The Inside Passage: How Sam Traylor Fueled His Kayak Expedition

The Inside Passage stretches over 1,000 miles from Washington State to Southeast Alaska - a labyrinth of protected waterways, remote islands, and some of the most pristine wilderness on the Pacific coast. For sea kayakers, completing this route is a crown jewel achievement, comparable to thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

This past summer, professional guide and outdoor athlete Sam Traylor set out to complete the final leg of a multi-year project to paddle the entire corridor. Over 54 days, he and his paddle partner Austin paddled from Lund, British Columbia, to Wrangell, Alaska, navigating tidal crossings, grizzly territory, and one particularly hairy storm that tested everything they brought.

The Logistics of a Two-Month Kayak Expedition

Long-distance sea kayaking presents a unique nutrition challenge. Unlike backpacking, weight isn't the primary constraint where high-volume touring kayaks can carry weeks of provisions. The real limiting factors are time and preparation.

"Typically, when you're packing for cold waters like the Inside Passage, you can keep foods like cheese and salami for a long time," Sam explains. "It's less a question of will things perish and more a question of how much time do you want to spend cooking these things."

The morning routine on an expedition like this can easily consume hours. Fire up the stove, boil water, cook breakfast, eat, clean up, pack the kayak. For paddlers trying to cover ground or in Sam's case, cover water - that time adds up fast.

This is where backcountry nutrition strategy becomes critical. Sam had been introduced to RecPak about a year and a half prior through a mutual friend and had tested it extensively in the field. For the Inside Passage, he made it his primary breakfast fuel.

"I was eating RecPak for breakfast every morning. Instead of firing up my Whisperlite stove and cooking a meal of hash browns or oatmeal or whatever... I would roll out of bed, pack my boat, get on the water, and then have a RecPak or two for breakfast and brunch."

The time savings were substantial. "What typically takes anywhere from one to three hours was more like 40 to 60 minutes."

When Weather Turns: RecPak as Emergency Fuel

Day 50-something brought the expedition's only serious weather event. After waiting out an atmospheric river in Ketchikan, the team launched into marginal conditions that deteriorated quickly. What started as two-to-three-foot chop built to five and six-foot breaking waves that bucks a kayak around and demands constant attention.

After hours of paddling, the team finally reached shelter only to find their ideal campsite covered in grizzly signs. Thirty massive piles of fresh bear scat. They pushed on another 200 yards, but by then the rain had returned with force.

"We slammed a couple RecPaks, which we'd been saving for breakfasts,but we needed to get calories. It's getting cold," Sam recalls. "Taking a couple RecPaks as an emergency meal was super great. It gave us time to set up our camp."

When you are soaked, exhausted, and racing daylight, the last thing you want is to fumble with a stove. Complete nutrition in seconds meant they could focus on shelter first, then prepare a proper dinner once camp was established.

Why Liquid Nutrition Works for Kayaking

The Inside Passage offered one advantage that made RecPak particularly practical: abundant fresh water. Streams and springs run everywhere along the route, many clean enough to drink directly.

"The sweet thing about the Inside Passage is there's water running everywhere," Sam notes. "Most of the time I was not filtering water because it's coming out of springs... it is really sweet to just be able to fill up a RecPak from a stream and get on the water."

Compare this to his experience testing the product in Death Valley, where water scarcity made the add-water format more challenging. But in the coastal wilderness of British Columbia and Alaska, the system worked seamlessly.

The Route, The Wildlife, The Achievement

Over those 54 days, Sam and Austin paddled through some of the most spectacular wilderness in North America. They encountered whales, bears, and the kind of solitude that's increasingly rare. With friends joining via the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system for various legs, they maintained what Sam calls "a rafting mindset" which included eating well, taking side trips, and making it a party when they could.

The Inside Passage isn't a precise line like a hiking trail. It's a corridor up to 200 miles wide, with countless route options. Sam estimates only 20 to 50 people attempt the full passage by kayak each year, with perhaps 20 completing it. By linking this section with previous expeditions, he's now paddled nearly the entire route with maybe 150 miles left to connect.

For those considering their own multi-week expeditions - whether by kayak, foot, or bike, the lesson is clear: when time, space, and weight matter, your nutrition system needs to work as hard as you do. Complete nutrition that requires no cooking, no cleanup, and no slowing down isn't just convenient. Sometimes, it's the difference between making miles and losing them.