I was thinking, how much is too much to carry into Quetico or BWCA if one is going to be portaging to at least 5 lakes.   I was wanting to bring a DSLR, video camera, and binocs.  Not sure of the weight of these items but will do a weigh-in for comparison.  Maybe people can weigh-in (no pun intended) on what they feel comfortable with hauling around on their trips.

Good question....how much is to much? IMHO that is about personal preference...one of the old "rules" that I use, of course it is tempered by parameters within the situation-and that is important: is 25%-30% of body weight for females and 40%-50% of body weight for male. An old backpacking bench mark, tempered with common sense and condition. Carrying to much weight at one time is not fun, unsafe, and well asking for troubles. The cool thing about the mode of travel in the crown and BW is one can make as many trips over the portages as one desires and the goals of the trip religate. An open door so speak; never have brought the kitchen sink though

One question for you Kenny B-does the DSLR have video abilities? Most of the new ones do and actually shoot better quality video than the dedicated video cameras. Extra batteries and memory cards/storage for the DSLR maybe be of less mass than the video camera itself.

Well, to answer one question, my Nikon D80 does not have video capabilities, but the D90 does... so I would bring a Canon HD30 which is not too heavy, but a bit bulky. It shoots digital tapes, not the newer flash storage ones.  It would be worth bringing a digital video camera because the videos of trip would be great to see afterwords.  My binocs are Canon 10x30 power with Image Stabilization (IS).  For those who use IS, it is a great treat to view images without the shake and would be an advantage for spotting portages from a canoe, but they are not that high powered IMO.

I just weighed everything together, together they are like approximately 6.5 lbs.   I would hate to go on a hike and just carry these.. just much weight. 

On the other hand, the images from the Nikon (18-200mm zoom) are really great.  The zoom is really useful and would be great if spotting an eagle or moose not to mention all the other great things about the camera.

If you expect you'll use something, and it fits in the canoe, why not take it and leave the guilt at home instead?

My photo stuff is 13 - 14 pounds incl. tripod and that's historically pretty minimal for me. Carrying water is what I'll grumble most about but it's nice to have after lugging all that [stuff] around for a while.

FWIW - three loaded portage trips, 30 - 50 pounds each is easier/safer when solo and turns two not real enjoyable trudges into a continuous pleasurable walk in the woods and you can take whatever fits in the canoe.

Even with plenty of room leftover, I don't take binocs or even a monocular anymore simply because I rarely use it and it always seems to be packed a zipper or two deep because I normally allow myself only so much stuff out at one time. It's great when someone else brings a nice pair and/or you already know where the portages are though.

I think when I am ready to go, I'll try to hook up with another tandem of experienced fishermen and I won't need the binocs for navigating because they'll already know the portages and how to find them.  I remember well how we searched for portages after being wind-blown around the lake and how I disliked all the unnecessary paddling.  Sometimes you just want to get to the portage as expediently as possible.

I am a bit bummed about how much it costs now to go into Quetico.  Really excessive fees IMO.  Maybe there is a thread somewhere on this.  I'd like to see how others weigh in.  Kenny