Preacher wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 6:52pm:


Holy s***.  Last trip we had about 130 pounds plus the canoe....we take waaaayy too much stuff!!    

But oh do we enjoy our trips!!   

It can be done.  I've done some trips of that length as a party of 2 single portaging much, of not all of the time with plenty of "luxuries" along for the ride.

Things to keep in mind:

The loading and unloading of heavy packs is almost more effort than the actual portaging.  Routes with frequent short portages will wear you out faster than routes with infrequent portages of nearly any length.

Your legs need to be in excellent shape to make it happen.  One word:  Stairmaster.  Build up to doing a solid 45 minutes at a time at reasonably high resistance.

Hand carry items need to be minimized.  You have only 1 person with free hands.  You'll need to strap rods and maybe paddles in the canoe.  Tackle must either go into the packs or into underseat bags.

Balance is important.  Anything you strap into the canoe must still allow the canoe to balance well.  You can experiment with where you lash in your paddles and rods (and which way the reels are facing) to acheive balance.  Get it right before you even leave your house.  If you use underseat bags for tackle, put them on too. 

A small daypack as a chest-pack or hand-carry item for the non-canoe-carrier may help.  It can contain whatever you need accessible while on the water.  It needs to be small enough that you can see over it if you choose to use if for a chest pack on easy trails.  It's gotta be hand-carry only for ankle-buster trails.  You need to be able to see your footing if the trail is rough.

If trails are short, double-carrying is faster than loading up for the single-carry.

On super-long trails, you'll probably need/want to build in some rest breaks.  I can single-carry a pretty obscene load for about 100 rods but then a 8-10 minute rest is in order.  On long carries, it's still faster than singling and the longer the portage the greater the time savings.

Don't plan overly ambitious days and if you find you may have bitten off more than you can chew for a day, stop early, especially if you're travelling again the next day.

If you like to fish as you travel, you'll have to pick your spots or you'll waste a ton of time lashing and unlashing rods and setting up to fish.  Long paddle stretches are great for fishing.  Route accordingly.

Yup, squats are also good.  You'll appreciate them when you have to negotiate ledges. 

However, a Stairmaster is the best simulation I've found for portaging a distance under a load.

Squats=power.  Stairmaster=endurance.

I do a stairmaster once a week for 3-4 months prior to a canoe trip.  The rest of the week, I run or use one of the other various hamster wheels at the club.

For those who belong to a gym: 1) consider some of the classes in wright-lifting (called Group Power where I go) -- they provide an overall body workout; 2) consider yoga -- has been great for my balance, a critical need on rocky portage trails; 3) consider spin (cycle) classes -- builds both strength and endurance.

I also do the cycles, eliptical trainer, long walks, weights by myself. Fitness goes a long way to making a trip pleasant.

Bungy Dealy Bob's (or whatever they are called) are great for fastening
paddles and rods to thwarts. I bought some shock cord and made longer ones for fastening life jackets under seats.