Bryan Hansel over at Paddling Light blog posted a really nice article recently on his gear list for his single-portage trips. It's nice because, like the rest of us he's balancing functionality, weight, durability, and cost in all his decisions while trying to keep it real. He's really dialed in with his kit and did us the favor of explaining his choices and the then providing an excel spreadsheet of the whole thing. What a guy. See https://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/what-paddling-gear-am-i-using-in-2025/
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Happy American Red Cross Founder's Day (1881)! 🇨🇭🚑🏥
Single Trip Carry Portage Techniques
- Thread starter Johnny 5
- Start date
I don't know if this has been mentioned, but has anyone had success with a single carry when traveling with two people in a tandem boat? It seems like it would be easier then when solo.
@BozoCanoe thank you for posting the paddlinglight.com link. I've never come across that website before and I'm glad to!
Certainly. Not just a tandem C2, but also a C4 and a six-paddler voyageur canoe. When we paddle the unofficial "Cannonball-90", the entire Adirondack 90-mile route all within a single day, which includes a total of 10 miles of overland single pass carries. The single longest being 3.75 miles, albeit mostly along a road. You could not beat the single day 24 hour limit with multiple pass carries. Wheels are used for the stripper Kevlar voyageur, and may or may not be used for the kevlar or carbon C4. Everyone carries their own backpack of gear and food for the day. Even during the actual official 90-mile race, I usually have a couple of young strong guys in my C4 team, who prefer to shoulder carry while literally running on the trails with a kevlar C4 upright on their shoulders for the 3-day total of 5 carry miles, but other than water and daytime snacks, there is little pack weight for them and the other two walking paddlers (who do trade in and out of the carry).
I have guided several BSA treks with older youth carrying full 5-day packs and Grumman tandem canoes in a single carry (with frequent rest breaks) on the Lows-Oswegatchie 3 mile carry, but they all did it without excessive complaints. A couple of times we piece-mealed it, separately takking canoes and packs a few tenths ahead at a time and then going back for the rest. Toughest was in the years following the 1995 derecho blowdown before the trail was completely opened.
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Bryan's a good one for sure.
