buckbrush Loc: Texas then Southwest Oregon

Hi TexasLynn
Nice name BTW.

Before you go it would be helpful to ask your guiding company where exactly you will be camping on Vancouver Island, BC.

While working up on Vancouver Island I found the island was covered with fishing and hunting lodges. If you weren't aware of them you could be a half mile away from them and would never know it. We used to have logging camps up on the island and we would be just over a hill from a fishing lodge but the lodges wouldn't let there clients know about our logging camp which had 30-50 people living there for months at a time. They wanted to promote the wilderness adventure.

So, the reason I'm saying this is you may have easy access to electricity if your guide service wants to be helpful. Have them give you a detailed map of exactly where you'll be camping each night.

You also can't eat any better than at one of the bush camps. In an emergency of course.

blue-ultra Loc: New Hampshire

While in Maine last summer I was taking some photos from a scenic area and a couple of bicyclist stop and I noticed they had a solar panel on their back packs I asked them how it worked and they told me they loved them, kept their phones charged. While direct sunlight is best for solar, they also work in cloudy daylight. It may be what you need. Get a couple of extra 64 gb SD cards and perhaps an extra battery (one for each day) and have a great time. We will wait with baited breath for your most excellent travel photographs.
Bob

iosa Loc: Fairbanks, AK

Maybe a wind charger, if solar is sketchy? This is something you'd have to set up each night as you camp, which does involve bringing more gear. It may be easier to just bring more batteries. New batteries, fully charged, are easy to protect and don't really take up much room. Ditto for memory cards. Bring more. More more more.

Ditch the laptop: leave that at home.

Each night, if you have been shooting a lot, review photos that are obviously junk: out of focus, wrong subject, disinteresting, whatever. You'll need to do another cull later, when you have access to a full screen. But I imagine that space on board the kayak is of greater concern than photo editing during the trip.

https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Edge-Power-Turbine-Generator/dp/B078ZN9XRD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523900984&sr=8-2&keywords=portable+wind+charger

Selene03

Hi Lynn, I haven't read everything posted here, so I am sorry if I am duplicating what others have said. I haven't used the t31, but I took an Sl1 with me on a very similar Baja Calif. trip. I found that the batteries lasted pretty well, although if I were you I would take maybe 5 (1 a day and two to spare--lyour days will be longer there in the summer than mine were in Baja in the Spring). I didn't use a solar charger, though it would have worked in Baja. The weather can be so finicky in the Pacific Northwest, I don't know if that would work or not. The biggest issue battery wise is maybe the computer. A Mac might stay running that long, my pcs probably wouldn't. I downloaded photos to an ipad, but definitely not a first choice option. I did have copies of the photos though and then downloaded the cards to my pcs when I got home. On the lens, I would strongly recommend the 70-300 II USM Nano refurbished. I have a couple of them (one I use solely on the water, and another because I liked the IQ so well, I decided it could serve as a good travel zoom). I can't say enough good things about it. A whale spouted all over my camera and lens, completely covering it in gunk that I could barely clean off until I got back to "civilization" but both are working fine a year later after I did clean them up. I use the combo a lot to photograph birds from my kayak in calmer waters. I would also recommend a good dry bag--watershed duffels are good though pricey, but you probably want a good one. I have also used a dry bag/backpack, which I mostly keep the camera in, but pull it out for photos. I pretty much only use the 70-300 lens now. It can get focus pretty fast and has been good for birds and whales, and would probably be great for wildlife too if you get close enough. It is also pretty light, which can be an advantage when you are trying to maneuver a kayak and photograph something at the same time. It sounds like a fun trip!!!! I hope you enjoy it!!

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

In a much longer Kayak trip on the coast of Greenland, with a 5DMkIII and two lenses plus lots of camping gear and food, etc, I used four 64 GB CF and 4 64 GB SDHC cards, plus five fully charged Canon batteries. I never fully filled exhausted anything, and I made no attempt at all to download nor review anything while traveling. I shot RAW only, and had around 5500 shots to sort when the trip was over.
You will shoot more than I did per day, as wildlife was a small part of my trip. You will need considerable burst shooting to get the best whale shots. There will be some good birding as well.
Several have advised good dry bags, and that is correct, but one of the few places you can economize is to use double bagged freezer weight zip-locks.
The hand-crank generator that others have recommended is a non-starter, unless you want to stay up all night turning the crank. Around Vancouver Island there is often a lot of fog, but if you are lucky and travel in June or early July, there MAY be enough sunlight morning and evening to use a solar charger. Personally, I wouldn't count on it.
If you can afford it, simply carrying extra batteries and in-camera storage media is a lot cheaper than going back to repeat the photography.
Also, shooting whales requires burst shooting to get the best available.

shelty Loc: Medford, OR

Oh you poor boy. I've gone as long as a month without electricity. The big thing is food.

Mr palmer Loc: Currently: Colorado, USA, Terra, Sol

I got a portable solar panel set that can charge my USB devices. Then I added a 10,000 mAh battery to go with it. I got the GX85 partly for the flexibility of USB charging.
For storage, I added a micro SD card to the phone. Then I got a couple of 64Gb USB Flash drives and a SD card reader that plugs into both the phone (Android) and a standard USB.
With this setup, I was able to store many days of images backed up to the phone and on USB flash drives. And I was able to wander without electricity for a couple weeks by hanging the solar panels on the backpack as I walked.
The whole setup weights maybe 3 ounces for the Flash drives and card reader. Just under a pound for the solar panels, and another half-pound for the main storage battery.
Charge the 10,000 mAh battery and use it as needed to re-charge the phone/lamp, and the camera. If you have time, you can plug the phone in and recharge it while you walk. Another couple of ounces can buy you a USB powered battery charger for other battery types (eg.- most Olympus batteries have chargers available).
I love it. Works very well and gets me completely electricity free for as long as I have flash storage - which then plugs into a computer when you reach civilization again. Shoot JPG and you could probably be gone for months, seriously.

Robinbs Loc: Colorado

Solar panels, there are small ones that will fit in a camera bag.

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

just a tough, have you consider renting batteries for your trip and at same time a fast lens, i would check with my insurance for coverage of rental in case of mishap.

genesampson

Don't know of your equipment, but if your camera holds two SD cards you could use your second as a backup and not bother to copy to your computer. 64 gig cards handle a heck of a lot of shots, even in raw. I have a variety of smaller SD cards and always throw them in just in case. I'd take three batteries and also check for cheap 3rd party ones on Amazon. You'd be surprised how cheap they are. Bottom line is you don't want to be out in the kayak as an Orca nuzzles your buddy's kayak and you have either no juice or full cards. What a great trip! I hope you have an incredible time and as someone else hinted don't spend the whole trip looking thru your lens. Oh and live view also sucks battery power.

phal84 Loc: Huntsville

For me I'd travel light and at the most take a couple of extra charged batteries, and assuming you camera holds two cards, a couple of extra sets;
But having said that, I'd photograph like a did in my many earlier years with 120/220 film - I'd take fewer but more meaningful pictures;
The selective photos I took in the film days mean much more now than the 100s I snap away on a digital camera;
Plus, on a trip like that you get back home and ask "where was that picture taken?", "what was that about?" etc. Those are really the kind you don't need.
I'm usually using a 7100 and can easily last 3 days on one charge with 100s of pictures.
Have a good trip - you're going to enjoy it however you do it!

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Lynn
my two pennyworth is....
Take a simcard reader with you and use the laptop to 'download' your card...No idea whether it is the camera battery that 'powers' a download.....
You will probably get a solar panel for your laptop easier than for your camera (they make them????? for camera batteries????
Double wrap your kit and tie it to something that floats - not you.....!!!! a ball type float....available from any ships chandlers.
Have fun....its the experience not the photo's that count.

sv3noKin51E

Looks like over all the replies generated, this issue has been well-covered, here's our take. We carry one 20,000 mAh lithium battery bank on short 2-3 day trips, in the rare event the camera batteries need topping off. The ravpwr brand has held up well for up to a week without any other power sources and weighs about a pound. We always take a couple of spare pre-formatted, high-speed, large-capacity cards for each body. They don't weigh anything and fit in the plastic case in the water-proof bags.

The D7000 or D7200 we pack uses 128 GB micro USB SDXC U3 cards in the SD adapter; both bodies back up the first card simultaneously. We've been known to take the trusty D300 or EOS D20 as a spare with one lens each. They're old but shooting RAW they don't run the batteries down or fill up the cards, not that we always shoot RAW. A high-speed 32 GB card for the D300 and a 16 GB for the D20 and they get the same amount of shots per battery as the newer cameras.

We don't usually take a laptop unless we can lock it up somewhere; dropped one in camp once and that was enough. A USN transfer cord takes care of backing up the bodies quickly enough, but I personally like swapping out to fresh cards as backup. Have found transferring via wi-fi to any device while in the wilds to be a huge battery drainer. If there's time and room, a small tripod makes the trip.

We've tested/tried out several brands of solar-chargeable lithium battery banks and regular solar-charging panels but nless one has time to sit around or in camp (for a couple of days) in full sunlight, we found the experience more frustrating than helpful. When moving around, it's more fun and rewarding to shoot than fool with extra gear you probably won't use. We use the rule of two; two bodies, two lenses and two batteries for each body is plenty. Usually the camera battery charger plugs into the battery bank and weighs nothing. Hope that's useful; have fun taking great photos, sv

Angmo

The best possible camera to use around water...

...is someone else’s.

Forget solar battery charging. Just bring batteries. come on, give me a break. Youre not gonna be gone for 2 months. If youre on the move, where you gonna set up solar anyway. And if it’s overcast weather, you’ve got a paper weight.

KISS

canarywood1 Loc: Sarasota,Florida

This is all you will need.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Portable-Double-Speed-Recharging/dp/B01JIWQPMW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1523920009&sr=8-3&keywords=anker+powercore+26800#customerReviews