I usually think of a canoeing trip as a way to get away from all of the technology and noise, but there are some gadgets that are too useful or important to leave behind completely. Some gadgets are just convenient, but others could mean the difference between life and death in a real emergency.
A Smartphone Is My Constant Camping Companion
A smartphone is my must-have camping companion—the number of utilities they offer is unparalleled.
The feature that gets the most use is the camera, mostly snapping photos of wildlife, my friends, and the landscape.
I Upgrade My Smartphone for the Camera (And You Should Too)
Phones long ago replaced point and shoot cameras. Now they’re giving DSLRs a run for their money.
However, there are a few apps I’ve come to love as well.
Merlin is a bird identification app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If you like identifying birds, there is no substitute. You can even download all the files you need for bird identification in advance so you don’t use up your cellular data. It is available for both iOS and Android.
Google Lens is another great app to have on hand, especially if you have service, and you’re curious about plants. It can’t perfectly identify plants all the time, but it usually presents a handful of options that will get you on the right track. Google Lens is available for Android as a standalone app, but on iOS you’ll need to install the Google app instead.
Never use Google Lens to identify whether a plant is edible or not.
OnX is another app I’ve come to use frequently. It lets me see who owns nearby land, so I can know whether camping is permissible. This isn’t always necessary depending on where you are, but if you’re canoeing down a waterway that passes through land with mixed ownership, like state forests, national parks, native territory, and privately held land, it is absolutely essential.
It isn’t free, but I’ll typically subscribe on an as-needed basis.
A Smartphone Could Save Your Life
A smartphone is also an important safety tool. Every smartphone out there has a GPS, and that could mean the difference between life and death if you get lost.
GPS doesn’t actually require cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity to work, your phone just needs to be able to receive signals from the correct satellites in orbit. So long as you’re not in a cave or under something else that blocks the signals, it’ll work pretty much anywhere on the planet. That means you’ll pretty much always be able to orient yourself, even if you can’t see the Sun.
Just make sure to download the relevant maps for offline use before you begin your camping excursion, since you’ll otherwise be working with a blank screen instead of a detailed image.
Top-end phones can also send messages to emergency services via satellite, which means there is a good chance you’ll be able to contact help if you need it.
Xfinity and Spectrum Mobile Plans Gain Emergency Satellite Messaging
Unfortunately, this emergency messaging service requires a compatible smartphone.
A Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
Many canoe trips I take follow populated waterways, so there isn’t as much etiquette about music as there is in more remote places—just don’t be obnoxious.
I’ve been carrying an Anker Soundcore Flare+ (now Soundcore) for years. It is waterproof, floats, and has a small light on the bottom so you can find it in the dark if necessary.
Sometimes some music provides a welcome break in the silence after you’ve been paddling for a few hours. That specific model has been discontinued, but the Soundcore Motion 300—which can be immersed in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes—is the spiritual successor. I wouldn’t test whether it floats or not, however.
Anker Soundcore Motion 300
$56 $80 Save
$24
The Soundcore Motion 300 is a good-sounding compact Bluetooth speaker with a solid, waterproof build, speakerphone support, and custom EQ, all for the low price that this line is known for.
Lights For Every Occasion
I do my best to avoid working around camp or canoeing in the dark, but sometimes it is a necessity.
To that end, I carry three LED lights, each with a different purpose.
- A rechargeable headlamp for walking around, cooking hot dogs late at night, and so on.
- A rechargeable handheld flashlight for when I need a ton of light.
- A small light to provide illumination in my tent.
All the lights can be recharged with a portable battery bank in a pinch, though it isn’t usually necessary. Unfortunately, both the flashlight and my headlamp are micro USB, which means I need to carry both USB-C and micro-USB cables. The amount of outdoor gear that still uses micro-USB is a bit surprising, given how ubiquitous USB-C has become in most other tech. When the headlamp and flashlight get replaced, USB-C will be non-negotiable for me. I’d recommend keeping an eye on that when you’re buying anything.
The tent light, an MPOWERED Luci candle, is my favorite. It is inflatable and packs down to a small disk about an inch thick, which makes it easy to transport. Additionally, it also has a small solar panel on it, and I’ve found keeping it attached to the outside of my pack all day is enough to keep it topped off.
MPOWERD Luci Candle: Solar Inflatable Light
$18 $20 Save
$2
The Luci Candle is a small solar light that can be inflated when you want to use it, or collapsed for easier transport. The light is warmly colored and convincingly mimics the flickering of a real candle.
- Power Source
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Solar Power or USB-C
- Waterproof
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Yes
More Batteries Than I Think I Need
None of our modern gadgets and gizmos work without electricity, so the most important thing I pack is a generous helping of batteries. I find it helpful to start with a quick estimate of how much power my devices need, and how long I’ll be out.
My phone, a Pixel 8 Pro, has a 5000 mAh battery. My headlamp’s battery is about 2400 mAh. The longest excursion I’ve taken with both is one week.
What Is mAh, and How Does It Affect Batteries and Chargers?
What mAh will and won’t tell you about a portable charger.
My phone doesn’t ordinarily see much use while I’m canoeing, other than to snap photos of the animals or use the Merlin app to identify a bird, so I usually leave it on extreme power saving mode the entire time. In that situation, I only had to give it a complete charge once, though it was nearly depleted by the time I finally crawled into my car at the end of the seventh day. To be safe, let’s say I need to charge my phone twice per week, some 10,000 mAh.
I try to avoid doing much at night while camping, and my headlamp sees less than 20 minutes of use per day. I didn’t have to charge my headlamp a single time—it was fine by the end of the trip. However, I cautiously assume I’ll need to charge it twice per week, just in case I need set up camp in the dark.
That brings my total needed battery capacity to about 15,000 mAh. To be safe, I carry three 10,000 mAh batteries from Anker, which gives me roughly double what I expect to need. The exact model isn’t available anymore, but they’re pretty much identical to Anker’s 313 Power Bank.
Anker PowerCore Slim 10000 Portable Charger
$15 $22 Save
$7
I opted for multiple, smaller batteries for one big reason: redundancy.
On any given canoeing trip, there is a very real chance that any tech you bring along will get wet. One big battery means I have no backups should the battery (or, if I’m very unlucky, my entire bag) go for a swim.
Additionally, these aren’t Anker’s top-shelf batteries. They don’t support the fastest charging standards like more expensive batteries do, and they lack the fancy charging indicators on many of the more expensive models. Why? It boils down to risk.
Even in the best circumstances, these batteries are likely to be exposed to splashes, drops, mud, rain, sand, gravel, and a whole host of other conditions portable batteries really aren’t designed for.
Though I’ve never had it happen, I can easily imagine a situation where an accident could turn one into an expensive paperweight. Losing a 20-dollar battery, like the Anker 313 Power Bank, is a bummer, but losing a 100-dollar battery, like the Anker 737 Power Bank, would be pretty infuriating.
An Old School AM/FM Radio
Despite my best plans, it is always possible my phone might die, or I’ll be somewhere that doesn’t have any cell service.
In those situations, it pays to have an AM/FM radio on hand to catch important information like weather forecasts, burn bans (which may or may not be relevant depending on location and season), or other critical information.
This was a lesson I learned the hard way. I once spent four cold, miserable days without a fire following a burn ban, only to learn it had been lifted at the end of the first day. If I’d had a radio, I would have been much warmer. I’ve been carrying an old Radioshack radio ever since. You don’t need anything fancy, just about any AM/FM radio will do.
While they aren’t tech gadgets, I’d also recommend dry bags or other waterproof containers for your electronics. Your phone or speaker might have an IP67 waterproof rating (or better), but do you really want to put that to the test? Do you want to risk a waterlogged but functional headlamp?
