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Portage rating scale

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In 2007, some kids on one of our trips came up with a portage rating scale. Maybe it is time to update it. Comments and suggestions welcome.
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Ha ha. I have endured/enjoyed Levels 1 thru 3. I curse/thank you Mem for Level 3 on the Kap R.
Good thread.

BTW not all Algonquin portages are dreamy urban footpaths for the tenderfoot. There can be rocks, roots and hills.
But I like the dissing generalisation included in the Level 1 category. Ha ha. Good stuff.

I wonder what some people's worst portages have been? Only having experienced the lower categories of portaging heck I can only imagine. Ours have always been pleasant walks thru woods. I've never thought of stopping for a photo op.
Oh wait, old growth Temagami just off the trail.

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If I need to fire up the gas axe then it goes up one level. If I need to wear hip waders at either end it goes up one. If I need to wear them on the actual portage trail it goes up two.

We did have to stop and camp in the middle of one once....it was an all day affair with three separate ports and two small lakes.That was the worst. I even turned around on that port once as the muck and water beat me down after the first 1500 meters.
 
Brings back memories good and bad! That sucker between Annette and S Annette.. 1200 meters with a 200 meter ascent.. We started off noting a blowdown right near the start. Followed by some 200 more! Fire burned area. All the trees were significant diameter across the portage and chest or waist high. We met up with Uncle Phil and his chainsaw crew and spent the next TWO days clearing it. We had to camp on the trail but managed to do so toward the end. We had to clear out a campsite too.
Then there is tiptoe through the tulips on Bowron Lakes.
 
Using that scale, I found that the entry into the Marshall Lake circuit in northwestern Ontario was a solid #1 from top to bottom of the scale.

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I found the last portage out of the Marshall Lake circuit to be a lot different. I always wonder how Memaquay got those high school kids across it, tough hike at the end of a long trip for an old guy.

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5, loon crap take out, blow downs I had to crawl under and push the canoe over the top.
3, just a few hills,
6, 2 miles plus
4, rainy cool early morning
1, landing was a cool beer on the tailgate of my truck



Of course the landing was the end of the trip, a parking lot and a somewhat cool beer on the tailgate of my truck.

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I never bothered to rate them, and I've never carried above a 3++, more for the bugs or landings than anything else.
Steep doesn't bother me and I've been fortunate with the Blowdowns.
 
Pretty accurate rating of that last port Robin. For an overall score I’d give it around 4.5, only because I have done others that make that port look good.
 
We've found that water level can be one of the biggest factors as to whether a portage is a pleasant experience. Low water exposes all those slippery slime covered rocks to stumble over, along with the aforementioned loon crap.
High water can make take out/put in locations dangerous if close to a fall.
Depending on the particular level you encounter can make the difference between wondering what others had been b*tching about or hate your fellow paddlers for ever suggesting the route.

Worst blowdowns we experienced were in Woodland Caribou. It felt like all the trees had fallen in line with the trail rather than across it. Worked out to be easier just to bushwhack a new route around them.
 
You want soggy, slippery, long steep up and slippery long steep down ?
Try the Raquette falls carry up in the NY Adirondacks on the day of the annual Adirondack Canoe Classic when 250 boats, (C-1's, C-2's, C-3's, C-4's, War canoes, guide boats, Voyaguer Canoes and kayaks are leaving) their water trails behind !
 
Anyone tripping in boreal forest like Marshall Lake , Wabakimi or Woodland Caribou or Opasquia or Atikaki has learned well at any given time 30 percent of the boreal forest is on its side. And the areas depend on burns for tree reproduction.

Along the lines of Jack L s comment ,that portage is not normally tough for us going on a gentle trip. It was my very first portage I think.. Neither are the ports on the Kenduskeag Stream canoe race that 17 miler with ten miles of flat followed by 7 of class 2 and 3 whitewater. 2 mandatory portages. For us not fleet of foot one is about 40 feet up at an angle( its is about 120 feet long and we always have to crawl up it in the mud and hope and pray we do not slide backward. For the first people it is not that much of a challenge as it has not yet been reduced to a slide.

One port in La Verendrye at high water was shortened.. a god send.. It was 1545 m long and under those conditions lost 450 m. The downside is the log stairs going to the high water end were wicked slippy.
 
With due respect to Three Dog Night, 1 is not the loneliest number; 6 is.

I think the scale is quite good and clever. The students all deserve an A. I'm nearing the point where I need a 0 on the scale: the short walk from the parking lot to the put-in.
 
I think the students did a good job.. I too like Glenn am now to the stage where a 0 rated portage is good. Actually the Joe Lake portage rates that. With indoor facilities. I would like to shout out to anyone who has done the Diablo portage.. Stand up and be counted. I will be happy forever just reading about it.

I did one out of Rockcliff Lake in Wabakimi which was aptly named. Hoist the canoe up with a pulley system.. During the process someone mentioned reading literature that a Voyageur had died on top of this portage 140 years ago. I believed it. Even though they were carrying the shorter canoe du Nord
 
Sometimes that 30% can turn out to be usefull.
 

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