Quote:

I've gone a couple of times with the backpacker's style pack. Certainly, it can be done. But I now have a rule, if you want to go with me, no external frame backpacks.

Wow.  How does what someone in another canoe uses for a pack affect you?

Depending on the type of canoe, the gear brought, and the type of external frame, an external frame pack can be loaded/unloaded into a canoe as easily as a non-frame pack (maybe even easier in rare cases because the frame can provide more options for "handles" by which to pick it up or attach it).  So even if your canoe partner has an external frame pack for your canoe, I cannot understand the blanket prohibition.