
towel
water shoes
spray skirt
dry bags, small dry cases
rope for attaching dry bags
life jacket
bilge pump
throw bag, paddle float
whistle
knife
first aid kit
map