Planning any trip can be stressful. Flights can get delayed (or canceled), flat tires and road closures can add hours onto drive times, weather can (and usually will) change, and this doesn’t even touch on the human factor of even the best-laid plans.
My planning for this particular SUP camping trip started months earlier and continued to change right up until we stepped onto our paddleboards.
Was it the exact trip I had in mind back in December? Absolutely not. Was it still an amazing experience that I’m glad I was able to take part in? Absolutely yes.
The Trip That Wasn’t
I’ve been eyeballing a float trip through Labyrinth Canyon near Canyonlands National Park, UT, for years. In late 2022 I started to put that trip into motion for spring break 2023 (when you’re married to a teacher, you tend to think in school-year calendars!). Google docs were created, guide books ordered, and friends and family invited to join me on this 5 day paddling trip. But no matter how hard I tried, it just wouldn’t come together.
Out of 20 invitations (25 people is the maximum group size), I had 4 confirmations (plus my wife and I). As luck would have it, one of those couples had to drop out for personal reasons and the other couple got sick the month before the trip and unfortunately had to burn through their vacation time to recover.
That left my wife and I to paddle this trip on our own. As experienced paddlers and campers, we weren’t too worried about paddling it as a duo, and up until 4 days before the trip we were ready to go. Then the weather forecast changed and we were now expecting multiple days of high winds that would ultimately make it dangerous to attempt on our own.
I was essentially breaking out the corkboard and red yarn to try to piece together weather forecasts from all over the area, alternate plans for daily mileage, and even a possible 1 mile portage to cut out 6 miles of paddling on the windiest day to try and make this trip happen. In hiking and climbing we call this mentality “Summit Fever” – where you get so close to something you want that you begin to ignore risks to try and reach that ultimate goal.
After days of deliberation we finally canceled our plans for Labyrinth Canyon and began looking for alternative locations for our spring break paddling. We checked weather forecasts, web-scouted possible trip ideas, and called around to a few places before deciding to head west to Arizona.
Be Ready for Plan B… and Plan C… and Plan D
If the best-laid plans don’t work, there’s a good chance that the hastily-revised ones may need some tweaking as well. Our original plan was to paddle camp at Roosevelt Lake. We talked to a few locals and were asked “why there? It’s basically desolate and exposed.” Google Maps views are only so helpful. Okay, scratch that one. Their recommendation was for Apache Lake – the next lake down river on what I’m calling the Salt River Lake Complex (four lakes created by successive dams on the Salt River in Arizona). Apache lake it is! We map-scouted a few possible campsites along the shore and set off the next morning. While we knew it would be a rainy morning, what we didn’t know is that the road we were on was closed about 10 miles before Apache Lake. Google Maps didn’t know that either. With the only reasonable route to Apache Lake blocked (we could get there if we drove almost halfway home and came in from the other side of a mountain range), we set our sights on Plan D: Saguaro Lake.
The theme of this trip is definitely turning out to be “go with the flow.” After another hour of driving we pulled into the Butcher Jones Recreation Area. It was still drizzling, but by the time we inflated our SUPs and ate a little lunch, the rain had pretty much stopped.
Gearing Up and Setting Out
For this trip we picked two touring-style iSUPs. We wanted good efficiency over the flat* water of Saguaro Lake, but still needed enough stability and capacity to carry all of our camping supplies. We picked the Hydrus Paradise and the Thurso Expedition 150. They aren’t quite the fastest boards around (but certainly aren’t slow!), but they do an excellent job of keeping their speed while packing everything we needed and still feeling confident on the water.
*Saguaro Lake can definitely get choppy with afternoon winds and motorboat traffic – especially in the more constricted areas of the lake.
Most of our equipment was packed into two large dry bags. The Sea-to-Summit Hydraulic 65L and Big River 75L dry packs were able to easily pack our tent, sleeping bags and pad, clothing, shoes, and other camping essentials. We also used a Sea Gods 30L dry bag backpack to hold our food and cook kit, and a Watershed Futa dry bag to hold our toilet and fire system. The last odds and ends we brought were a 10L Watercell X by Sea to Summit (for easy access to potable water) and a few small dry bags for our own daily essentials and camera equipment.
An essential part of packing your SUP for a camping trip is making sure everything you bring is secured and “rigged to flip.” This is an old rafting adage that basically means all of your equipment should be tied down securely and tightly enough that if you flip your boat over your gear will stay in place. The opposite of rigging to flip is what I call a “yard sale.” I’ll let you imagine that one on your own.
Rather than relying on the bungee cords for our critical equipment, we used a combination of 9’ NRS Loop Straps and Sea-to-Summit Accessory Straps for securing our gear.
After making sure we had everything, then realizing we left our paddling shoes/booties at our AirBnB (but had our neoprene socks!), we finally pushed off from shore and began our paddling trip.
Paddling with Loaded Boards and in the Rain
How you load your board is just as important as getting everything tied down. You want to keep the heaviest items lowest on the board and try to reduce the overall “height” of your equipment. Loaded paddleboards tend to get a little more twitchy on the water. They are very stable when flat, but when they tilt one way or the other, they like to quickly flatten back out. This can make the board feel a little less stable as you paddle. After a few minutes you do get used to the feeling, though, and it essentially becomes part of the background of your trip.
We started our trip in a light drizzle (and paddled the whole previous day in a fairly steady light rain). While wind can really turn a day on the water into a challenge, rain on its own really doesn’t make things more complicated by itself. However being wet from rain (plus the sun-blocking clouds) can make you quite cold and sap your energy. To combat this you can wear warmer paddling clothes like wetsuits, or you can wear rain gear – or both!
We opted for a combination of neoprene pants and socks with a high-quality rain jacket. This worked really well for us during the first mile of the trip, and changing out of the rain jacket was a simple matter of kneeling on the board for a few minutes, unzipping the coat, and then stuffing it under the straps holding our dry bags.
Once the rain stopped the clouds began to part and we could really soak in the lovely scenery around us. There were wildflowers blooming among the cactus, a myriad of waterfowl and marsh birds flying around, and just beautiful canyon and rolling hill scenery around each bend. Because the day had started with quite a bit of rain, the lake was mostly devoid of day-use boaters and skiers (though there were still plenty of anglers out), and the paddle itself was quite calm.
Even though the lake was mostly quiet, it was still important to be aware of our surroundings. Fast moving ski and fishing boats – and even a lake-cruising ferry boat – were constantly driving around and generating a good amount of wake. In the narrower portions of the lake, the boat wake would echo off the steep rock walls and bounce you around from every direction.
Finding the Perfect Camping Spot
We planned to paddle anywhere from 3.5-5 miles that afternoon to find a suitable campsite. Google Maps and Google Earth are very handy tools in finding potential locations to camp, but with satellite images that can be a few years old and record-breaking flows in the nearby rivers, things can certainly change.
As we rounded a bend in the lake around mile 3.5 (this is a dammed section of the Salt River, so it does bend around like a river), we saw what looked like a few beaches not too far ahead. We weren’t really close enough to make out many details, but we picked one that looked “good” (whatever that meant at the time!) and headed toward it. A half mile later we landed on the beach and discovered that our initial assessment was absolutely correct.
We picked a spot with easy access to the lake and a very short walk that took us about three feet above the water line to a small stand of trees. We also found that we weren’t the first ones to like this spot for a campsite, either. There were three different fire scars on the ground already (two of which were only 20 feet apart), and, unfortunately, a fair amount of trash amongst the trees, bushes, and flowers.
Setting Up Camp
After securing our paddleboards on the beach (totally up out of the water in case the lake levels rose overnight), the first thing we did was set up a clothesline to let our rain gear and paddling clothes dry in the afternoon sun. Having put on wet, near-freezing, paddling clothes multiple times on previous paddle camping trips, I absolutely welcome the idea of stopping with enough sunlight to actually dry your clothes before the next day!
With the clothesline hung, we went about setting up our tent, a quick tarp shelter, and our fire pit.
For a tent we used a two-person backpacking tent – which, let’s be honest, is barely enough room for two people. We also set up a tarp shelter using a 5×7 plastic tarp, a few stakes, and our SUP paddles as upright supports. We could use this tarp shelter to extend the livable space of our tent’s vestibule or create a small shelter at our campfire to use as a dry kitchen if the rain hadn’t subsided. Instead we used it as a small “garage” for our dry bags to help keep everything organized in one area.
For a fire pit we brought along the firepan from our Pop Up Pit. This is a handy little device that has folding legs and a steel mesh bottom with aluminum sides. It collapses down to the size of a folding camp chair, but gives you a 24” x 24” fire pan when set up. To save space we left the legs at home and just brought the fire pan section. We set it up on one of the existing fire scars to help minimize the impact from our stay. We also brought with us a 3-hour fire log. These little compressed wood-fiber logs are an easily-packable solution when gathering firewood either isn’t allowed or isn’t feasible.
Dinner, Sunset, and Sleep
With the campsite set up and us changed into some warm, dry clothes, we turned our attention to a very important question – what’s for dinner?
Since this was a short and light camping trip, we brought backpacking-style dehydrated meals with us for dinner (and breakfast). When I started backpacking as a kid, there were really only about 4 flavors of dehydrated backpacking meals (mmmm… chili mac). Nowadays you have your pick of cuisine for every flavor and diet – and I love it! We fired up a pot of water in our Sea-to-Summit X-Pot Kettle on our backpacking stove and in just a couple of minutes we were ready to wait for our dinner! We chose a Mole Sauce with Chicken and Rice, and a Beef Shepherd’s Pie. Tear open the bags, remove the desiccant packet, pour in the specified amount of boiling water (you can measure it, use a fill indicator on the bag if there is one, or eyeball it). Zip the bag back up, and 20 minutes later you’ve got a delicious, re-hydrated, meal. Really! These things have come a long way in the last 20+ years I’ve been using them. The Shepherd’s Pie was good, but the Mole Sauce was *chef’s kiss*.
Sea-to-Summit’s line of pop-up cook and dinner ware is seriously awesome. I’ve never had such a complete, compact set of pots, pans, plates, bowls, and cups. Sure I’ve gone lighter and smaller, but only by completely removing items (using the same cup for boiling, cooking, and drinking your morning coffee isn’t as appetizing as it sounds). But one, super secret, item that I highly recommend to anyone who uses dehydrated meals is the “Spork Long”. Getting your dehydrated meal properly mixed up before it cooks is super important. The Spork Long (That’s what my wife and I refer to it as, Sea-to-Summit calls it the Alpha Spork, but I think “Spork Long” is much more fun to say and to the point) gives you the reach you need to get all the good flavor bits that hide out in the bottom corners of the bag without getting your fingers in your food. It’s also super handy for scraping the bottom of the bag if you are eating straight out of it instead of using a plate or bowl. And it fits perfectly in the storage bag for the three-piece X-Set (collapsible plate, bowl, and mug).
Of course there’s nothing better to match your dinner with than a lovely, wildlife-filled sunset. Watching a Great Blue Heron fishing for his dinner just a few yards from where you are enjoying yours is a truly awesome experience.
But a glass of wine and dessert doesn’t hurt either! A three-glass paper carton of wine and a bar of dark chocolate make a great sharable treat that packs very easily.
With dinner cleaned up, the sun set complete behind the western cliffs, and the stars shining overhead, it’s time to settle in for the night. The low for us that night was about 40° F. Granted, this is about 10 degrees warmer than what we were originally planning for with our Labyrinth Canyon trip, so I guess I can’t complain too much! We made the decision to use a double-wide inflatable sleeping pad. I’m so glad we did! Rather than limiting ourselves to the narrow realm of a 22” wide backpacking pad, we were able to completely cover the floor of the tent with 3” of comfortable air-filled chambers. Our backpacking mummy bags (25F rating) and an extra backpacking quilt completed our sleep system for the night. The extra coverage at the head from a mummy bag really helps trap heat – and I use it to ball up my down jacket to use as a pillow. It didn’t take long after crawling into our sleeping bags that we were both sound asleep.
Paddling Out
The next morning we basically repeated the previous day in reverse. We started the day by making coffee and breakfast (dehydrated egg, sausage, and hashbrown skillet with a fresh tortilla). We cleaned up our dishes and filled our water bottles (an easy task thanks to the 10L Watercell X we brought along), and started tearing down our campsite.
Repacking bags is always a bit of a trip for me. I know I had everything in there the day before, but for some reason I can’t seem to fully remember how I had it in there! But, I know that this happens almost every time. Even if I do remember where everything goes, maybe I’m not as careful when folding/rolling clothes or stuffing my sleeping bag into its compression sack, so things may not fit quite as well as before. So instead of packing my bags to their fullest at the start of the trip I always try to leave some extra space in my dry bags on their initial packing. With the 65L Hydraulic and 75L Big River dry bags, we had plenty of room for all of our large, important items. After finding a home for everything, we loaded our boards (rigged to flip!) and did a final sweep of the campsite.
Along with our regular camping gear, we also brought a brewer’s grain sack with us. This large bag has a waterproof liner, but packs down quite small when empty. We use these bags (you can get them from your local brewery for free just by asking!) to carry all of our trash, and the ashes from our campfire. While not explicitly required at this location, many excellent paddling locations do require full Leave No Trace camping. We also took the time to pick up as much trash as we could from the campsite that wasn’t ours. In all we packed out between 10-15 lbs of extra trash. Please remember to pack out all of your waste from any campsite. Nobody likes looking at old bottle caps and forgotten socks.
We pushed off from our campsite and turned our boards back “down river” around 10:30 in the morning. The sun was shining, the winds were calm, the birds were singing and feeding, and the boaters were out in force. While the previous day’s rain had kept many off the lake, that was definitely not the case this time around. With lots and lots of anglers, skiers, and PWC users it was important to keep our heads on a swivel and watch for traffic as we paddled back. I may have tried to surf a boat wake and ended up going for a swim. Apparently it’s much harder to surf a loaded SUP. But that’s why we rig to flip! Once I had my board back upright everything was right where I left it, I got back up on the board, and we were once again on our way.
Our paddle back was just as beautiful (though choppier) as our paddle out. After a few hours of casual paddling, the Butcher Jones beach was in sight and our SUP camping trip was coming to an end.
Saguaro Lake SUP Camping – Final Thoughts
This was such a beautiful trip. Even though it wasn’t our first, second, or even third choice originally, Saguaro Lake has jumped way up onto our list of favorite paddling spots. What would we do differently next time? Well, I’d try not to leave our water shoes behind, but honestly it really wasn’t bad paddling in just our neoprene socks. I’d like to explore farther up the lake as well. We paddled about 4 miles to our campsite, but the lake stretches for many more miles up the Salt River. Overall this was a wonderful trip. If you asked me to go again next weekend I would start packing my bags today. There’s something about taking on the challenge of paddling to your campsite that amplifies everything. Whether you are doing a long-distance river trip or a short overnight on your local lake, SUP camping is a truly unique experience.