Did you ever consider taking a wilderness canoe and camping trip on your next vacation? How about a kayak and camping trip? Better yet, why not try “Kaynoeing?”

Paddling and camping is a growing recreational pastime, and each time he takes a paddling trip, Russ Nunziata finds more and more camping enthusiasts also enjoying his favorite stomping grounds. The kind of camping Russ enjoys is not the type where you go to a campground and unpack your gear and set up camp next to your vehicle. He prefers to enter remote wilderness areas and camp on state-owned territory miles from the nearest road, phone, or gas grill.

 

Russell Nunziata coined the word “kaynoeing” for his specific style of paddling in a kayak in canoe-country. Russ feels that kayaking and camping in canoe country is the ultimate, life-changing relaxation experience. The best part is, it is inexpensive. He wants to share his knowledge and open the doors to city dwellers and anyone else that might not have thought it possible to experience paddling in the wilderness. If you are lured by the thought of water, mountains, streams, and tranquility, whether you live in or out of the city, Russ urges new paddlers, as well as experienced canoeists, sea, and whitewater kayakers, and all those who have never even remotely considered such water adventures, to give it a try.

 

When moving the boat in and out of water, one usually must unpack the kayak and backpack the gear AND carry the kayak in order to get to the next water destination. Sometimes it takes several to trips to move all the gear, due to weight and volume. Sounds challenging. Many of his paddling trips involved physically hauling (portaging) gear along with carrying his kayak along navigated routes in order to arrive at the next stream or lake planned along the way.

Russ invented a special portaging sling to allow all the gear that fits into a kayak to be packed onto an external backpack frame, so it is possible for a single person to carry the kayak AND all the gear that fits within the boat.

Russ’ portage sling allows men as well as women to easily portage their own gear and kayak all at once., provided they are in reasonably good shape. A typical kayak is constructed of Kevlar, fiberglass resins or plastic, and some can be as light as 23 pounds, but they can also prove to be cumbersome. A two man kayak, or K2, can be as long as 17 feet—sometimes longer, thus tricky to portage as one navigates the wilderness.