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Pack Capacity

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What kind and size packs would you use for a weeklong solo trip (double portaging)? How do you distribute the loads with and without the canoe (ie. food, tent, clothes, sleeping bag/pad)? Do you have a target weight threshold for each pack?
 
I'm no lightweight, I take lots of creature comforts. I don't take a ton of food, mostly just dried goods, even some freeze dried if I'm really lazy. I usually end up with one 60 litre barrel and a day pack. The day pack is large enough to carry my rain gear, cooking stuff, and things I might need during the day. First trip over a port is day pack and canoe, second trip the barrel. Of course, if doing port maintenance, that formula is out the window because of chainsaw, gas, safety equipment.

Back in the day, I used to have a separate dry bag with a few dozen beer. I would just throw it on top of the barrel. Made for a heavy trip, but got progressively lighter each day, lol.

Forgot to mention, my little tent get strapped to the top of the barrel in a little dry bag.
 
115 liter pack . Stuff that has to stay dry like clothes in a separate dry bag( s) that go inside the pack. I use a pack liner. Double dry bagging in essence. My sleeping bag and clothes and pad go vertically as well as the tent. Sometimes pack the poles outside. Dry bag the tarp too but in this case its to prevent a wet tarp from spreading its unwanted ooze. Pots pans dishes of course dont get dry bagged. Saw on outside pocket. Chair on outside pocket. Raincoat in top flap pocket.

30 liter barrel for food. It carries up to two weeks of foodstuffs for me. I really do not need that much and could take less. I take far too much GORP. But forget the coffee and everything is off including the trip.

First over portage with just the paddles and the big pack.. I have seen people veer off the trail wearing their canoe hat and get lost. ( that would be my husband on one of our couples trips). Second with the 30 liter barrel and canoe.
 
I carry one Duluth Pack “Wanderer” pack, (I’m not sure of the size as it’s an old one not made anymore, its smaller than a #3 Duluth Pack,) for clothes, sleeping bag/pad, tarp, solo cook pot with utensils/bowls inside, no stove, just a flat twig stove, cold handle fry pan, plus some small bags with 1st aid, cord etc. I use Duluth plastic liners to waterproof. My tent and tarp are on top, outside of the waterproof liner, tent poles, saw, and ax slid down along side the plastic liner. Rain gear on top of tent.
My food goes in two Seattle Sports waterproof bags that fit into a 20 liter Duluth pack “Daypack”, along with a water bottle in the outside pouch.
I also carry a small Army surplus pouch with fishing tackle/small binocs/GoPro batteries/ etc.
I usually make 3 trips, but have made 2 trips if the food bag has lightened up, I carry it on my chest.

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I'm with Mem "I take lots of creature comforts" I'm going to walk it twice anyways. On a 3 day weekend 2-70 liters Bags or a 60-liter barrel and a 70-liter Dry Bag.
 
This is great. Food for thought about my own truck. I'm weeding and reconfiguring and your ideas are greatly appreciated. No one said anything about a Helinox chair, which I love but loathe at the same time. It negates many of my other economies but I can't bear to leave it behind.
 
This is great. Food for thought about my own truck. I'm weeding and reconfiguring and your ideas are greatly appreciated. No one said anything about a Helinox chair, which I love but loathe at the same time. It negates many of my other economies but I can't bear to leave it behind.

I mentioned packing a chair. It is a Helinox that fits in a side pocket- I did not specify it by name. Welcome to old age and furniture Black Fly. You need not leave your love behind!
 
Black_Fly It ain't a canoe trip w/o a Helinox chair or compatible substitute.

Cut the toothbrush in half to save weight but I have to have my chair.
 
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For straight-up overnight hikes, my target weight for gear alone is a little over 25 pounds, including the weight of the pack, a hatchet, and a Helinox knock-off chair (which I too will never give up). For a week, I guess I would add maybe 15 pounds more for food (mostly dry stuff), maybe less if I can be sure the fishing is good along the way. And no beer - a flask of rum or whiskey is much more alcohol-efficient (and warming). All this I can fit in/on a 58 litre Osprey Exos backpack (might be switching to a 65 litre MEC Slogg pack for better waterproofiness when canoeing).

I am pretty comfortable with this weight for hiking, and for solo canoe tripping starting this spring (which I haven't really done since I was a kid so we'll see how this all works out) I think I will really only up the food side of things (some canned and fresh stuff), and then only if there is little or no portaging. I no longer have an appetite for death-march hikes with 50-60 pound loads, and I don't like to stay more than a night in any one spot anyway, so the less gear I have to setup and take down the faster I can settle in, enjoy the peace, and get going the next morning. Probably a different story though if I was on a trip where I would be staying put for a few days in each spot.
 
They've got an Helinox ultralight version out that I've been resisting for a couple years. Besides the extra $120 to save 1 lb, I'll still have 3 of the heavier ones just sitting on a shelf. Seems like a terrible waste and expense for 1 lb.

I'll probably buy it.
 
I carried/paddled this pack on a few-day trip to Algonquin, last September. https://algonquinoutfitters.com/product/algonquin-outfitters-large-canoe-pack/
Inside was a heavy mil garbage bag as a liner. Inside that were three dry bags, one with misc. gear one with clothes and sleeping bag and one with food. Also inside were tent, tarp, poncho, camp chair, and a few other odds and ends. There was enough room for a few extra days of provisions. On the side was a wood saw and a fishing pole. The gear was rented and therefore heavy duty. If I'd take my own gear I'd go a little lighter on some items. A used to offer two other size packs, but I have not seen them at their store in a while.
 
With the “weeklong solo trip” it still depends on the boat, place and season, with the caveat that I do not portage long, far or hard.

The available storage differs between a (soloized tandem) open canoe like the Penobscot and the Monarch or other decked boat. Hull width, depth and volume, pack size, barrel size, decks or no decks and anticipated conditions considerations all make a difference.

Lake or other freshwater trips differ from salt water, packing in a gravity filter vs bringing all the potable water on tidal trips. A week’s worth of water is a heavy, best-positioned-centered load.

Packing winter clothes, boots and sleeping bag differs vs summer trips; the winter bag alone is five times the size of a summer weight 30/50 flip bag and accompanying Gawd-it’s-hot-and-freaking-humid micro fiber sheet. I can always throw the summer bag over me at 3am when it finally cools down enough.

Whatever the gear guise I always have a dry bag portage pack with shoulder and waist straps, preferably a voluminous 115L if it will fit. Always a hard sided barrel or Cur-tec drum(s) for food storage, sized to fit the boat of choice. Most often another smaller dry bag, also with straps.

Packing the bags there are items I want stored together. Tent and poles, tarp with attached ridgeline/corner lines and stakes; those are the first things to go up and I’d like them together, and easy to grab towards the top of a pack instead of burrowing down. A wet take-down may mean those get repacked/drip protected differently until they dry out again.

Things that goes inside the tent, the stuff I want assurance will be kept dry, get stored together; sleeping bag, pillow case, spare clothes, micro-fiber sheet on hot weather trips all go inside garbage bags, inside coated compression stuff sacks, inside a dry bag for belt and suspenders and garters insurance.

That over-protected stuff gets disgorged from the dry bag, still in the compression sacks, and goes inside the tent as soon as it is set up. If I have to storm scurry (or stagger/crawl) back to the tent I want to know that everything I need is already inside, and still unpacked dry protected.

One odd note in that insurance assurance; on base camp trips I bring an over sized, breathable stuff bag. In the morning, after the sleeping bag has aired out from overnight moisture, I re-stuff it in that big stuff bag; it is a lot faster and easier to loosely stuff the sleeping bag in an oversized stuff bag in the morning and kick it to one end of the tent than to laboriously cram it into some just-barely-fits stuff sack or compression bag. Probably better for the fill too.

The exception to that kept together sleep gear is the giant Therma-rest pad, which goes into its own long narrow DIY dry bag for over sized storage ease. That big pad is lightweight in comparison to other gear, but awkwardly long and bulbous even when deflated; stored in a custom dry bag it can go near the stems, or up near gunwale height, or even get strapped to the stern of a decked boat.

Camp chair (not small) and chair accessories go in another long DIY dry bag, along with the day use hammock and straps, so all of my resting places are together, easy to get out and, more importantly, easy put away in protected dry bag storage before bedtime. The vestibules on the tent are not spacious, and anything I can leave outside under the tarp is appreciated. There it is in the morning, without crawling over it, or unzipping aux vestibule to look for it

That togetherness helps with repacking when breaking camp; I know what goes where without much thought from system memory.

Not sure exactly what you mean by “load distribution”. In each bag or barrel? – no so much that I can’t carry it without hurting myself, a weight limit that has decreased over the years. In the boat? – heaviest packs/barrels (or water) as close to center as practical, lighter clothes/sleeping bag/pad/tent/tarp further towards the stems.

Prepping for long trips, off-season trips, tote-the-drinking-water trips (or some combination) I do a test fit, packed in the boat of choice at home. And, laugh all you want, sometimes make a sketch of what best went where, to bring to the launch. I test packed for a multi-week, off-season, bring-water and portable toilet trip that didn’t occur ‘til 3+ weeks later on the road. No chance I’d have remembered that test pack fit at the launch weeks later without the sketch.

Other destinations are often a few days to a week road trip stop and visit friends journey away. That reminder sketch helps with my usual desire to get packed up and gone from a launch area ASAP, especially at busy launches or multi-party outfitter shuttle trailer drop offs. Get me outa here!

I don’t have a target weight, I recognize what is comfortably manageable in each bag or barrel design while packing it and picking it up.
 
Have you looked at Cooke Custom Sewing's 30L barrel bag?

https://www.shop.cookecustomsewing.c...?categoryId=44

Yes, I have that pack and am planning to use it for my May solo. I just think a larger pack, with an internal divider to retain the bucket and more room on top, along side would be ideal.

Dan makes great stuff. I have 4 of his packs and a tarp from CCS. Love my frost River canvas packs, but weight is becoming a thing for my knees.
 
I use a #4 Duluth bag from CCS as my main bag. Carries clothes, sleeping pad, and a big sleeping bag ! I could get by with a #3 Duluth, If I got a smaller sleeping pad and a down bag.

A small zipper Duffel for my tent ! I hate rolling up a sometimes wet tent, into it's original tiny bag. The zipper Duffel make take down, a Breeze ! A big time saver for me ! Plus there is enough room in the Duffel for a ground cloth, and other necessities !

And a Military duffel that carries food, a cook kit, and other do dads !


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