bear resistant kayakers ice chestA few notes on how to turn a bear-resistant backpacker's food container into an ice chest. This would be a bit heavy for a backpack trip, but when kayaking you can afford more weight.
The De Anza Outdoor Club only uses Backpackers' Cache brand bear resistant food containers. For our trips, the club owns enough canisters for a small group, or for each in a large group to prepack their food/toiletries in advance to get an idea of whether they need to rent more.
 (Some bear resistant food containers have been invented made of Kevlar, fabric and/or fabric aluminum have been invented, but are not allowed at many parks. Check in advance to see which brands of hard plastic models are okay where you go.)
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Cut up an old thick foam sleeping pad to fit around the outside of a bear-resistant canister and duct tape it together.
 
This might be all you do, but we decided to make a cover from leftover upholstery fabric, including around a lid, which we made a velcro closure for:
Use a bread loaf sized pan to make a custom ice block or two. If you make more than one you can run water on them as needed to melt them to fit. If you make only one it will last longer.
 
The photo below shows a melted ice block at the end of a trip:
Improve your inexpensive rain gear is another camping sewing project.
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