A second method, for weaker folks or with a heavier boat, allows you to lift only half the weight. You leave the stern on the ground, grab the gunwales three or four feet forward of the center thwart -- perhaps by the bow thwart, if there is one -- and then flip the canoe over your head with the stern pivoting on the ground. You then hold the canoe up with your arms and walk backwards a step or two until your shoulders are under the center thwart.
Unless it is a sub-40 lb canoe* I will use that “weaker folk” method every time. I can replace a scarred up stern deck plate after a decade’s of grounded grinding abuse, but until I get a new bionic spine I’m not throwing a heavy canoe onto my shoulders. The consequences are too dire; before, during or even after a trip.
Hull weight matters, and length-plus-weight does too. I watched the young strong buck who bought the 110 lb, 20’ long Miramichi do that “proper” flip, and it visibly staggered him. He staggered a few steps around the yard under it until he regained his balance. The swing weight inertia with a big, heavy canoe can be an issue.
That 110 lb beast, for me, was a two-person flip; once inverted one person stiff armed the bow in the air while the other walked back under the yoke, unimpeded by holding the canoe aloft and hand shuffling along the gunwales.
BTW, solo shuffling back under the yoke in that fashion and losing control of one gunwale is not good. Even a 60 lb canoe will leave a bruise. Or so I’ve heard.
When you rest on a portage trail, look for a horizontal tree branch, or trunk crotch, to lean the canoe up against. That way, you don't have to put the boat down on the ground and then flip it up again. This helps to save energy and to minimize the risks of a muscle pull or other injury, which is especially important as we age.
Amen to that. Same for home storage racks; I slide the canoes partly off and rest the bow on the front storage crossbar, walk underneath into the yoke, stand up and walk away. Same for loading onto the roof racks; set the bow on the back crossbar with the long suffering stern deck plate on the ground, step out, slide the canoe up into place.
Yeah, my crossbars are scarred up from years of flange washer scraping. I can fix that, not my spine.
*I don’t yet have a sub-40 lb boat, so, eh, yeah, invert and walk back into the yoke every time, with every canoe.