Hello Friends!
Today we are going to discuss the great back country camping debate: Hike in or canoe in?
Some people grew up one way or the other and are steadfast in their mindset regarding which method of travel is superior. Some can enjoy the adventure either way and have found a mix of both in their adventures.
I grew up always canoeing in but learned to love hiking-in as well after a neck/upper back/shoulder injury to my C8 nerve (which controls the lower part of your left arm) prevented me from being able to hold a paddle for any length of time for a few years. After beginning with purely canoeing, adjusting to purely hiking, and then finding a happy middle ground between the two, I now have a lot of admiration for both methods. Here is what I find to be the benefits and downfalls of each.
CANOEING
Let’s begin with canoeing, the method I grew up with. Canoeing is a very upper body-heavy activity. You use a lot of shoulder movements, a lot of chest muscle and upper back muscles, your lats (the large muscle that runs along your ribs into your low back) defiantly get noticed, serratus anterior (boxing muscle, look it up it’s very cool), and a surprising amount of internal and external obliques. Your legs stay pretty dormant during an average canoe trip except for needing to put more weight on one side or the other to quickly balance the canoe.
Canoeing can be more difficult for people with head injuries (or other balance issues) just because of the way the canoe will rock. You can feel unbalanced with a head injury, so you're going to feel the effects of the movement more than most people would.
Anyone suffering from a head injury will also struggle with the glare off the lake surface. The reflection of the sun bouncing back at you will make you realize very quickly why some people use such dark sunglasses. Someone in this position might find relief in walking through the bush instead.
Canoeing can get you a lot further, a lot faster but you are completely dependent on the water levels and any obstacles in the water. Using a canoe, you can do a week-long trip that will take you into the heart of Algonquin Park and back out with time to relax, which is exactly what some people are after.
Canoeing also allows you to observe nature and take photos while still moving toward your destination. When I am canoeing, I frequently will let the canoe drift while in the middle of paddling to the next site just to snap some pictures of loons, moose, the scenery, cool fish, or anything else. And sometimes if you are quiet enough in a canoe, you can get very close to the wildlife without them feeling threatened.
Just on that note: Moose can swim. If you see one and try to canoe up to it to get a closer shot, make sure you are still far enough away to paddle like hell if need be. They are very large, very territorial during certain times of the year, and very good at swimming. They will come after you and try to attack you in the water if they feel it is warranted.
I have a very distinct memory of falling asleep in the canoe when my dad took me canoeing one day as a kid. He woke me up because there was a family of river otters playing about 30 feet in front of the canoe. He let the canoe drift so I could watch them for as long as they would let us and we sat there for a while slowly getting closer to them. When they realized we weren’t a threat to them, they started playing around the canoe and lining up to see what the big red thing in the river was. After closer inspection, they realized it was a lot of fun to swim under the canoe and push off the bottom of it under the water. I remember watching all the babies chase each other under and around us while feeling the little bumps on the bottom of the canoe as they pushed off it or glided along with the bottom of the canoe. It was so beautiful.
Canoeing safely can be a learning curve for people. Some of the common rules I grew up with were:
1. Don’t overload the canoe. Canoes are built for 1, 2, or 3 people. If you have any gear you need to plan for that in your weight dispersion. A three-person canoe can hold two average weight, full-grown men and their packs plus a bear barrel, a dog and two tents if they didn’t make it into the packs. A three-person canoe can also hold three smaller people a small/medium dog, a few lighter items like camp chairs or a cot and maybe one to two smaller packs.
If our whole household of seven goes canoe-in camping then we take 3 canoes. My 3-4 person behemoth of a lake canoe and my dad’s two smaller 3 person river canoes. My canoe will often handle three people plus our bear barrel, my dog, and my mom’s cot. My mom isn’t able to paddle or sit on the canoe benches for long due to a back and leg injury, so she and Poppy normally sit in the middle against the bear barrel in her canoe chair while someone in the front and back paddle. The other two canoes have two people and the rest of the gear is distributed between them. If it’s just my sister and me in a canoe, then we can handle more gear in ours because we don’t weigh as much as my brothers would in their canoe.
2. Be wise in choppy water. Keep in mind that if the water gets choppy, or you are feeling off-balance for some other reason, it helps to lower your centre of gravity in the canoe. Going from the seat to kneeling on the floor of the canoe can help you balance while paddling significantly more. Sometimes, having the weight of gear can help in situations of rough water, just because it helps to lower your centre of gravity. However, too much weight will leave your gunwales sitting uncomfortably close to the water line.
One advantage to having more than one canoe is that if you find yourselves needing to cross a lake that is particularly choppy, you can use rope, or other items to tie the canoes together, forming a make-shift catamaran style boat. This is not always ideal, but depending on the situation, it is a trick we have used before.
3. Wear a life jacket. I know they are bulky and not the most attractive thing to have but always have a life jacket for every person, and make sure they are properly fitted.
The same goes for dogs. Life jackets and dogs mix very well on the water. The compression of the jacket acts as an anti-anxiety vest. My normally anxious pup will happily hop into the canoe and lay down for a nap once her life jacket is on. Having them on your pup and nearby or on for all human passengers can turn a terrible and unfortunate accident into a funny story that you enjoy retelling one day. If the canoe tips and you hit your head or end up in stormy weather with strong currents, your life jacket is designed to keep your head above water till help comes along.
I have a fishing life jacket because I love the pockets. My jacket has twenty-one pockets and I put them all to good use! I have dog treats, granola bars, sunscreen, a battery bar, lip chap, and normally a map in it. I find it so handy while canoeing. Most my family has switched over to the same type of vest because they loved it so much!
There is also a way to strap your gear into your canoe with rope so that if your canoe does flip you don’t lose any gear to the bottom of the lake. I will make a separate post regarding this as it does take a bit of time and technique.
HIKING
Hiking can be a more leg-heavy activity, as well as a deep core and upper traps workout.
While recovering from the previously mentioned nerve injury, I decided to try hike-in camping. This opened up so much opportunity for me as I could hike in with minimal impact to my arm and once my tent was set up I could leave the rest till my arm had time to recover. There was no need to be unloading everything out of the canoe and hauling it up onto dry land and storing paddles and flipping the canoe over, before finally setting up the tent. It was the perfect way for me to get out and enjoy the wilderness while accommodating where my body was at in its healing process.
Hiking requires us to be a lot more stringent with how and what we pack but because of that the site is much easier to pack up when it’s time to go. With hiking, you have to carry everything you need in one trip. Not only that but you have the weight to think about too. Having a pack that is too heavy can wreck your back, and make you unbalanced while walking which can lead to injury. See here for my pack list and here for how to properly pack a pack.
Hiking can also be cheaper. If you don’t already have a canoe or access to one you can borrow then you are looking at anywhere from $150 to $300 to rent a single canoe for a weekend, on top of your gear investments. With hiking, as long as you have invested in a pack (about $60 for a basic pack), decent hiking boots or shoes ($40- $150), a tent ($100-$300), and a way of cooking food and heating water other than a campfire ($25-$200) you can go hike-in camping for as long as you want. Besides occasional upkeep for stove fuel and new hiking boots, those items will probably last you for years.
A good tent will last you anywhere from 3 to 10 years, depending on the quality and how you take care of it.
Hiking boots should be replaced every 500-800 km, but I would recommend replacing them well before you get to the point where you think, “Hmmm… this might be my last trip with them before they give out.” I ended up with toonie-sized blisters hanging off my feet because I cheaped out before a trip and tried to squeeze one last trip out of my old faithful boots.
A good quality pack can last anywhere from 5 years to 20. The least amount of time I’ve had with a pack was 5 years with it being fixed a few times by yours truly on the trail. My dad has had an 81L pack for 20 years now that’s still going strong.
A stove can run you anywhere from $25 on sale (for a propane stove set up) to $200 or more for a liquid fuel stove system.
Hiking is good for those looking to explore and observe nature and who prefer to be surrounded by trees rather than on a lake.
It is also great for those with anxiety who need to get some energy out. Walking and getting a good sweat going while listening to birds and being surrounded by trees is such a peaceful experience and is great for resetting the mind.
Hiking in can be great for those photography shots you wouldn’t normally get if you were focused on just getting to the site. Hiking forces you to slow down and enjoy the journey. By doing that you tend to observe a lot more about your surroundings that you otherwise might not have seen. You get a chance to look up at the tree canopy and see the birds overhead or stop and watch some deer eat the leaves off berry bushes, or listen for the telltale splash and swish of a moose wading through a marsh area.
One thing to consider: If you’re going to be travelling sites and moving further each day while hiking, then you might take up half or more of each day to travel between sites. Because of this, you need to plan a bit more in advance with hike-in trips. You need to have a plan in place for when you are leaving for your next site and what pace you need to keep in order to get there before dark.
You can also just hike into a spot and stay there for a few nights as well. There’s no rule you have to switch sites every night and sometimes staying put at a site lets you enjoy the wildlife that comes through the area more thoroughly.
Staying safe on the trail looks a bit different when hiking than when you are canoeing. On the trail, you need to watch for big game wildlife more carefully. Having a bear bell with you will prevent most unwanted encounters but there is still going to be the odd experience that will make you stop and think very quickly. If you come across a black bear or moose or any big animal like that and they haven’t seen you yet, give them as much space as possible and remember respectfully that you are in their territory, not the other way around.
The only time I’ve come across something while hiking, I didn’t know it was there or what it was. Matter of fact, I was only alerted to it because my dog started to herd me back and was growling with hair raised and teeth barred at a specific area of the bush we were heading into. I still don’t know what it was but I listened to her, backed off, and waited. I tried to see the animal but didn’t have any luck. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear where it was or any noise it was making due to high winds. After a while of waiting, I knew we needed to get past because of the weather coming in so I made a lot of noise. It was only then that I heard something very big rustling around and moving away from the area quickly. But I still couldn’t catch a glimpse. After a minute or two of very slowly moving towards the area while making a lot of noise, we made it past incident-free, but with Poppy still on high alert.
Most times, the only safety concern I have is falling/tripping which is easily fixed with good footwear and watching your step, as well as keeping a steady, manageable pace.
COMPARING
I find hiking to be easier to plan and get ready for. When hiking in, you just pack your bag, tie your boots and away you go! Canoeing in, you need to get your canoe ready, make sure you have a vehicle that can handle it, make sure it’s strapped on well or arrange for a rental, and then once you get to the lake you need to make sure it’s balanced, and still water ready.
However, if you want more time at the site, canoeing is ultimately the way to go.
Those are my opinions on the canoe vs hike-in debate! Either way, you are going to be surrounded by nature at its finest with no cellphone service or alarm clocks so there’s no wrong choice!
The next post will be up in a few days and we are going to go over packing your gear away properly.
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