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the one titled steel river,well i just read it and wanted to thank you for sharing…great reading very interesting and you surely peeked my interest on them pak canoes…i’d like to atleast see one…bein a newbie i just can’t imagine unfolding and floating on vacation (trip) it sounds too cool!!!
obaOBA,
The Pakcanoe is obviously not intended for being disassembled for portages. On most ports the amount of time required to disassemble a canoe isn’t worth it. But Diablo isn’t just any portage either. Most folks end up dragging their canoes up Diablo and over the Devils Den sections of the port. Rather than drag the canoe, I opted to dissassemble the canoe and reassemble, allowing me to carry the entire canoe in a backpack, freeing my hands. We did the remaining portages on the trip with the pakcanoe assembled.
I have three Pakcanoes at this time, 1 solo, 1 Puffin kayak outfit as a canoe, and the tandem. We’ve used them over the years to allow us to cost effectively do canoe trips via commercial airlines, and due to dilligent searching for the canoes we’ve recouped almost all of the purchase costs in a single trip over rentals. Given how well they run whitewater with a tripping load, the tandem was the right boat for the Steel.
Were working on pulling together another Pakcanoe trip in 2009. We’ll post it here when we get back.
For more information on Pakcanoes… check out their website at http://www.pakboat.com and chat with Alv. He’s done some very cool canoe trips that would be all but impossible to do cost effectively in anything other than a folding canoe.
PK
@pknoerr 422 wrote:
Most folks end up dragging their canoes up Diablo and over the Devils Den sections of the port. Rather than drag the canoe, I opted to dissassemble the canoe and reassemble, allowing me to carry the entire canoe in a backpack, freeing my hands.
Personally, I’d rather carry a Pakcanoe on my shoulders than in the bag. [Pakcanoe’s are ideal if there is a fly-in or fly-out, or if you need to fly commercial and check the canoe.]
Dragging a canoe never made sense to me, unless you’re going over grass.
If you look in the photo galleries (Kasmere-Arviat 2007), you’ll see two pics of our pakcanoe: kognacelbowmed and kognacpaddling. You can see our portage yoke in the 2nd picture, and our 3 spare paddles (2 aluminum, 1 bent).
I’ve carried a Pakcanoe a few times. They’re surprisingly light. Depends on the portage and how it’s packed. If it’s a long and technical hike, I’d rather have the weight on my hips and close to my body. Twisting and foot placement gets wierd when the mass is in front and behind.
Packing and re-assembly takes most of an hour?
Dragging made a lot of sense to me on one trip. Tough plastic canoe, dehydration, fairly clean portage.
@AndyB 425 wrote:
Personally, I’d rather carry a Pakcanoe on my shoulders than in the bag
Andy, go back and read the trip report and my posting. I carried the Pakcanoe in a backpack complete with two shoulder straps and a hip belt. It all went over Diablo as a 50# pack. Diablo isn’t the longest port in the world… but it’s somewhere between 1200 and 1400 feet vertical. That works out to close to 1/4 the way out of the Grand Canyon!! It was a walk in the park in the pack compared with my main pack.:p
As to packing and rebuilding it… I’d say less than 10 minutes to pack it up, and at the most 20 to rebuild it… I’ve assembled a Pakcanoe a few times over the last few years.. and I know most of the tricks to make it a reality. In addition, we were planning on camping on the island just out from the portage… so time wasn’t an issue. Infact, I’m willing to bet that I saved those 30 minutes on the port not having to mess with negotiating the canoe through the trees while trying to climb with handholds over the portage and then enjoy all ankle busting fun of Devils Den. 😀
PK
You right PK, I didn’t read the report. If you made a backpack for the canoe, this would be easier.
El Diablo is 1200-1400 vertical feet? It must be up and down?? Lake Superior is 600 ft asl, and the divide to Hudson Bay is ~1000 ft asl.
Edit:
I looked it up. Santoy Lake is ~800 ft asl, and Diablo Lake is ~1130 ft asl. The ridge between the two gets as high as 1500 ft asl, but the portage wouldn’t go over the top of the ridge.I’m guessing El Diablo has a 400 ft climb? It probably feels like 1/4 of the Grand Canyon.
OBA, we didn’t run that ledge – that one would be a bad idea. We portaged around it.
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I think it’s a good idea to listen and read when you’re new to canoeing, but then go out and form your own opinions.
PK and I might be considered experts by some, by I’m sure we do some things differently. What works for me, will not always work for some one else.
I really like Cliff’s Expedition Canoeing book b/c he gets this point across well with his interviews with other canoe trippers. I don’t know him personally, but enjoy his ‘high energy’ talks. Cliff has been really good at marketing his books – but there are many more people out there who have done more canoeing than Cliff (I wouldn’t lump myself in that category – I’ve done a lot of miles, but only did my first trip 20 years ago, and have only done 2 barrenlands trips).
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The more amusing aspects related to canoeing are those habits/styles which you won’t see in print.
For example, we just swish some ‘purified’ water around in our bowls to clean, and wipe visually clean with a finger. The cooking pot I clean with lake water, and scatter any scraps. I bet a lot of people do this, but you wouldn’t know it from reading books.
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