Lifting Canoe Packs Safely

[Black_Fly]

Any secrets to getting a canoe pack on your back without hurting yourself? I’d be interested in knowing your technique after the barn door is off the hinges. 10 days post trip and I’m still messed up. I think it was the blue barrel, but not sure. It was difficult to get on my back with my traditional approach.

 

[lowangle al]

That's too bad Tony, I always hope to feel better after a trip then before it.

I try to not make any one bag/pack too heavy. For example, if I have 60 lbs. of gear I put it in two bags, a forty and a twenty pounder or something like that. I can then carry both across the trail by stacking one on top of the other. Lifting anything over about forty lbs out of the
canoe is too much for me, thirty would be even better.

 

[Mason]

What's your traditional method? For me, I've found that even with heavy packs, if I balance it on both thighs, and then slip into it works the best. It's critical to grab the straps about midway up to provide enough space for your arm to slip through, and balance it on your thighs for a brief moment before slipping your arm through. It's more a balance move than brute strength, just like flipping canoes for portage. It works for me up to about 70-80# (e.g. packing out deer).

 

[Alan Gage]

I use the @Mason method. Or, if there is a suitable height stump or rock I will set the pack on it before trying to put an arm through. With the right height rock you can just back right into it.

Alan

 

[lowangle al]

That works well as long as you have a healthy back. It's also not too bad lifting a bag off the ground and onto your back. The problem is loading and unloading the boat, especially when the landing isn't the best.

 

[Sedges]

For me as I aged, the only way to safely lift packs was to make them smaller and lighter. I can still carry 50 lbs once it is on my back, but getting it up there is when I hurt myself. Like the photo in lowangles post I divide my load into two parcels each weighing 25lbs or less. For a 10 day tour I have a #2 Duluth pack that holds 2 bear vaults plus tent and tarp and crazy creek chair. That is easy to get up and settled. Then I have an old canvas military duffle that swings up to rest on the top of the pack. It stays there without having a hand on it resting against the back of my neck and head. I do not use a tumpline, my neck doesn't agree with that anymore.

My other load is the 30 lb canoe and a 15 lb day pack.

The only drawback I have found is that it doesn't work well with packer hat with an all around brim. I easily gave that up for portaging comfort. Using a cap with a bandana skirt to protect the back of my neck and ears from sun.

One plus with the smaller parcels is ease of getting them in and out of the canoe. Also the duffle fits nicely into the end of the canoe moving weight forward so I can move my seat further back for more steering leverage.

 

[Black_Fly]

I abandoned the double portage idea early, instead of two front loads I moved weight into the daypack and carried it on my back with the canoe (triple portaging). I think grabbing lower on the strap is a good idea, as I was having trouble finding the straps. My partner for this trip was never there when I needed a boost up, busy with his own loads/pain. Maybe if we go together again, I’ll suggest a more collaborative portage process. Water being low didn’t help getting stuff out at rocky landings, especially when wind got going.

It was a fun trip and worth the pain, if for no other reason than I know my limits better. I also got to see the lower Kawishiwi before copper mining gets a foothold in the watershed.

 

[Black_Fly]

That works well as long as you have a healthy back. It's also not too bad lifting a bag off the ground and onto your back. The problem is loading and unloading the boat, especially when the landing isn't the best.

Absolutely! Then dashing through the ankle breakers to put loads ashore while the boat is bashing rocks or drifting away. Carrying heavy packs with my hands. That could be what got me - loading and unloading in crotch-deep water.

I always try to have a pack on my back when I lift the canoe out of the water so I can head straight over the portage. That means getting the other loads to an acceptable, out of the way place on shore, securing my paddle and backrest with my daypack already on my back. My partner had a rental, which he beached stern first and dragged ashore between and over rocks. Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong all these years.

 

[Gamma1214]

No suggestions about lifting the packs but...

My partner had a rental, which he beached stern first and dragged ashore between and over rocks. Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong all these years.

Could be. Mine aren't rentals (but they don't cost thousands of dollars either) and I beach 'em regardless of conditions (I prefer sand but it ain't a deal-breaker). I think it would take a liquid lava shoreline to wet foot in waist deep water.

Just bear in mind that, as I've said, I'm the reason I can't have nice things.