Portaging a 16' Old Town HW?

[RRHenseler]

We recently adopted a 1919 16' Old Town HW. We want to use it in the Boundary Waters next year and will need to portage it. Without a center thwart, we are wondering historically how it would have been portaged; how people are portaging them today; and the best clamp-on portage yoke people have made or bought?

 

[Benson Gray]

Clamp on carry yokes were available in 1919 as shown from the catalog assessory page attached below. Modern versions of these are available from most good canoe stores. There are old ones like this on eBay occasionally and these have always worked well for me. The pages at http://www.ebay.com/itm/120940099049 and http://www.ebay.com/itm/170323571219 show some newer ones. Good luck,

Benson

 

[RRHenseler]

Thanks Benson!

 

[Fitz]

These 16 footers with no center thwart can be carried with the gunnel over the shoulder, but it can be quite painful and I would only want to go a few hundred yards at the most!

 

[Rob Stevens]

Or you can share the load and tandem portage it.