Self Support Kayak Camping

Although overnight trips are possible in any kayak, some are better suited than others. For example, for some really long river trips like the Grand Canyon, some people prefer to take long boats and even sea kayaks, while more creeking and exploratory trips are obviously better suited for creekboats. There’s a wide selection of boats, both old and new, to choose from. Recently, there’s been increased interest in what’s been considered crossover boats like the Liquidlogic Remix XP. These boats start as whitewater designs and are then adapted with some ‘tripping’ features to make them better all around boats. They sacrifice no whitewater performance, but gain a lot in comfort, tracking, stability, and storage space.

The lack of a bulkhead and cutting the front of the bow wall provides room for several drybags up front.

For the average overnight river trip, a boat like the Remix XP works really well for three reasons: skeg, hatch, and plenty of room. The retractable skeg was a lifesaver for us in both the flats and the rapids. You expend less energy trying to correct the boat veer and essentially have a boat which paddles like a flatwater boat when you need it. This is great because it maximizes your comfort and you still have some energy left to cook dinner at the end of a long day. If you need to retract the skeg in a hurry, you simply reach back next to the cockpit and flip the lever. Skeg’s are commonly spring loaded as well so if you hit something, they’ll retract automatically rather than snap off.

The Skeg handle right next to the cockpit is easy to get to when you need to drop 'er down.

The hatch is great because it allows access to all the nooks and crannies in the stern which would be difficult if not impossible to access from the cockpit. There is a foam bulkhead which seperates the stern compartment from the cockpit, which helps keep your stuff dry and is essentially a large airbag in your stern. In hatchless boat’s like common creekers and river runners, you spend way more time in the morning and evening trying to wrangle your drybags and bits and pieces into the stern between the seat and the cockpit rim. The hatch reduces this frustration and offers a simple, dry, and secure way to store your gear. You can stuff all your light weight bits and pieces in the end of the stern easily, and don’t have to turn your boat upside down and shake it to get them out when you arrive at camp.

Finally, the outfitting in these boats and the omission of a plate bulkhead for footpegs allows for a lot of room in the bow and immediately behind the seat in front of the bulkhead. We found that spreading the weight evenly throughout the length of the boat worked really well, rather than having it more centered as you would in say, a creekboat. No boat that weights 200lbs fully loaded is going to spin on a dime like a creekboat, but having the weight distributed through the length of the boat did not make the boat unmaneuverable. There is definitely a learning curve to paddling a fully loaded kayak, but after a half day or so you become used to it and when you get in an empty boat you fly around like Superman. While boats of this nature aren’t ideal for steep creeks or extremely difficult whitewater, they allow for a lot more comfort on overnighters of just about any nature.

There's room for it all when you have a stern hatch.

Dave Kloberdanz making the best of the primary stability.

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