How to Portage: Carrying Your Gear The Trip Center

Crucial to consider when planning any canoe trip are the portages you’ll encounter and what your team will be able (and willing) to tackle. If your route crosses between lakes, over waterfalls, or around rapids, you should expect to hit the shore and hoist your gear onto your shoulders.

Portaging can be a welcome challenge for a lot of canoe trippers, as well as break from paddling to stretch stiff legs. Part of the joy of wilderness tripping, especially with a team, is seeing how folks rise to challenges and find emotional and physical strengths to achieve more than previously thought possible. Don’t plan your route to avoid portages–you would be missing out.

To portage well, there are some nuanced tips we encourage you to consider:

Length
Terrain
Breaks
Loading and unloading boats, efficiently
Clothing

And of course, history. Break: The Grand Portage.

Music by “Blue Highway” by Podington Bear, Soul, Sound of Picture Production. Attribution-NonCommercial International License.