Northern Forest Canoe Trail- the Gear (updated)

Edit as of 7/4/24:

Now that we're halfway on the NFCT we've made quite a few changes to our gear since beginning. After crossing into Vermont we quickly realized we needed to downsize... big time. What we thought was a canoe trip is actually more like thru hiking with a canoe. Since we've started there's only been two days that we haven't portaged at least once and we've done as much as a 20 mile road portage at once. We have lightened our load significantly and the following are things I've changed or gotten rid of completely from my set-up:

Clothing (worn):

My cheap Target shorts are pissing me off. I have never once been able to find a pair of shorts that are satisfactory for any thru hike. My thighs eat these things up like the cookie monster. Many women have suggested Janji shorts to me and said they are lifechanging. I might buy a pair in the future. For now I'll just suffer.

My REI sun hoodie feels too thick and is basically a sweatbox. I exchanged it at REI for a Patagonia capilene sun hoodie and it's like night and day. I love it.

Clothing (packed):

Ditched the beanie, it has never been cold enough for it. Ditched the Altera alpaca gloves because I've only ever needed my NRS neoprene gloves. I've added a Frogg Togg rain poncho to my rain set up because being out in the middle of a lake during a downpour is so different than hiking in a protected forest in the rain. The poncho over top of my other rain gear really helps keep me dry and allows me to check my phone for navigation without it getting soaked. My poor puffy zipper has finally bit the dust after 6 years of use. I'm keeping it though because my other puffy is at home in PA. My favorite piece of clothing out of this section has been my blue cotton hippie pants. They are so comfy to sleep in, so nice to wear when its warm but I want protection from mosquitoes and nice for chilly mornings when I just need a light layer.

ULA Catalyst:

I switched from my 0 degree down quilt to my 40 degree synthetic quilt. It's been pretty warm at night, so far there's only been 2 nights that I woke up shivering and just had to put more clothes on to be comfortable. My poor Thermarest finally gave out on me after 6 years as well (all my 2018 gear is finally biting the dust RIP). I bought a new NeoAir NXT to replace it as well as one of those tiny pump electric pumps by Flextail because I truly do dread blowing that thing up every night. (Thanks Cordell for letting me try yours and selling me on it). My Sea to Summit dry bag hasn't failed me once and I love it. The boat has been full of water and my backpack soaked and everything in it stays totally dry thanks to this thing.

Small Personal Dry Bag:

Haven't changed anything up here. Go me.

Electronics:

We switched out one of the 26,800 battery packs with a smaller 10,000 maH pack. Ditched my collapsible tripod. So happy to have my Kindle as always.

Toiletries, First Aid, Etc:

Ditched my Tempdrop. I love tracking my cycle but it isn't really necessary and I found I wasn't wearing my Tempdrop at night because I want as little touching my body as possible during the night when I'm already feeling uncomfortable due to sunburn, bug bites, etc.

Cooking:

LOL @ us for the grill grate and charcoal. I'm really glad we started out with it because we had a bomb first night meal of steak and fresh caught salmon but that was one of the first things we got rid of. The cutting board lasted a little longer but is gone too. We ditched the pan and now only have the pot. My MSR Pocketrocket died way back in Saranac Lake so we had to buy a GSI Glacier camp stove which was only $30 and is actually *really* nice for canoe camping.

Shelters:

Snapped two poles on the poor Alps Tent (seriously we've had so many gear failures out there LOL), bit the bullet and bought a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 and we absolutely love it. It is so big. So many pockets. Our dream canoeing tent. Ditched the hammock bug net because I will never sleep in it and if the bugs are bad I just get in the tent.

Other:

The watercolor set was unfortunately one of the first things to go :-( absolutely no time or energy to paint. Cooler is a goner. Too much to mess with, don't need something else to carry and we walk past general stores enough that it's easy to grab some cold drinks at least twice a week. Nomadix towel has been one of my favorite pieces of gear. It absorbs so much water even when it's wet and dries in no time, even on a cloudy day.

Last Minute Gear Additions:

Have kept all of these. I barely use the sun gloves but there have been days when we've been exposed all day long and they've definitely come in handy. The Thermacell is a necessary piece of gear for me. It works *so well* and keeps me sane. If the bugs are bad I set it up first thing and within 15 minutes when I have the rest of camp set up I now have a pretty much bug free protective circle around me. The Zoleo has worked really well too. It can be hard to find signal in really dense treecover but it hasn't failed me yet. Being able to check the weather report with no service is really helpful. My poor fairy lights haven't got much use but I'm not getting rid of them. Hoping some nicer/easier days in Maine will lead to me feeling like setting them up instead of collapsing in bed. The guidebook we left behind this last section. It's actually pretty annoying to me that they write it/assume people will shuttle around and go downstream on the upstream sections, making it confusing and hard to follow. We might bring it back for Maine.

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One of the best parts of canoeing is the amount of gear you can carry- our Wenonah Minnesota II can comfortably hold hundreds of pounds. However, there are 70+ miles of portaging (this number will actually be higher for us depending on how much of the upstream paddling we decide to portage around), which means at certain points we'll be carrying everything in the canoe AND the canoe for those miles. I've tried to keep this in mind while deciding on gear. In the backpacking world you're trying to be as light as possible, weighing out pieces of clothing to see if you can cut a few ounces. I started out with this same method when packing for the NFCT before giving up and deciding to bring things that are 1. comfortable and 2. make me happy.

The thru hiker in me definitely cringes when I think about the fact that we are bringing a 6 lb tent, a hammock and bug net each, and a 10x10 tarp. All of these things don't add up to much though in the canoeing world and we want to have the most fun out there and set up the best campsites.

Clothing (worn)

I finally bought a sun hoodie for this trip. I've been debating buying one for years and now that I have it I totally wish I'd had it for the AZT. For the most part on the river I'll be wearing my REI sun hoodie, a pair of shorts from target, my Bedrock sandals, comfy target sports bra, pair of Exofficio underwear, and my ULA fanny pack.

Clothing (packed)

For cold weather: a pair of minus 33 base layer bottoms, Senchi pants, Altera alpaca gloves, 2 pairs of socks (1 lightweight, 1 midweight), Mountain Hardware puffy, Senchi, Carhart beanie. For rain: Columbia rain pants and Frogg Togg rain jacket. Extra fun clothing: patagonia dress, lightweight pants, a cotton REI shirt. Other clothing: 1 spare sports bra, 1 spare pair of underwear, bikini bottoms, and a pair of Altras for portages.

ULA Catalyst (acting as my portage bag)

This will hold my 0 degree Enlightened Equipment convert quilt (I'm a cold sleeper), my Thermarest Neoair, Sea to Summit pillow (with pink silk pillowcase hehe), a 10 piece Z Lite as a sit/lay pad, as well as all of my clothing, electronics, etc. and will be lined with a 65 liter Sea to Summit dry bag.

Small Personal Dry Bag (kept up front with me)

Baby wipes, wallet, bug net, bug spray, sunscreen, water filter, binoculars, spork, JBL speaker, goggles, knife, and Nalgene

Electronics

Three 26,800 mAh Anker battery packs, headphones, collapsible tripod (not pictured), Kindle Paperwhite, remote shutter, travel keyboard (let’s see if this thing actually helps me keep up with my blog out there lol) and all cords

Toiletries, First Aid, Etc

Mirror, face sunscreen, cleanser, organic tampons, shampoo/conditioner, Thermarest repair kit, toothbrush and toothpaste, all medications & first aid kit (I'm bringing a literal pharmacy- breakdown below), cotton disposable towels, chapstick, hair brush, hair scrunchies, emergency blanket, TriCalm for bug bites/poison ivy, leukotape, tweezers, Vaseline, and Tempdrop. For some reason I also keep my tiny Tarot cards with these items.

First Aid

This might not look like much of a First Aid kit, but compared to what I bring when backpacking, it’s a lot. On the AT you can almost always get to a road crossing and to town every single day but on the river that won’t always be possible.

Melatonin, Aleve, Tums, loperamide, triple antibiotic, alcohol pads, Tricalm, Azo, cold/flu medicine, cramp bark (for menstrual or muscle cramps), allergy medicine, burn cream, bandaids, Leukotape.

Cooking

Henry cooks me the most amazing meals daily and we’re planning on eating some yummier, fresher food out there than we would if we were backpacking. With the cooler we’ll be able to pack out some meat out of town as well as some fruits and veggies. We’re bringing a Weber grate and a small bag of charcoal for meat and any fish he catches. As well as my MSR Pocket Rocket, big fuel canister, Cochlan pot and pan, an aeropress for coffee, and a small cutting board we got for 50 cents at the thrift store.

Shelters

Alps Mountaineering tent (random car camping tent I've had since I was 16), Enos hammock, Enos guardian bug net, tarp, stakes, Tyvek ground sheet

Other

Watercolor set and notebook, NPS women's Ninja PFD with whistle, journal and pen, Bending Branches paddle, ZRE paddle, fishing rod, Nomadix towel, Ice Mule cooler bag

Last Minute Gear Additions

Since I started making this post I’ve bought more gear 😬 I’ve really tried to use gear that I already had as much as I could but I also want this to be the best trip ever and don’t want to sacrifice important things.

In the last week before starting I bought:

A Thermacell mosquito repeller, neoprene socks, neoprene gloves, paddling gloves (which were on sale at REI for $10- score), Luminaid fairy lights because I am a fairy 🧚, a Zoleo satellite beacon, andddd a guidebook 😆 The trail is on Guthook but we figured it would be helpful to have a guidebook as well.