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Furthest you have carried to launch a canoe?

o my.. My day trips involve walking out the front door down our right of way. 700 feet. Pick up the canoe off the rack and carry it 40 feet. Plop. in the drink off the dock.
 
o my.. My day trips involve walking out the front door down our right of way. 700 feet. Pick up the canoe off the rack and carry it 40 feet. Plop. in the drink off the dock.
Similarly, when I am at my new Adirondack camp, I open my canoe shed back door, carry my Rapidfire or hornbeck, or Wenonah C2, or guideboat 100 feet (the legal required distance for all structures to be from water's edge), and paddle off on my private no-motors lake for a 3+ mile spin. When I make plans for more of a wilderness adventure, the carry is generally a bit of a longer trek from parking area to a much more remote waterway.
 
I didn't think I did much of a long car to water carry until I read Conk's post... 4.5 miles to Cedar Lakes.
I did the same route, but I think I cheated!

Well, maybe not a full cheat, I had to carry the boat AND the wheels for quite a bit of unfriendly to wheels terrain.




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Most of my put ins are in the 50 foot to 200 yard range, but have done 1/4 mile on Bower Trout Lake in the BWCA. On June 7th this year I put in on Lake Lila in the ADK. It is listed as 1/3 mile, but is easy with a well balanced 25 pound canoe.
 
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I don't recall any super long carries to a put-in. I did have to fly in on a seaplane to the put in on the Rapid River in Maine the three times I led trips on it.

Another time, I was trying to find the put-in for the Osgood River in the Adirondacks by following the description in the guidebook Adirondack Canoe Waters: North Flow by Paul Jamieson and Donald Morris. We all missed some path and wandered around for a long time in the woods, finally ending up back in the parking area, very confused. All the time I was trying to interpret the instructions in the book.

There was a guy just getting out of his vehicle in the parking area who saw this troop of canoeists emerging from the woods. He says to me, "I see you're reading my book." It was Donald Morris!!!

I explained our dilemma. He pointed to a space between two trees (we had missed) and said the put-in was thataway. So, it was probably ¾ mile of lost wandering for a 500 yard put-in.

Shortest: I learned canoeing when I spent every summer, all summer, from age 5 to 17, on a lakefront summer cabin in Maine. There was no carry to the water. Just shove the canoe off the shore and get in.
 
Well, if you want to include motorized carries, from my home in NY to Whitehorse on the Yukon, it was a one way road trip of 3,865 miles by way of a touristy side detour through the Canadian Rockies and Banff National Park with a C4 canoe carried on my car top.
 
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Well, if you want to include motorized carries, from my home in NY to Whitehorse on the Yukon, it was a one way road trip of 3,865 miles by way of a touristy side detour through the Canadian Rockies and Banff National Park with a C4 canoe carried on my car top.
sorry . You win for length, lose for distance.. Same but starting from Maine same distance. The second time even further.. Homer AK.
 
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