Remembering some canoeist advice here:

-line every pack with a HD trash bag

-Food double or triple

-each sleeping bag, ditto

- critical items in hard boxes ( gps, cell phones, glasses, first aid, etc.)

My wife and I do a lot of sea kayaking, and it is often very rainy in our area. We use proper roll top dry bags. More expensive than the garbage bag method, but also much more durable.

You can get roll top bags in various sizes. Because kayaks are such an odd shape and often have small hatches, we mostly use the smaller sizes of dry bags, and one uses them to fill the compartment like building blocks. We even have special compression ones for our sleeping bags (quite expensive, but worth in in my opinion. I don't usually use hard dry boxes since they don't pack as efficiently into kayak hatches, and dry bags are as reliable (if not more so) for keeping stuff dry.

For canoeing I would expect you could do fine with a couple of larger roll top bags, rather than many small ones like we use.

Not a canoe guy, but I've thought about this a fair amount, living in the Pacific NW.

I think it is worth going over each item you are carrying and ask yourself what the consequences are if that item gets wet and then plan from there.

Also think about what kind of wet you are protecting it from. Pouring rain is different than dunking for example. Dunking for a second is different than dunking for minutes.

In addition, think about wet items *inside* of what you pack. Is that liquid soap or your water bladder going to mess up anything if it becomes ruptured?

And how do you stow wet gear? You get dunked and have wet clothes, you aren't going to want to dump them in with your dry clothes.

I also favor dry bags. While the trash bag method does reasonably for some things like protecting the gear in your backpack in a downpour, they don't hold up as well and are likely to have small holes and tears pretty quickly.

OTOH, they are cheap and offer reasonable protection and versatile. I always try to pack a few "just in case" even though my sensitive gear is already in protection.

-john

this is a view into my Duluth pack.


if you want to keep your gear really dry use the method we use out on the lakes..bag inside a bag inside a bag,with the small stuff like soxs and tee shirts inside zip locks.in the photo the large plastic pack liner,sold by the Duluth Pack Company to fit their portage packs,is 6 mil thick.inside that are two heavy nylon stuff sacks also lined with 6 mil plastic bags made to fit them.and inside one the clothes in zip locks.that's a lot of plastic for water to seep thru!!..it's just not the chance of an upset in bad water but bilge and rain water.with no place to go and get dry except a campsite,no huts or roads to hitch a ride into town,having dry gear is a top concern and at the canoeing blogs and sites we get into the subject all the time with every which way to water proof everything..some just put it all in plastic barrels!!!

Formerly I often had to pack my gear so that it could withstand a dunking in the surf, going on and off islands. The very best was a large drybag with pack straps. I would still pack my sleeping bag in a waterproof stuff sack, along with other critical items. I really prefer items that can be wrung dry and worn comfortably right away - various types of synthetics.

Hike..the big dry bag with shoulder straps is another subject that comes up.the canoe gang after some going around on the subject agreed that those were best for river or sea trips where you would not have to carry one any farther than from the boat to a camping spot as they would not stand up to whats involved in canoe portaging.i take all poly fluff and nylon these days but dry clothes are a must as you are burning up a lot of BTU's drying clothes on your body..

Interesting! I have used mine exactly as you state, usually getting it from the beach to a vehicle, actually. I am not sure that I have worn mine on my back for any more than a quarter mile. The one I have has a comfortable waist belt, and, if the bag is properly and fully packed, it should carry fairly nicely. It weighs on the order of fifty pounds with normal gear.

The number of portages I have done is precisely zero. What is involved? Isn't it mostly strolling along a nice smooth path between two bodies of water?

Something tells me you will disabuse me of that notion.....