Anatomy of a Multi-Day River Trip

I'm currently sitting here at my kitchen table stirring. It's 7:20 am, and we leave for our annual river trip in about 10 hours. See, when Quest for 23 was born it was about this. It was about finding places all around the country and exploring them in hopes of catching something that very few people have tasted. Some people just don't get it when I tell them I will be camping along side a river deep in some wilderness for 4 days, but that's okay, it's understandably not for everyone. I, however, couldnt' think of anything else I would rather be doing.

I have been doing quite a bit of fishing this spring with much success, and I will write about that when we return, but for now I wanted to touch on how I plan for these sorts of trips. It's valuable information that has come with lots of trial and error over the years. I've floated hundreds of miles of rivers doing these multi-day trips, and a lot of them have come with bumps and bruises. With that said, here is my method for planning, prepping, and executing one of these trips:

1. Pick out a destination: This can be equal parts fun and frustrating. Fun from the perspective of doing your research, callling around to locals, looking at satellite views, analyzing geography, all those sorts of things. One tip I do have is calling any local guides nearby and seeing what info they will give up. Some of those guys are super cool, others dont want to talk. I get it, but it's worth a shot. The frustrating part comes with the variables as the trip approaches. Most notably rainfall and flooding has taught me a lesson in backup planning. We always approach these trips with a 3 pronged attack. We pick 3 destinations in each direction of our home. That way, if heavy rainfall occurs there will be at least 1 alternate location that is viable. At this point we aren't detailing routes or anything, just general areas and bodies of water.

2. Pick out a route: This is where experience can really come into play. Judging distances, reading maps, and gathering intel all play into the exact stretch that we want to fish. Google Maps "measuring distance" feature will enable you to measure out a stretch of river to determine where your put-ins and take-outs are. General rule of thumb is planning to float 1 mile for each hour you plan on fishing. This can definitely change though depending on several factors. For example, a very fast moving river will push you downstream faster than you anticipate. I've been on rivers that will almost double that pace unless you are constantly anchoring or using a drag chain. Also, a really wide river (like the Susquehanna) wouldn't need to necessarily do a point-to-point float. That river is so wide you can spend all day fishing a half mile stretch. Once the route is chosen, I mark all points on a GPS app that I use so that I can gauge my position at any point in the trip. This is extremely helpful when picking stopping points throughout the trip. My recommended app for this is Gaia GPS for Iphone and Android.

3. Pack Gear: I like to backpack in the offseason, so my approach is similar when packing for a trip like this. Keep volume low and keep it light. I would rather save my weight for more fishing gear. Although there is more room to pack in a kayak, too much gear can make your kayak very cumbersome and difficult to manuever. I usually pack minimal clothes, with everything being in dry bags, camping gear in my hull or storage hatch, and keep 1 cooler for food. My rule of thumb for packing is if I don't use something on 1 trip that I packed, I don't take it the next time. There are obviously exceptions to this such as a first aid kit, but I've found myself eliminating items over the years that I just NEVER use. My sleeping system is based around hammock, so that tends to be very small. There are lots of cool lightweight things you can buy for camping/backpacking, but it can get expensive real quick. Amazon is your best friend here.

4. Execute the trip: When doing a point-to-point float trip on the river, it requires a shuttle. I've done this numerouse ways. Calling a cab at the end, calling a cab at the beginning, hiring a shuttle service. Hell, I've even brought a bicycle and pedaled back after leaving my car at the end point. Depending on the distance your traveling, the easiest thing is to just take 2 cars. We usually have 4-5 guys on these trips, so it's generally not a problem. The headache of waiting on a cab to arrive can be infuriating. Most of the time these are in very rural areas, and these guys aren't Uber to say the least. I've had trips seriously delayed and/or almost ruined from relying on a 3rd party for transportation. That's why we almost always take 2 vehicles now. Drop off gear at put-in with a couple of the guys. Take both cars to take-out, park one and taxi everyone in the other car back to the put-in. It's that simple.

This is a very general outline to how these trips go. I've gotten better at it through the years, and there are things I definitely left out. Feel free to shoot me a message if you want to do something similar. I'm always glad to help, even with smallmouth destination suggestions. Well, now it's more like 9 hours to go time. I need to pack!