Recently I had two friends from Montana come out to Oregon for a little spring break kayaking trip. We decided to travel south and paddle the Illinois River. The stretch we paddled was a thirty-three mile stretch and we did it as an overnighter. I'm planning on doing some California overnighters this summer so I was eager to try out the Magnum as an overnighter creek boat. As you can tell I didn't hold back on gear for this trip. I was able to fit all this in my boat and the Magnum paddled good as ever.
A list of what went inside the Magnum:
Two person tent, therma rest, two Watershed Chattooga dry bags, one Watershed Ocoee dry bag, Aquabound break down paddle, sleeping bag, and a water filtration unit. I purposely packed way more than I needed to get a feel for how the Magnum would preform under these conditions. I was able to store all this in the stern and in my lap. I didn't even bother with bow storage. The boat paddled wonderful too!
The Riot Magnum's storage system is as good as any kayak I have seen. The backband is designed to lay down or be completely removed to allow major access to the stern. I was able to fit two Watershed Chattooga drybags, a break down paddle, and a tent behind the seat without removing the backband. Laying the backband down like this takes about five seconds. It's a wonderful design.
My favorite part of overnights is hanging out with my friends at camp and knowing that you can kakak the next morning without driving anywhere.
We didn't get any photos from this run but we did score a bit of video and I'll post it later. If you are looking for a creekboat and planning on doing overnighters I would highly suggest taking the Magnum for a test drive.
-J. Aytes
Saturday, June 16, 2007
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