Portaging made easier

Portaging. It brings up images of carrying two or three heavy loads through some forsaken trail in the woods with mosquitos and black flies to swat and mud holes to dodge.

Why do we do it?. It could be to get to the next lake, to try and escape from the crowds, to see some particular place, or to avoid an unrunnable rapid or fall. Most of us just grit our teeth and get it over with. Some of us look forward to the portages. Are we crazy or is there a method to our madness.

No matter how you look at it there are two things about portages that can't be changed. The first is that the gear and canoes have to be moved from one end of the portage to the other. The second is that you are going to have to carry it yourself.

When you cross a portage it involves the following steps:

1. Land and unload the canoe.
   This is fairly straight-forward. You paddle up to the start of the portage, get out of the canoe, move your gear from the canoe to the shore, and take the canoe out of the water. Most portages will only allow one canoe to unload at a time so for a group first one canoe unloads, then the next, then the next, and so on.
2. Arrange your gear.
   This is the process where you arrange your gear into the loads to be taken across. It usually involves stuffing loose stuff into pockets and packs and in changing footwear.
3. Carry through the first load.
   It's a fairly simple process. You pick up the load and carry it through to the other end of the portage. Most people walk at about 4KPH on an average portage trail so it takes about 15 minutes to carry the load over a one kilometer portage.
4. Go back for the second load.
   Pretty easy. Just turn around and head back the way you came. Once again, most people walk at about 4KPH on an average portage trail so it takes about 15 minutes to walk back to the start of the portage.
5. Carry through the second load.
   Same as the first load, except you are a bit more tired. Most people try to carry the canoe through on the first load when they are fresh.
6. Go back for the third load.
   Same as the first walk back. Try swinging your arms or shrugging your shoulders to losen them up.
7. Carry through the third load.
   Same as the second load. If you don't have it all across on this load you really ave a lot of stuff!
8. Arrange your gear.
   This is sorting out your gear and figuring out what you need accessable for while you are paddling and getting it out.
9. Load and launch the canoes.
   This is the reverse of unloading. You quite often can only load one canoe at a time.

So how do you make it easier? Let's use three hypothetical groups of canoeists. Each group is of six people in three canoes. For the purpose of discussion we will assume that they don't get tired and take breaks. Everyone weighs 150 pounds and can carry a 75 pound load through a portage. Let's also assume that they are using 50 pound canoes.

In group A everyoe has a 50 pound backpack full of gear. They also have a 20 pound daypack for each member, two 50 pound food packs, and two 50 pound equipment packs.

Group B decided to use lighter food and to leave some of the unnecessary gear at home. They found that everything would fit into six 50 pound packs, three 20 pound daypacks, a 50 pound equipment pack and a 75 pound food pack.

Group C decided that they would leave all unnecessary gear at home and packed all dehydrated or dry foods. The found that two people could share a pack so they ended up with three 75 pound packs and three 20 pound daypacks with the food and group equipment.

Let's see what effect the packing decisions make when the three groups come to a one kilometer portage. Let's follow the steps through.

1. Land and unload the canoe.
   Let's say it takes 15 seconds to remove a piece of gear from the canoe and put it on shore. A canoe takes 30 seconds to get up on shore. With group A, two canoes have 5 pieces of gear, one has 6. they took 5 1/2 mintes to land.
   Group B had two canoes with four pieces of gear, one with three. It took them 4 1/4 minutes to land.
   Group C had two pieces of gear in each canoe. It took them 3 minutes to land.
2. Arrange your gear.
   This is pretty variable. I know groups where it takes 15 minutes, I know others who lift the gear out of the canoe straight onto thier backs and leave. Lets say group A spent 10 minutes, group B spent 5 minutes, and group C spent one minute.
3. Carry through the first load.
   This takes the same time for each group, 15 minutes.
4. Go back for the second load.
   Groups A and B went back for a second load, it took 15 minutes. Group C is finished.
5. Carry through the second load.
   It took groups A and B another 15 minutes.
6. Go back for the third load.
   This time it was just the people from group A, it took another 15 minutes.
7. Carry through the third load.
   And after another 15 minutes, group A is done carrying.
8. Arrange your gear.
   It's sort of like arranging your gear before the portage but it usually is quicker. Let's say group A takes 5 minutes, group B takes 2 minutes, and group C just put it in the water at the end of the portage and left.
9. Load and launch the canoes. Just like landing, group A takes 5 1/2 minutes, group takes 4 1/4 minutes, and group C takes 3 minutes.

Let's look back and see what happened. Group A spent 5 1/2 minutes landing, 10 minutes arranging the gear, 75 minutes carrying it across, 5 more minutes arranging the gear, and another 5 1/2 minutes to depart. The portage took one hour and fourty one minutes to cross with 770 pounds of gear and canoes.

Group B took 4 1/4 minutes to land, 5 minutes to arrange the gear, 45 minutes to carry it across, 2 minutes to arrange it again, and 4 1/4 minutes to depart. The portage took the group one hour and a half of a minute to cross with 635 pounds of gear and canoes.

Group C took 3 minutes to land, 1 minute to arrange the gear, 15 minutes to cross the portage, and another 3 minutes to depart. The portage took the group 22 minutes to cross with 435 pounds of gear and canoes.

It gets even more interesting when you include the weight of the people into the equation. With three passes the total weight moved by group A becomes 5270 pounds. For group B it becomes 3335 pounds. For group C it becomes 1335 pounds.

Single pass portaging is for wimps!
It's true! When you look at the numbers you see that two pass portaging takes 2 1/2 times the effort of a single pass portage and that a three pass portage takes about 4 times the effort.

So really, there are two things to do to make a portage easier. One of them is to leave unnecessary stuff at home and the other is to pack it in fewer packs. Both of these compliment the other and you find that with more planning you can have an easier trip.

Of course this only matters on a trip with lots of portages or long portages. For a trip with fewer or shorter portages it can be (and probably is) more trouble than it's worth to try and pack more efficiently. On easier trips I can be found carrying chairs or a box of firewood. One friend carries along scuba gear and spare tanks. But, as you throw in more portages the amount of gear drops. It's a personal decision as to how much you want to bring that item against how much work it is.