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"Believe me, my young friend. There is nothing, absolutely nothing,
half so worth doing as simply messing around in boats." 

The Wind in the Willows

The Joys of Kayak Camping (Guest Post)

3/31/2016

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Today we have a guest post from Peter Jones, a fellow reader and kayaking tour guide in Maine, who explains what longer (multi-day) paddling trips offer over shorter day trips. I completely agree, and wish there were more multi-day paddling trip opportunities here in Belgium! Enjoy! - Nena

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Hi, I’m Peter Jones, and when I recently came across Nena’s blog, it immediately struck me what a cool picture she paints of the variety of kayaking locations she’s paddled - not just here in the US but on the rivers and coastline of Europe too.  After reading her account of kayak trips in New England, I thought it would be a nice addition to her post of Mount Desert Island (MDI) to have something on her blog about kayak camping in an area just south of MDI – the island archipelago off Stonington and Deer Isle, which is where you can find me guiding overnight kayaking trips through the summer.
Most of the islands in the region - and there are more than fifty of them - are small, uninhabited and within a day’s paddle of Stonington - remnants of mountain peaks from before the last Ice Age and before the oceans rose to where they are today.  The real treat is that ~20 islands on the Maine Island Trail have low-impact overnight camping sites. If you’re kayak-camping on one of the small islands around Deer Isle, then for one or two nights the island ‘belongs’ to you.  Kayakers and other small-boaters may show up during the day for a snack or a lunch break, but it’s been my experience that the majority of small boaters using the Maine Island Trail abide by this honors system and limit their visit to a short one once they see that someone has pitched a tent.

My guess is that the vast majority of kayakers on the water at any one time are paddling for a few hours – a day at most. But some lucky paddlers are out for longer - sometimes much longer - than that. We all have competing demands on our time - work, family, other fun activities, and to commit to a multi-day paddle is just that, a real commitment.  Anyone who ventures out on a multi-day trip needs to do some significant gear planning first.  Everything from the right boat, the right paddling gear, and the right camping gear for a night or more under the stars has to be borrowed / rented / purchased.  And to be blunt, this often requires a significant financial investment above and beyond what’s needed for a day trip. Then there’s trip planning (and here begins the fun part), with questions to answer such as:  what’s my route?... where do I camp overnight?…who do I paddle with?... guided tour or self-guided?... what are the tide/current conditions?  And above all,  do I have the right training to handle the conditions which may change over the course of a couple of days or more?  Other questions - what food do I take, how do I pack it all into my kayak, etc. are fairly easy to deal with.  These are the hurdles to get over, and anyone embarking on an overnight trip who plans to come home safely will have done the legwork and to figure them all out.

I’ve found over and over that on a half-day or a full-day trip, clients are often so busy with the doing-of-it, that time simply whizzes by for them. After some practice with the boats at the put-in, the morning seems to barely have begun before it’s time for lunch. A discussion of the afternoon’s route is followed rapidly by an hour or so of paddling, and then it is time to think about heading home. How can that be? Time literally flies when you’re having fun.  Einstein was right - time is relative. 
In this world there are two times.
There is mechanical time and there is body time…
The first is unyielding, predetermined.
The second makes up its mind as it goes along…
Each time is true, but the truths are not the same.
 - Albert Einstein -
The upside of embarking on an overnight kayak-camping trip can be huge.  At the very least, it’s a fun time where you’ll get a good work-out for a couple of days, hone your camping skills, enjoy the outdoors, and get to know some like-minded people who enjoy paddling.  At best, it can truly be a life-changing experience, particularly when you think about the interpersonal dynamics that can develop between paddling buddies - parent-son/daughter, spouses, partners, friends, siblings, etc. On a multi-day trip, regardless of weather and sea conditions, you’ll probably experience a certain ‘discomfort level’, hopefully minor, that can be both physical and psychological. And when things work out, which is usually the case, getting over this barrier with friends/family might just be one of the coolest things you’ll ever do in the great outdoors.

On an overnight trip, you may connect with with the your minimalist side. You help your kayaking buddy carry his/her kayak over that slippery bank of seaweed to find that perfect spot of sand above the high tide mark at the end of the day. You both eye the small clearing beyond the beach where you will pitch your tent on the island before the sun goes down. You’ve paddled hard all day. You’ve faultlessly navigated your way to the spot you’ve been talking about all afternoon. Now, if you can just get out of those damp kayaking duds, put on some comfortable camping clothes, pitch your tent, and open up that bottle of Malbec while your gourmet specialty dish bubbles away on that amazing little WhisperLight stove… then you might suddenly get it. You don’t have to be anywhere right now except here. Tonight and tomorrow seem to stretch endlessly before you, and you find that, yes, you really are living in the moment. I’ve come to believe that kayak-camping can take you into a whole new dimension of experiencing the outdoors, largely because of a shift in your perception of time, which can translate to a much deeper level of experience. 

​On a multi-day trip, in the late afternoon during that ‘arsenic-hour’ of the day, you’re unwinding and getting ready for a long, delicious evening of relaxed dining (camp-style of course), of watching the sun go down, of anticipating the ascent of the moon and stars before you drift off to sleep to the sound of the waves lapping on the beach. Yes, time really has slowed down. The day has seemed sooo…. long.  And tomorrow you can wake up in your tent to the sounds of the waves on the beach… and do it all over again. So if you’ve never overnighted on a kayak trip, and you get the chance to do it, take it, you’ll be amazed how that thing called ‘time,’ which we all live by, has a way of bending when you’re really living in the moment.
​Peter is the owner of Driftwood Kayak
www.driftwoodkayak.com
He is an occasional guest-blogger for Naked Kayaker.
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Canoeing the Sudbury River

11/4/2012

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My little brother's high school graduation in June brought me back to Boston for a long weekend. As usual, my visit home provided my mother and stepfather the opportunity to ask boat-related questions and favors. Last time it was "can you help us buy canoe paddles?" This time it was "can you fix the canoe seats? My brothers and I spent an afternoon measuring and drilling holes in the new canoe seats, bringing the old green canoe back into service.

Moeke (= "mom" in Flemish) and I took the boat on it's maiden voyage, version 2,  down the Sudbury River near our house in Lincoln, MA. Here's a map:
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To be honest, it's been so long since we did this short paddle that I can't remember much more. Oops. But here's my mother in her funny hat :)
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Glimpses of a Pond in Autumn

10/20/2010

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Just wanted to share a few pictures of the fall foliage around the pond behind our house in Lincoln, MA.
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I love fall... Just wanted to add another water-related post since kayaking has been MIA lately. Canadice Lake this weekend!
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Somes Sound (Mt. Desert Island Day #2)

7/28/2010

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Just a quick post for the second paddle Ben and I did in Mt. Desert Island a couple weekends ago! We paddled north from Southwest Harbor into Somes Sound, riding the tide on the way in, and paddling a little bit against it on the way back. We stopped for lunch in Sargent Cove on the east side of the sound. On the way back, a thick fog seemed to be rolling in from the ocean, so rather than paddling around the island at the end of the sound, we headed back into the harbor.
Click "Read More" to see a map of the route.

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Seal Cove and around Bartlett Island (Mount Desert Island Day #3)

7/20/2010

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Here is part 3 of 3 (Yes, the days are out of order, but I guess that's just going to be a trend in this blog), a guest post by Mary Kate Wheeler summarizing our third and final paddle on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. 

After a last minute decision to join Nena and Ben's MDI Expedition, I headed east from Warren, Vermont on Friday, arriving at the campsite just minutes after dinner ended. Fortunately, my ever prepared companions dug up some leftovers and even an extra tent to make me feel well at home.

Mist hovered along the coastline as we drove to our launching point on Saturday morning. After hearing a rumor of exceptionally friendly marine life off the western side of the island we chose to paddle out of Seal Cove. Although it seemed to be a popular spot for fishermen and motor boats, the cove provided a nicely sheltered place to launch kayaks.

Our goal of having close and personal encounters with marine mammals was quickly and unexpectedly met...

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Long Pond (Mount Desert Island Day #1)

7/18/2010

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Bald eagle!
This is the 1st post in a series of 3. Ben, Mary Kate, and I recently (July 14 - 18) spent 3 days kayaking in and around Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island (MDI) on the coast of Maine. Ben & Mary Kate will be guest-blogging for the 2nd and 3rd days!

After a fairly eventful journey to Mt. Desert Island which involved car camping (the type where you sleep in the car at a rest-stop), we (Ben & I) arrived early Thursday morning at Seawall Campground. After a 3 hour nap and a satisfying lunch, we set out to do an easy afternoon paddle on Long Pond, a large freshwater lake on the west side of Mt. Desert Island...

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Circumnavigating Southport Island in Boothbay, Maine

7/14/2010

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Plotting our course by candle light
Now that you're all (the 3 of you who actually read this) probably getting bored of my posts, I've invited a guest blogger! I now present you with Jeff Buchman, kayaking partner for the weekend of 7/9-7/11 on our visit to Boothbay Harbor in Maine...

Saturday morning we awoke to the sound of rain drops on the tent, but it turns out it was only large amounts of fog dripping off of the trees. Since it was predicted to thunderstorm, I was more than willing to deal with heavy fog since last time I checked no one was ever electrocuted by fog. When we arrived at the beach at Gray Homestead Oceanfront Camping (where we were camping), the fog was so thick that we couldn't see Squirrel Island, which is only about 1 mile offshore. As we were launching, the fog began to lift and a little bit of sun shined through the the clouds. The first part of the trip was against the tide toward the open Atlantic Ocean. While paddling against the tide is a bit more challenging, it is somewhat reassuring to know that if something goes wrong you won't be swept into the ocean. The wave height was probably 3-4 feet but...

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Maine: Foggy Knubble Bay & Robinhood Cove

7/11/2010

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Jeff and I met up in Boothbay, Maine for two days of sea kayaking on the Atlantic Coast. On Day 2 we experienced truly Maine-style conditions, with thick fogs, big tides, drizzle, eerie shipwrecks, quiet bays, and a creamy lobster roll to top it off. 

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Loons, Bugs, and Bears on Lake Winnipesaukee

7/6/2010

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Winnipesaukee is a BIG lake (approximately the same surface area as Cayuga Lake) located just south of the White Mountains in NH. It's a little over an hour from Manchester when the traffic is cooperating. 


We (Tina, Brian, and I) spent 4th of July weekend at Chris's condo on Long Island (not the famous one), which stick out into the middle of the lake...

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Adventures with Julia and Thundery Kayaking

6/20/2010

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This weekend I met up with the lovely Julia Schoen in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a weekend of sunny beaches and other adventures. On Sunday I met up with the NH AMC paddlers group at Odiorne Point State Park and joined them for a saltwater, tidal, and thundery day trip at the mouth of the Piscataqua River...

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    Welcome!

    This is a blog about exploring the outdoors (mostly by kayak), traveling, trip planning, and coastal engineering. It currently focuses on kayaking in the Netherlands and Belgium, but previous posts cover Upstate New York, California, and much more. See the Complete List of Blog Posts for a history of the site. Looking for something specific? Search the site here.

    In addition to the blog, check out the Water Nerd section, where I write about coastal engineering and hydrology. 

    ​Happy Paddling!
    ​Nena

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