I appreciate the "stop and smell the roses" sentiment...and in all past years we have always double portaged. Being self-taught in this canoe tripping business, it really never dawned on me that a person should or could be able to carry a good sized pack AND a canoe. But last year I vowed to attempt single portaging and was actually amazed that the amount of effort to carry a pack versus a pack and canoe was not so different. And despite comments to the contrary, we found there was a significant time savings on the portages by single portaging. Really, there's no such thing as a double portage, which by definition is really three trips on the trail. The one difference I did notice last year, though, was a greater degree of upper body strain, as we were doing considerably more paddling than portaging. In a way, a double portage is a good break from the strain of paddling. There's no question that we were able to cover considerably more miles in a day using single portages.

Like others have suggested, the key is to travel light. In our group of four, we had one food pack, one gear pack, two fairly light personal packs, a small tackle box (which could hold the collapsible rods) and a small backpack for miscellaneous gear. The canoe carriers got to haul the personal packs, the other two got the heavier food or gear packs and the other small items. Seemed to work well without undue risk.