Can an Inflatable Kayak Replace a Canoe for Camping?

Canoe camping is hands down one of the best ways to backcountry camp, in particular when you're on a trip that involves portaging between lakes or around unnavigable water. But canoes are also a pain to transport and to store. So I started wondering what if you could do the same canoe camping trips with an inflatable kayak that packs into a bag. I've now tested that twice and learned a lot, some of that coming the hard way. I tested it last year on a four-day river trip in Quebec and just recently on a three-day lake-to-lake route in Killarney Provincial Park. What I can tell you is that the answer might surprise you. I'm Ken Whiting and this is PaddleTV, where you'll find gear reviews and paddling tips, all designed to help you have a better and safer time on the water. And in this video, I'm sharing what I've learned from testing whether inflatable kayaks are good alternatives to canoes for camping trips. Now there's a reason canoes haven't changed a whole lot over hundreds of years, aside from what they're made of. It's because they're really good for certain types of paddling trips. In particular, they're amazing for multi-day camping trips. What makes them so is how much room you have for gear. But beyond just their capacity, you also benefit from the open deck that allows you to pack your gear into large packs or barrels that you can quickly load and unload. This is especially useful on trips that involve a lot of portages. Canoes are also relatively easy to carry thanks to a yoke that allows you to balance the canoe on your shoulders. But as great as canoes are, there's no denying that canoes can be a real pain when you're not on trip. They're always a little scary transporting on your vehicle and you need to have a lot of extra space to store a canoe. Now this isn't a problem that's specific to canoes because full size kayaks are also a pain to transport and to store, although generally not as big of a pain as canoes are. This is why inflatable kayaks have grown in popularity. They're easy to transport and they pack down small enough to store in your closet. But what are you giving up by getting an inflatable kayak instead of a canoe? In particular, can you still do the same types of canoe camping trips? It's a great question and it's something that I knew I needed to actually test to figure out. And so that's what I've done. Last year I used an inflatable kayak on a four-day river trip down the Des Moines River, which is a classic canoe camping trip. This year I decided to continue the which is one of the best canoe camping destinations anywhere and it's personally one of my favorite places in the world. I literally just got back from that trip and so it's fresh on the mind and here's what I can tell you. Let's start with boat selection and when it comes to boat selection the most obvious choice for me wouldn't have actually been an inflatable kayak but an inflatable canoe. And yes there is such a thing although few people actually know that an inflatable canoe is a real option. I actually did a full in-depth review of the Sea Eagle inflatable travel canoe and so I'll leave a link in the description box to that video in case you're interested. I wanted to test an inflatable kayak on this trip because kayaks have their real strengths over canoes and I wanted an inflatable kayak that could do three, well three things. It needed to be able to easily carry barrels or canoe packs which means it needed to have an open deck. It also needed to travel efficiently on flat water and deal with windy conditions and it needed to be able to, well it needed to be portage friendly. And so for this trip I picked the Sea Eagle 393 Razor Light and on the surface I felt it was pretty much the ideal boat for the job. For one it's got an open deck and it has a capacity of around 500 pounds so I knew it could handle my big packs and the weight I was going to be carrying. As for traveling efficiently it's one of the fastest inflatable kayaks on the market in large part because it's 13 feet long and only 28 inches wide but also because the whole kayak is made with drop stitch construction which allows you to pump it up to around 10 psi. This makes it really stiff like a hard shell boat and it also has hard bow and stern keels to help it track so I knew it would be good in windy conditions too. Now portaging was the biggest unknown for me and it's something I was particularly sensitive to because it was one of the main pain points during my four-day river trip last year because the kayaks we chose weren't easily carried by one person or by two people for that matter. But the 393 seemed like a better solution because it's about 10 pounds lighter than the 380 Explorer kayaks we were using. It's narrower and it has a center carry handle which last year's kayaks didn't. Now before I tell you what I learned and answer the question of whether an inflatable kayak is a good alternative to canoes for camping trips here's a quick look at the trip that I just got back from. Killarney is a stunning place you can probably already see why. It's one of my favorite places in the world and if you want to see that full adventure you can watch it on my other channel Ken Whiting Adventures. Make sure you get a bowl of popcorn or something because it's a bit of a longer video. I will of course leave a link in the description box to that video. But here's what I can tell you about using inflatable kayaks on canoe camping trips like this. When it comes to gear management the idea was I wanted an inflatable kayak that could hold big packs to make it easy to load and unload when it was time to portage and the 393 definitely checked that box. One thing that's worth noting though is that you do need to bring an extra piece of gear if you're using an inflatable kayak. You've got to bring a pump in case you get a hole in the kayak that needs to be patched. But also because the air pressure in an inflatable kayak can change pretty dramatically depending on how much the temperature swings in the day. It's not unusual to have to add a little air to your kayak on a cold or cloudy morning. On this trip I didn't have to. The temperature swing wasn't big enough that I had to change the air pressure so I didn't need the pump but I had one. When it comes to performance I had tested and done a full review of the 393 beforehand so I knew how well it traveled through the water. That being said one decision I made was to leave the removable fin behind because fins can be a pain when you're launching and landing an inflatable kayak and I knew I was going to be doing a lot of that between the portaging, arriving and leaving campsites and the side hikes that I planned to do. Yes the removable fin would have helped the kayak track better but the 393 tracks pretty darn well without it. Now the other performance related factor was that I was using a double bladed kayak paddle and that made it easy to control the boat and wind and I could paddle fast alone which is a lot more difficult to do in a canoe with a single blade. That's why a lot of solo canoe trippers now are using long double bladed kayak paddles. So how about dealing with portages? As I mentioned earlier this was the biggest challenge I faced on a river trip last year when using the Seagull 420 Explorer. Even though the boat let us run more white water than we would have been able to in canoes and it made that white water easier we still encountered a number of portages and we quickly learned that the boats were challenging to carry. It made it very clear how valuable a yoke in a canoe is and so with that learning I came up with a simple and very rudimentary way to strap a canoe yoke to the inflatable kayak. The idea was that when I got to a portage I could just unload the boat, strap on the yoke and get to it. All I did was take a yoke from one of my canoes and I attached a couple of pieces of 2x4 because I needed more space between the yoke on my shoulders and the floor of the kayak so the kayak wasn't sitting on my head. It was a hack job but it worked. But when I got to the launch I carried the inflatable kayak to the water at my hip by holding the center carry handle and it felt pretty good doing that. I mean the boat is only 33 pounds and since I had a full kayak already I decided to roll the dice and leave the yoke behind. Was it a mistake? Turns out it was a bit of a mistake. Hip carrying worked fine for the really short portages but it it wasn't a good solution for the longer portages or the one long portage that I had to do twice. It was just really tiring on the hands and bruising on the hip and I definitely found myself wishing I had brought the yoke. Now towards the end of the trip I actually discovered it was really comfortable to shoulder carry that particular boat but I couldn't do that and carry a barrel pack at the same time and so it forced me to do the portage an extra time. Bottom line I should have brought the ugly yoke that I had made. So all in all I have to say that I learned a lot from both of my inflatable kayak camping tests and the final verdict is that yes inflatable kayaks can be a really good choice for canoe camping trips but, and this is a big but, you have to choose the right inflatable kayak for the type of trip that you're doing. Otherwise you will discover some pain points. You might also need to come up with a solution like I did for carrying the inflatable kayak if you have long portages to deal with. Personally I would love to see someone come up with a solution for portaging inflatable kayaks or any kayaks for that matter so that you can carry a kayak comfortably on your shoulders like a canoe. There might very well be one out there that I don't know about and if that's the case please do let me know in the comments section below. I would love someone to save me the hack job and the pain of not using it. You know that being said I ran into a couple on one of the portages who were curious about how my trip was going with an inflatable kayak because they'd never seen one in that part of the park before. Not surprised. I explained to them how well it was doing but that portaging was a bit of an issue. Their response was that portaging is always an issue no matter what craft you have. When you're doing a longer portage it's hard. It's uncomfortable and it kind of sucks and that was a really good perspective to hear because it wasn't just this boat. It wasn't just an inflatable kayak. It's just the fact that in general longer portages suck. All you can do is come up with solutions to make them suck a little less. And so there you have it. I hope you guys have enjoyed this video. Once again if you want to watch the full Killarney adventure then please do check it out on my other channel Ken Whiting Adventures. Link in the description box down below. If you want to make a trip to Killarney yourself I did a paddling guide to Georgian Bay and Killarney a couple years ago and it's a great resource because it is one of the best places in the world. Very accessible in large part because it's a provincial park but also because it has an outfitter like Killarney Outfitters. They have a great shop. High-end or not just high-end. High quality good products that you would want to take into the backcountry or the front country because the park also has car camping. Great car camping options. But Killarney Outfitters also rents all the gear you need for a backcountry trip. Not inflatable kayaks. They rent performance Kevlar canoes. Ultra light Kevlar canoes and all the camping gear you need. They even do full meal plans and menus and organize all your food for you if you're traveling and can't do it yourself. Definitely a place worth checking out. Also I'll leave a link in the description box to both the Sea Eagle kayak the Sea Eagle 420 Explorer that I reviewed and tested on the Des Moines River trip and the Sea Eagle 393 that I just recently used on this Killarney trip so you can see hey are these the right potentially boats for you. Stay tuned for another paddling tip gear review or paddling adventure. Yeah give the video a thumbs up too. Subscribe to Paddle TV if you haven't already and subscribe to Ken Whiting Adventures while you're at it and make sure that that little notification bell all notifications is on because that helps too.