Wilderness Canoe Tripping: A Round-Up of Our Best Content
12-minute read
We’ve got some great content for you about wilderness canoe tripping. Here’s a round-up of 29 blogs on all kinds of trip topics that will be helpful whether you’re new to canoeing or not.
(Photo courtesy of Paul Villecourt)
Canoe trips, especially in protected wilderness areas, are amazing and often challenging experiences. These blogs cover a wide variety of topics from gear to food to kids to safety and more.
Scan through these and click on the blogs you want to read further (This is a great page to bookmark for further reading!).
Here we go…
Canoe Trip Gear
Best Canoe Paddles for the Boundary Waters & Quetico
Of course, these are also the best paddles for any wilderness area, wherever you are in the world. Lightweight, tough and very comfortable in your hands for long days on the water, we have paddles for everyone’s budget.
Whether you prefer beautiful wood paddles or high-tech, sleek carbon (or even a combo of both), bent shaft or straight shaft, we have you covered for your all-important paddle.
Read: Best Canoe Paddles for the Boundary Waters & Quetico
Choose the Right Canoe Paddle for Your Trip
This blog gives much of the same information, but it’s organized a bit differently—according to materials, design and budget.
We emphasize the importance of choosing a paddle based on the type of water you’ll be on and how long your trips are.
Read: Choose the Right Canoe Paddle for Your Trip
(Photo courtesy of Paul Villecourt)
The Best Canoe Trip Portage Packs
Portage packs are the next most important gear items after your canoe and paddles. You need your packs to be able to fit your gear well, be comfortable to carry over portages and protect your things from wetness.
Some canoeists prefer traditional canvas packs, others go for lighter nylon materials and still others like the idea of large dry bags for optimum waterproofness.
We tell you about several companies that make high-quality portage packs and where you can get them.
Read: The Best Canoe Trip Portage Packs
Packing Light for a Canoe Trip
Outdoorswoman Careena Alexis shares her best tips on packing light for canoe trips in her video, “Lightweight Canoe Trip Gear.”
She covers sleeping and shelter gear, cooking and water filtration gear, apparel and all the other items you may need or want to bring along.
Read: Gear Tips: Packing Light for a Canoe Trip
Gear Strategy for River Canoe Camping
Long-time (now retired) Bending Branches owner and president, Ed Vater, gives us his best gear tips for river canoe camping—his favorite type of canoe trip.
He also shares why he prefers river trips over flatwater trips—something you may want to look into, too!
Read: Gear Strategy for River Canoe Camping
(Photo courtesy of Forged from the Wild)
Wilderness Canoe Trip Food
Canoe Trip Food: What Are Your Options?
Your food is one of the more complicated aspects of wilderness canoe trips, and it’s important you think it through carefully. Will you bring whole foods? Buy dehydrated meals? Make your own dehydrated meals? Bring a combo of dehydrated and whole?
This blog also addresses other details like food cost, organizing the meals in your pack, bears and your food, regulations in the area you’ll be in, and how to plan for the right amount.
Read: Canoe Trip Food: What Are Your Options?
Dehydrate Your Own Canoe Trip Food
Dehydrated “backpacking” meals are the lightest foods to pack for portage-heavy trips, and they’re the easiest for those with little extra time. But they’re also the most expensive option—by far.
If you plan ahead, though, you can make your own dehydrated food. It can be a fun off-season activity to feed anticipation for your trips to come!
Read: Dehydrate Your Own Canoe Trip Food
Top 5 Easy-to-Do Breakfast Recipes for Canoe/Kayak Trips
Here are a few fun and easy breakfast recipes to try on your next canoe trip. One is even a Native American bread that you can cook over a fire.
Read: Top 5 Easy-To-Do Breakfast Recipes for Canoe/Kayak Trips
(Photo courtesy of Sharon Brodin)
How to Make Perfect Canoe Trip Coffee
Sure, you can bring along some one-serving instant coffee packets to add to boiling water. But you can also make great canoe trip coffee over a fire the old-fashioned way.
Watch this video by our friends at Canoeroots and read along to discover how!
Read: How to Make Perfect Canoe Trip Coffee
Handling Canoe Trip Portages
How to Portage Your Canoe & Gear on Wilderness Trips
Canoe portaging hearkens back to the fur trading days in North America when the French Voyageurs canoed deep into the northwoods lakes and rivers to reach the trading outposts for beaver pelts.
Nowadays, we portage for fun, adventure, to challenge ourselves, and to train kids how to work hard and build character. If portaging is new to you, this blog gives a wonderful overview.
Read: How to Portage Your Canoe & Gear on Wilderness Trips
The Golden Rules of Portage Etiquette
Beyond the physical aspects of portaging are the etiquette aspects—remember, there are others on the lakes and at the portages, too.
This blog by Mikaela Ferguson is full of great tips to keep portaging courteous for everyone involved. This is super important if your trips are in popular destinations like the Boundary Waters during the busy summer season.
Read: The Golden Rules of Portage Etiquette
(Photo courtesy of Caleb Young)
Wilderness Canoe Trips with Kids
Wilderness Canoeing with Your Kids
Getting your kids on wilderness trips with you provides endless opportunities for fun, challenge, growth and learning—for you and your kids!
Paddle Planner co-founder Ben Strege has been bringing their boys on canoe trips since they were babies. He offers wonderful advice on not just how to make it work, but why it’s such a great experience for everyone involved.
Read: Wilderness Canoeing with Your Kids
Canoe Camping with Kids: Top Tips from Parents
Are your kids in their toddler and preschool years? This is the blog for you! We Found Adventure owners Bobby and Maura Marko canoe tripped with their little ones often and learned valuable lessons along the way.
They share both their best tips and a whole list of what not to do in this blog. Once all is said and done, their biggest piece of advice? “Do it!”
Read: Canoe Camping with Kids: Top Tips from Parents
Bear Paulsen on Canoe Tripping with Young Children
Maybe you’re a go-getter and experienced canoe tripper who wants to take things to the next level with your kid(s). Bear Paulsen is an older dad with a young son who didn’t hesitate to bring his boy along on long trips right off the bat.
In this blog, he discusses some of the long trips he and his wife have done with their little boy. He also stresses why he believes it’s so necessary to introduce them to the world of canoeing while they’re young, if you want to make this an ongoing family activity.
Read: Bear Paulsen on Canoe Tripping with Young Children
Make Safety a Top Priority on Your Canoe Trips
Build a Paddling First Aid Kit
While we can never anticipate every possible hazard we’ll face during a canoe trip, we can be as prepared as we can for most of them. Putting together a reliable, well-stocked and waterproof First Aid kit is one way to do that.
Hopefully, you’ll never have to pull it out. But if you need it, you’ll sure be glad to have it.
Read: Build a Paddling First Aid Kit
(Photo courtesy of Caleb Young)
Canoeing and Kayaking Safety in Stormy Weather
You can’t avoid the weather when you’re on a wilderness canoe trip. So it’s necessary to be as prepared as you can, both with gear and knowledge.
Do you know what to do in a lightning storm? How about in high winds and big waves? This blog covers some basic dos and don’ts for weather situations you might face while out on the water or in remote campsites.
Read: Canoeing and Kayaking Safety in Stormy Weather
Canoe Camping: Bear Safety
If your wilderness trips take you into bear territory, food storage and safety have to be top of mind. Most canoeists travel through bear country every year without issues, but you have to follow common sense (and often legal) guidelines to avoid confrontations.
Here we talk about food storage, the best ways to avoid attracting bears and what to do if you encounter one in your campsite or on a portage.
Read: Canoe Camping: Bear Safety
How to Purify Water when Canoe & Kayak Camping
No matter how remote a river or lake is and how clear the water looks, there’s no guarantee it’s safe for human consumption. Microorganisms can cause nasty digestive issues, from mild to severe.
Fortunately, there are several reliable ways to purify water for drinking and cooking. We cover their pros and cons in this blog to help you decide which method you’ll use.
Read: How to Purify Water when Canoe & Kayak Camping
Stay Healthy on Long Canoe Trips
Whether “long” to you is a week, a month or six months, staying healthy on canoe trips is especially important in wilderness areas far from help and medical care.
Here we discuss several things that are completely within your control to help you prepare for and stay healthy on extended canoe trips, when you face unexpected circumstances.
Read: Stay Healthy on Long Canoe Trips
(Photo courtesy of Kirk Lindberg)
Fall Wilderness Canoe Tripping: Be Safe
Fall canoe trips can be wonderful with cooler temperatures, beautiful fall color in the forests and no bugs. But cooler weather also brings some safety concerns you don’t have to think about as much during the summer.
It’s important to understand the risks and how to mitigate them when you canoe in backcountry areas in seasons with cold air temps combined with cold water temps.
Read: Fall Wilderness Canoe Tripping: Be Safe
Wilderness Canoe Trips with Type 1 Diabetes
This is the personal story of Rachel Anderson, who’s been challenged with Type 1 diabetes since childhood. She lived in Minnesota for several years and dreamed of a Boundary Waters canoe trip.
We interviewed her about the trip she finally went on—the extra precautions and details she had to consider as a diabetic (with no immediate medical care available), and how her trip went for her.
Read: Wilderness Canoe Trips with Type 1 Diabetes
Is Your Canoe Camping Environmentally Friendly?
This blog isn’t about our own safety, but protecting the environment where we’ll be canoeing. The biggest thing is just to be aware of our impact on the water, shoreline, portages and campsites.
Leave No Trace practices, following park guidelines, bear and wildlife best practices, even collecting gear—all fall under ways to care for the wilderness we love so much.
Read: Is Your Canoe Camping Environmentally Friendly?
Technology and Wilderness Tripping
Top 6 Photography Tips for Wilderness Canoeing
Almost everyone wants to document their canoe trip with photos. Here are some tips from a pro photographer so you can get the best pictures possible, even if you’re just using your smartphone.
Read: Top 6 Photography Tips for Wilderness Canoeing
The Love/Hate Relationship with Smartphones on Wilderness Canoe Trips
And speaking of smartphones, there is a dichotomy between their use in the backcountry. Cell service is expanding, even into remote areas. Apps are popping up to aid in things like navigating and keeping an eye on the weather.
And yet, many want to be off-grid while they’re on a canoe trip, not connected at the hip to the rest of the world all the time.
(Photo courtesy of Sharon Brodin)
The good, the bad and the ugly of smartphone use on canoe trips, with many tips on regulating use, especially in a group.
Read: The Love/Hate Relationship with Smartphones on Wilderness Canoe Trips
Use Paddle Planner for Your Next Canoe Trip
If you live in North America and love wilderness canoe trips, you have to get connected with Paddle Planner. This is a growing and valuable website resource by canoeists for canoeists.
It’s like having Google Maps for many of the best canoe destinations, including the Boundary Waters, Quetico and many of Canada’s most popular parks.
Read: Use Paddle Planner for Your Next Canoe Trip
Wilderness Canoe Trips and Life
Canoe Tripping and Life Lessons
There’s a reason why many organizations use wilderness canoe trip programming with young people—it teaches so many valuable life lessons. But we as adults can keep learning these lessons, too.
This blog is a personal story about how backcountry canoe trips roll into life lessons easily and often.
Read: Canoe Tripping and Life Lessons
(Photo courtesy of Sharon Brodin)
An All-Women’s Boundary Waters Canoe Trip
Another personal story, this blog talks about why women should go on multi-day canoe trips together. Benefits, challenges (including periods), gear suggestions and favorite hacks are all discussed.
Wilderness canoe trips aren’t just for the battle-hardened canoeists and young, athletic gals—they can be for all women who are up for adventure and a lot of hard work.
Read: An All-Women’s Boundary Waters Canoe Trip
When Paddling Trips Go Awry: Can We Prepare for the Unexpected
Sometimes very unexpected emergencies do happen, no matter how well we prepare or how experienced we are.
In this blog, we interviewed a couple of paddlers about their personal stories—one of loss and the other of the storm of the century. While these kinds of experiences are rare, they do happen. Knowing about how some handled them helps us prepare (at least mentally) for our own trips.
Read: When Paddling Trips Go Awry: Can We Prepare for the Unexpected?
We hope you’ve found these fun, educational and helpful. Now go enjoy your next wilderness canoe trip!
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or bbinfo@bendingbranches.com, or choose our online chat option.
Want even more?
![The Best Entry-Level+ Fishing Kayaks [2025 Edition]](http://bendingbranches.com/cdn/shop/articles/BB_Kayaks_young_boy_31b98eca-f403-4298-b23c-c6bd85305111.jpg?v=1753996577&width=1080)