Canoe
Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness StoreCanoe
Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness Store
Duluth-style packs vs. others
A. I have a question about canoe
packs. On my last boundary waters trip I used my gregory backpacking pack. I used the large heavy
duty (.06 mm) plastic pack to keep the contents dry. It seemed to work okay.
I've used the Knupac and found it pretty good for carrying the canoe and a pack at the same time,
but the metal frame doesn't fit across a 36 inch wide canoe (when loaded horizontal to the canoe).
I've been looking at some of the good canoe packs and food barrels-harnesses. Do most people double
portage? Can you use the trumpline and carry the canoe at the same time?
I guess what I'm asking for is some advise on choosing a canoe pack. Can you direct me to any
articles? So far all I've found are sales 'brochures'.
Q. The best overall pack for
canoes is a Duluth-style pack. No frame & nothing to interfere with quickly thowing it on your
shoulders and flipping the canoe up and taking off over the portage. That's what they were designed
to do. ALL of that other stuff is gimmicky or specialized beyond usefulness for the average guy.
Frame packs are a pain in a canoe because they just don't fit, period. Many people use them because
they are easy to carry with the transfer of weight to one's hips. Sure, that works extremely well
for backpacking and walking for 8 hours with a load on one's back, but they don't make a whole lot
of sense in a canoe where they stick out at inconvenient angles and waste cargo space. Duluth
packs were made to mush into a cargo hold of a canoe, be quick to fling over one's shoulder, (two
shoulders if it's a long portage) and away you go. This style was developed over 200 years ago by
those little french guys in the fur trade who carried a lot more weight than the average guy today.
It is still the predominant style used. ALL other packs are variants of this pack because there
are definitely better ways to carry stuff for different applications and areas (ie, frame packs for
backpacking and hauling odd shaped gear for great distances, mountains, etc.)
The Knupack was an item that we retailed briefly after the owner of the company kept coming over and
bugging us and we finally just gave in. It's an OK system (maybe) for someone with a back problem,
but it's not too hot for the average guy who gets a sore back once in a while. Instead of clipping
on all of that apparatus, I think it's much better to learn how to properly lift a canoe without
injury and without bending the back to do so. Good technique with practice is weightless, really
fast, and fits in any size canoe.
Double portaging is done by people who like to walk a lot and I have seldom done it, if ever.
Pack your entire trip so you are down to one pack per person or really close to that number. There
is a way to comfortably carry 2 Duluth packs and I'll be adding photos to our website in the near
future along with this pack discussion.
I hate tumplines. My neck prefers that I pack lighter and smarter. Tumps are for heavy packs. The
guy carrying the canoe should not be stuck with the heaviest pack, too. Make somebody else carry
that one.
The packs that I prefer for gear are the ones we sell. If I didn't like them, we wouldn't sell
them. You won't find a Knupack in our store anymore. We use Quetico-Superior packs which are a
Duluth-style pack with better modifications that any Granite Gear pack ever has had built in. Our
packs have waterproof bottoms, a map case on the cover and nylon sewn/riveted straps with padding.
The number one seller is a 3.5 pack with a 3.5 " gusseted sidewall (allows you to put in more
gear- primarily used for personal gear or as a smaller equipment pack). I'll also have this
information on our site as well with photos showing some of the of the different gussets and
modifications. All the packs will be the Duluth-style however with no frames anywhere.
Hope this preliminary info helps. I'm actually going to use much of what I wrote in those new
pages but I'll add lots of photos as well. Let me know how your canoe arrives. We're waiting to
see if the crate is going to work out OK.
Joe
More canoeing information in one spot than anywhere else on the web!
Click back to Red Rock's Main Page HERE
