How much portage weight do you carry (with and without canoe)? How has it changed over the last decade?
Hard not to take a chair. I’d be miserable.I've never weighed my gear load. I suppose it's usually been between 40-50 pounds.
As I've aged, I've cut way down on portaging trips not the weight of my packs. In fact, I've increased the gear weight with a very comfortable, full-size, 9 pound bag chair, whereas I used to take no chair at all. "I can sit on what nature provides" has transmogrified into "rocks and stumps abuse old backs and rumps."
My packs have gained weight in recent years too, but for different reasons. I'm more able now to undertake lengthly expedition trips, which generally means carrying more crap. This is quite different from the 5 day, single carry, go-go-go trips I've done when I could only find a few days off and had to make the best of it. Now, I find my trips can be generally slower paced and I have more time for triple carries, if need be.Oddly, as I have aged my packs have gained weight. Another aspect of aging requires more creature comforts. You know stuff like camp chairs with back rests, hammocks for napping, bags of red wine for happy hour and whisky for campfire contemplation.
Wait until you hit your mid-70’s.My packs have gained weight in recent years too, but for different reasons. I'm more able now to undertake lengthly expedition trips, which generally means carrying more crap. This is quite different from the 5 day, single carry, go-go-go trips I've done when I could only find a few days off and had to make the best of it. Now, I find my trips can be generally slower paced and I have more time for triple carries, if need be.
So while it's because I'm getting older, I think it's because I'm now able to find more time to travel, and not yet because I'm getting weaker in myoldmiddle age or that I need more creature comforts.