During the course of my trips, I've encountered several solo kayakers and have made a couple of observations.

Portage systems - the most effective I've seen consist of a strap system that allows kind of a modified hip carry. Not very efficient or comfortable, but perhaps better than the alternatives.

Packing - because of the cargo areas, they have had to repack everything into a pack at a portage and unpack everything at the end to get it back into the boat. Again, quite a hassle. Might not be as big a problem with a more open cockpit kayak.

The vast majority of kayakers seem to be teamed with one or more canoes. Equipment is carried in the canoes and the kayak is portaged using a two-person carry.

A fast solo (like my Wenonah Advantage) can easily keep up with a kayak and is a lot less hassle on the portages.

Bob

Posted by LibertyBay on July 16, 2002 at 18:36
From IP address 64.12.96.74