Tips for Choosing and Using Dry Bags for River Trips

A dry bag is likely one of the first pieces of river gear you bought—or it’s at the top of your list if you’re just starting your river gear collection. You need a dry bag to keep your stuff dry. But which bag to buy? How many do you need? What sizes?

These questions are usually answered after you go on a few trips and figure out what works for your situation. To shorten your experimentation cycle (which can get expensive), here’s a primer on dry bags, with lots of photos of bags we’ve collected over time, what we pack in them, and how we pack them. (Some, but not all, of the linked products are affiliate links.)

The good news is that by sticking to a few river equipment manufacturers that have been producing great dry bags for years, your research focus doesn’t have to be on quality, but simply on the styles and sizes you need. 

Quick links to this guide to dry bags

1. What are dry bags?
2. Are dry bags waterproof?
3. How do dry bags work?
4. Upright or duffel-style bag?
5. What size of dry bag?
6. Three essential types and sizes of dry bags
7. Tips for packing dry bags

What are dry bags?

In the context of river running, dry bags—as opposed to dry “sacks” or dry boxes—will (if properly sealed) keep your stuff dry if you flip a boat or the bag falls out of the rigging. Even when submerged or bobbing in the river for the time it takes to right a raft, the contents will likely stay dry. Each dry bag manufacturer uses different fabrics, seam sealing, and closure systems, but they all accomplish the same goal.

Dry sacks, while useful in various situations, aren’t made of the same impermeable material and don’t have the same type of closure as waterproof dry bags. And dry boxes—while absolutely indispensable to any river trip—are sadly not waterproof if your boat flips.

If you have gear that can’t get wet (like an expensive camera), I recommend carrying it in a waterproof case like a Pelican case, which you can put in the dry box or in a properly sealed dry bag. Electronic equipment needs a couple of layers of protection unless you’re absolutely certain that the boat won’t flip (and that’s just asking for it).

For the purposes of this discussion, dry bags are heavy-duty vessels that can be thrown into the bottom of a boat and dragged around on sandy beaches—and still be trusted to keep the contents dry through whitewater, rain, and unexpected water immersions. 

Are dry bags waterproof?

Again, the ones we’re talking about—which are designed to be submerged and keep contents dry—are waterproof to a certain extent. For sure, they will keep your stuff dry if they bob in the river for several minutes until they’re retrieved. It all depends on how well you’ve sealed the bag and how long the bag is truly submerged. Over time, dry bags can develop pinholes or otherwise degrade, but in our experience, dry bags made by the major river equipment manufacturers last decades. 

How do dry bags work?

Classic river dry bags are deceptively simple in concept: They are made of waterproof material, have sealed seams, and have a closure system that is watertight. After years of innovations in dry bags, the basic design hasn’t changed much. Most bags that have been going strong for years (like our circa 1987 Bill’s Bag, which NRS still offers) have a simple roll-top closure.

So what is this magic watertight closure? For traditional upright dry bags (not duffel bag styles), It’s crazy simple: You just roll down the top three times (the magic number) and clip the top. The contents will stay dry even after a swim.

The cardinal rule to achieve these waterproof properties is to never, ever overstuff the bag. If it’s so full that you can’t roll the top down three turns, you need to take some stuff out. (And just as if you were packing for a trip to Paris, you probably have too much stuff anyway. Take a third of it out.)

Upright or duffel-style dry bag?

Duffel-style dry bags are top-shelf for carrying your personal gear (clothes, etc.).  If you have a duffel bag, you won’t be compelled to dump your whole bag to get to that special shirt or pair of socks that you’re craving for camp. But duffel bags tend to be more expensive because they depend on a special zipper to retain those waterproof qualities. 

But with upright dry bags, even if they’re relatively small, you’ll likely end up dumping out the entire contents at some point to get to what you’re after. Duffel bags are much more convenient for your personal gear.

What size dry bag?

The size of dry bag you buy depends on the type of river running you plan to do. If you’re a frequent guest on raft trips and are looking for just one bag, go for a mid-size (30-liter in volume) bag that can carry your clothes and other personal gear for a few days. If you’re doing day trips on a SUP or IK, you’ll want a smaller bag like the Watershed Ocoee (see more notes about that below). If you’re just starting to outfit a raft, definitely add a “big bag” to your list.

In the next section, we cover more details about essential dry bag styles and sizes.

Three essential dry bags for river trips

If you’re just starting to assemble river trip gear and don’t have dry bags yet, I recommend three different types and sizes that will address 80 percent of the situations you encounter. My recommendations assume that you’re doing trips that are supported by rafts, even if you’re kayaking or paddling a SUP.

Big bag for camping gear

After trying different schemes, we’ve determined that it’s most efficient to put the tent, sleeping bags, and pillows for tent mates together in one big bag, preferably with backpack straps. By “big,” we mean a 110-liter bag. Keeping all this gear in one big bag accomplishes a few different goals: If you and your tent mate are not on the same cook crew, for example, the one who isn’t in the kitchen can get your tent set up.

Also, this gear tends to be bulky, so consolidating it into one bag takes less space in general. This approach also leaves each individual to pack their personal gear the way they want in a separate bag (rather than to trying to cram everything into one shared bag, which is generally a disaster). 

You can see in the photo below the pile of stuff that Harry (my husband) and I pack in “Big Orange,” a SealLine Pro Pack 115L. This bag easily accommodates one good-sized tent, two down sleeping bags in compression stuff sacks, and two standard pillows (recommended for a great night’s sleep).

Backpack straps also are essential if you might float a river that requires a hike in to the launch site. For example, when we ran the South Fork of the Flathead, we hired horse packers to haul most of the heavy raft gear to the put-in, while we river runners hiked the 20-ish miles to the put-in with most of our personal gear and light camping gear in backpack dry bags.

Over the years, we have collected a few big dry bags, including a 1987 Bill’s Bag that has developed some pinholes from our abuse and is now the bag we used to carry trash.

Modern-day Bill’s Bags are even tougher than the originals. If I were buying one today, I would get the NRS 110L Heavy-Duty Bill’s Bag, which is reinforced on the bottom and has a removable harness. We also use Cascade Designs’ SealLine Pro Pack 115L, which has an excellent harness system. You can see from the photo below that it has wide, padded shoulder and waist straps as well as a handy handle at the top that you can use to hoist it out of the boat. 

Medium-sized bag for personal gear

Again, a duffel-bag style dry bag is deluxe, but upright bags work fine, too, especially if you take a somewhat minimalist approach. For an affordable, sturdy, all-around medium-size dry bag, the SealLine Baja Dry Bag (an upright style) works great.

If you’re looking for a duffel bag, you’ll find most dry bag manufacturers now offer these. A few to check out are the Watershed Yukon, the SealLine Pro Zip Duffel, and the NRS Expedition DriDuffel Dry Bag. (We own the Watershed Yukon, not the others, but we have other bags by these manufacturers and can vouch for them.)

So what duffel dry bag do we have in our group? One that isn’t well known in the boating circles: It’s a waterproof duffel from Ortlieb, which makes bags for bicyclists and motorbikers as well as outdoor adventurers. This bag has kept gear dry after complete submersion, has a watertight zipper, and a nice padded strap. Just something else to consider if you want to mix things up in your dry bag collection. Ortlieb has a nice collection of roll-top dry bags, including the Ortlieb Dry-Bag PS10 Valve, which is available with a valve and straps for maximum compression (great for sleeping bags), and the hefty Ortlieb X-Tremer 150L.

Tips for packing an upright dry bag

You can make an upright dry bag with a roll-top closure work for your personal gear with some savvy packing. Here’s the scheme I use to cut down on dry bag dumping:

1. Put your camp boots or hiking shoes on the bottom: That will keep the sand and dirt on them at the bottom of your bag, and it’s fairly easy to slide those big items out without dislodging the rest of your bag. 
2. Put just-in-case warm clothes on top of those shoes. Depending on whether you’re on a hot desert trip (where bringing warm clothes is just a doomsday precaution) or an Idaho trip where it might actually be chilly at night, you might never use this gear. Push it to the bottom. 
3. Put your camp pants and shirts on top of the warm clothes. You will be using those every night, so they should be fairly close to the top.
4. Put underwear and sleeping clothes in a mesh bag on top of those. Keeping those essential but small items in a separate mesh bag will save time and frustration. 
5. On top, put your toiletries bag so you can quickly get your contact lenses out, use a face wipe to get the grime off your face, apply some lotion, or pop some ibuprofen.

To give you an idea of how much you can fit in a medium-sized duffel, behold the pile of gear below, which is typically what I pack for a 4- or 5-day river trip where the evenings will be cool.

This pile includes 3 T-shirts, 2 fleece shirts, mesh bag with underwear, toiletries bag, hiking boots, sunshirt, 2 pairs of camp pants, fleece jacket, 2 pairs of shorts, light down jacket, and a couple of pairs of socks. This all fits in the SealLine Baja 30L bag.

And here’s a comparison of the Baja SealLine with the Ortlieb 85.

Small dry bag for easy access

If you’re paddling your own inflatable kayak or SUP, you will want a few things handy on the boat throughout the day. For that type of boat, nothing beats the Watershed Ocoee or something similar: It’s a small duffel style so you don’t have to dig for your belongings.

As Audrey Crockett pointed out in her post on essential accessories for SUPs, this bag also has several anchor points so you can affix it securely to your boat. And it’s a great size, accommodating a decent-sized supply of sunscreen, snacks, and even an extra fleece.

One note: When choosing your small day bag, don’t get sucked in by “dry sacks.” Get an actual dry bag, as it needs to withstand steady splashing throughout the day—if not an actual capsizing—so it needs to be waterproof. If you’re in a paddle raft or oar rig, everyone on the boat can typically share one small day bag. 

And one more dry bag that we consider essential (but others might not) is one for our guitar. We got ours from Jack’s Plastic Welding (I haven’t seen a guitar dry bag anywhere else) and it’s been helping us bring the music for more than a decade. 

Dry bags: essential river gear

At the end of the day, any dry bag you get from one of the leading river gear manufacturers (NRS, Cascade Designs (SealLine), Jack’s Plastic Welding, etc.) will work great and last for years of river running. Do you have a favorite dry bag? Drop us a comment and share your recommendation.

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