Portaging Canoe without a yoke?

[east or bust]

Get a yoke, yea I know.

A spontaneous jaunt to the adirondacks came up and the round trip from car to lake is a little over a mile and a half. The canoe to be portaged (man I love that word) is aluminum and has two cross braces about 4' apart and equidistant from the center.

I've seen pictures of lashing the paddles to the cross braces but I'm pretty bony around the shoulders and don't see that going well without some sort of padding. I'm currently thinking about using some straps between the cross braces at shoulder width apart, pulled taut but with a little give. Anyone tried something similar or have other ideas?

Oh yea, I'll probably be making this trek a couple times in the next 3 days, so total distance could very well be above 5 miles. Comfortable is better.

[XXX-er]

Get a blue foamy, cut it into rectangles or squares, cut round holes just big enough to pull the pieces over your head so you can wear the padding, put a few of them on ...good to go

Lash some 1x4 between the cross braces

[iceclimb]

at age 14 we were carrying grummans on portages in Algonquin, 2 kids, one canoe, set the bars on your pack and grunt through it. You will have a pack right?

[Harry]

Paddles lashed to cross braces works fine. I did lots of portages in the Boundary Waters using that technique.

[cat in january]

If it is possible, a wheeled canoe carrier is great and sooo much easier over a long distance. Check CL

Don't know the retailer, but this is a good buy
https://jet.com/product/detail/5753b...V40aAj7U8P8HAQ

[wooley12]

X2 on the cart idea. I made one with bike wheels for a trip into Santanoni but we had too much beer and it broke. I made one out of PVC for my Coleman pig and it broke. Look for big wheels and a secure attachment system. Maybe this.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/cabel...Ntt=canoe+cart

[RShea]

Get a yoke, yea I know.

A spontaneous jaunt to the adirondacks came up and the round trip from car to lake is a little over a mile and a half. The canoe to be portaged (man I love that word) is aluminum and has two cross braces about 4' apart and equidistant from the center.

I've seen pictures of lashing the paddles to the cross braces but I'm pretty bony around the shoulders and don't see that going well without some sort of padding. I'm currently thinking about using some straps between the cross braces at shoulder width apart, pulled taut but with a little give. Anyone tried something similar or have other ideas?

What about stopping at the Home Improvement store and get a section of foam pipe insulation? Place it over the paddles handles being lashed, when not in use for the portage, it could go around the cross braces to keep it from being lost.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-...7812/204760801

[Mr. Multiglisse]

Get a yoke, yea I know.

A spontaneous jaunt to the adirondacks came up and the round trip from car to lake is a little over a mile and a half. The canoe to be portaged (man I love that word) is aluminum and has two cross braces about 4' apart and equidistant from the center.

I've seen pictures of lashing the paddles to the cross braces but I'm pretty bony around the shoulders and don't see that going well without some sort of padding. I'm currently thinking about using some straps between the cross braces at shoulder width apart, pulled taut but with a little give. Anyone tried something similar or have other ideas?

Oh yea, I'll probably be making this trek a couple times in the next 3 days, so total distance could very well be above 5 miles. Comfortable is better.

Is there no center thwart between those other two thwarts you describe (AKA cross braces but I am a canoe geek)? If not that is pretty unusual. I wouldn't recommend the strap idea, Can't imagine you could get the straps tight enough to prevent bouncing, not to mention sliding off your shoulders. Then the canoe lands on your head, ouch, and you are trapped by the straps.

That Cabela's cart would be ideal if the portage is good for carting (as in, not too rocky and/or muddy). If you are handy, and the gunwales of the canoe have lip you bolt through, it would pretty easy to make a simple wood yoke. Or even easier to buy a wood yoke and bolt it in. A nice ash yoke with some cushy pads would be just the ticket:
http://northstarcanoes.com/accessories/yokes-thwarts/

[east or bust]

thanks for the ideas, I'll probably try some of these out in the future.

little update on what I ended up doing:

went with the strap method, I was carrying a fairly large internal frame pack with all my crap, so the strap sat between my neck and the pack, while also partially resting on the shoulder straps of the pack. the first run on the way out was a disaster. started out with the strap way behind the balance point and not tight enough (way too much bouncing) and had to stop to readjust. upon readjustment it was too far forward but I didn't want to stop again considering it was over 90* and picking up the canoe took a considerable amount of energy. on the way out I had it just right with the balance point and strap tension and made the ~0.8 miles without stopping. I think the main take away is don't try to portage a canoe in 90*+ temperatures.

[Mr. Multiglisse]

thanks for the ideas, I'll probably try some of these out in the future.
...I think the main take away is don't try to portage a canoe in 90*+ temperatures.

How were the bugs? I think the strap idea is both the most creative and insane portaging concept I have heard of in a long time, and I work in the canoe industry. Good for you.

[t-the-east]

Get a Hornbeck

[east or bust]

How were the bugs? I think the strap idea is both the most creative and insane portaging concept I have heard of in a long time, and I work in the canoe industry. Good for you.

Thanks. The black flies were pretty brutal, and that was with the high temps keeping them down during the day. Early mornings required pants and long sleeves if you didn't have bug spray. One area we fished that should have been bad with bugs was actually fine thanks to the thousands of dragon flies in that area, I've never seen anything like it, looked like something out of Jurassic Park.

[east or bust]

Get a Hornbeck

Just looked those up, pretty cool other than the price tag. Finding a used one would be key. Though I doubt one could fly fish standing up out of one of those. The beam width on my canoe is 38", makes for a very stable platform.

[old goat]

at age 14 we were carrying grummans on portages in Algonquin, 2 kids, one canoe, set the bars on your pack and grunt through it. You will have a pack right?

me too--except one kid carried the canoe, the other the pack. Pretty miserable for a skinny teenager. We did use the old fashioned orange life vest for padding. For the OP--next time you try that you walk the canoe up from the bow until you get to the strap, turn around and there you are. If the balance is right getting it on your shoulders is the easy part. If you need to rest lean it upright against a tree,

[XXX-er]

I carried a creek boat with just thule straps over my shoulders for 10 short city blocks (up n down main st) and it was hard on the shoulders

The kayak a pyrannha 230 had been a warranty boat at the boat shop ( I think they all cracked eventualy) so it was worthless, so I hacked a 2 ft square hole in the bottom with a sawzall, put my feet thru the hole, crossed some thule straps over my shoulders and walked down mainstreet wearing a kayak with a couple hundred other leaf likers to protest against coalbed methane

we ran them outa town and they never came back

[east or bust]

old goat, that's the method I eventually started using, definitely easier than trying to pick it up and get it on the shoulders in one shot

xxx-er, I have no meat on my shoulders and the strap was far from comfortable toward the end of the hike each way. I had wrapped it with a spare bed sheet I had laying in the car which helped but was still not enough padding. should have thought of using the life jacket for that, seems like it would have worked very well.