The Big Portage

We found that portages are the hard part of canoe trips. We'll never notice an extra fifteen pounds of gear in a canoe, but we sure noticed when carrying it over a portage. To keep trips fun for everyone, we tried to plan a route with manageable portage lengths.

However, we didn't have enough experience to know what manageable meant. When planning, we talked about lengths of other trails that we know. The trail between cottages is about 500m, the NCC trail in our neighbourhood is about 1,000m. We don't carry gear on those trails so we decided that something between those lengths would be OK.

The original plan for this trip included only one short portage, just 275m — definitely in the enjoyably doable range. Our enthusiastic route re-planning added several portages with different types of challenges. We were now facing the longest of these added portages, 1070 metres.

Starting Out

The portage has a nice landing, wide and clear. The ground is made of gravel but there were no rocks to threaten our canoe. When we arrived the rain had even let up enough to show where we came from. We emptied the canoe, putting things off the trail to the right. Once again, the canoe became a makeshift rain cover for our gear.

The first mistake on this portage was to "lighten our loads" by drinking the last of our water bottles. This particular mistake took some advance planning, the previous evening I decided not to purify extra water, just to get ready for this mistake. Feeling thirsty would be an ongoing problem over the next five kilometres of hiking. It was a big mistake.

For our first trip the kids had their backpacks along with some miscellaneous things in their hands. I took the food barrel, our utility bag, and some odds and ends.

We don't have pictures of this part of the trip, Katherine drew this memory.

The Second Trip

It took us about 20 minutes to complete the first trip. We found a place for our things, off to the left side of the trail, and headed back to the start.

Walking without gear was a nice chance to take in the forest view and we enjoyed our hike back for the second load. A creek runs to the west of the trail, and there are foot bridges in places where water crosses the path. These makeshift bridges are made of logs that have been split lengthwise, no doubt this was a lot of work for the ranger crew.

On our second load we took everything except the canoe, the paddles, my life jacket, my small pack, and my empty water bottle. William was motivated to take more to save himself the extra trip, but Katherine felt she was at her limit, and didn't mind coming back for the paddles.

We decided to stop for a rest about halfway through this trip. We were close to the creek and this would have been a nice place to stop for lunch, very green and nicely shaded. However, our food was already at the end of the trail, and it was still raining a bit.

At this point it was about an hour since we arrived at the portage. We had hiked about two and a half kilometres, one and a half of those with a load. We sure could have used some water. ☺ We split up at this point, Katherine and I extended our rest by walking back for our last loads. William took a radio and continued to the end on his own.

Doing half a portage at a time was a good way to break up longer portages, we did it a few other times on this trip. We hiked about 500m with a load, then got "a rest" while walking back for the next load.

The Third Trip

For the third load I had my pack, my life jacket (which I use to pad the carrying yoke), and the canoe. Katherine had the paddles, which are an awkward thing for her to carry. She eventually found it easiest to carry them by holding near the middle of the shaft.

Just after lifting the canoe William started chatting on the radio. Using the radios through one kilometre of forest is a really good test of their range. However, it was poor timing, I explained that radios are for emergencies, not for chatting with people carrying canoes. He is normally fine with going into the woods on his own, but he later told me that he had gotten "a bit freaked out" this time. I think he was bored more than anything else. I should have set him up with a snack to keep occupied while waiting for Katherine and I.

Balancing the Beast

I found it difficult to balance the canoe, there was a feeling that it was falling down my back. I experimented with different styles and even tried carrying it backward for a bit. I've read about a trick where you tie the painter to the bow and stern and use it to pull either way as needed. I must have been doing it wrong, because it didn't work for me. The only result was getting tangled in a rope while flipping the boat.

I think that fighting the canoe's balance tired me out, but it might also have been the ninety minutes of work with little water. Either way, we made slow progress, taking three or four breaks just to get to the halfway point. We took a longer break there and considered whether to switch loads or continue with what we had. We decided to keep going with our current loads, and I think that was the last of our breaks until the end.

The Final Half Trip

As expected, William was safe and sound at the end of the trail. He got all of his things to the end in just two trips, but decided to join Katherine and I for the walk back to the midpoint. Then he even agreed to carry the tent for me, which was nice. This was the easier half of the portage, and it was not long until we were done.

Lesson Learned

A 2L water bottle would weigh 2Kg, or about 5 pounds. It is definitely worth the weight to have the water. Most of it wouldn't even have been carried the full length, for example, we could have stashed the bottles at the midpoint and had drinks as we paused in the middle. I'll try to make some other mistake next time, not this one.

We don't have pictures from this part of the trip, here is one of William's memories of the lake.

Lunch

We finished the portage at around 2:00 and it was finally time for lunch. We still didn't have water. Purifying by tablet takes four hours to settle and water close to the landing was a bit of a swamp. We would have liked water but made due with fresh cucumber juice.

We should have eaten earlier than 2pm. The downpour at the start of the portage canceled our planned lunchtime. Then poor planning on taking the food all the way to the end on the first trip meant we didn't have an earlier chance. We enjoyed it though — the rain was done for the day so we had nice picnic by the shore. Kobasa and cheddar wrapped in tortillas, with the cucumber slices on the side. William in particular really liked the kobasa, and asked about getting it at home.

It was another lesson though — mealtime portages require planning. In the future we'll try to consider the location of our gear and keep lunch things together in a place we might need them. We actually learned this lesson quickly and did this better later in the trip.