I just finished a kayak yoke for my upcoming trip in two weeks. I put it together in a hurry so the craftsmanship is rough, but I don't think my kayak will care much. I used a design I found on Youtube by Rob Farrow but made the yoke adjustable, as I am renting kayaks from Sawtooth and thus couldn't customize it. The inner holes are for the Chosen Valley sling pad (very comfortable!), the middle holes are for a cockpit brace (which I designed with a riser to lift the kayak a bit more), and the outer holes are for parachute cord around the cockpit groove - if necessary. Hopefully it will work as planned! If not, we will stick with short portages or just stay on Brule. Pictures are below for those who are interested.

I think you did very well putting this together. I have a couple of kayaks but none I'd want to portage. Hope those wood clamps hold out for you. If they work well and it's worth investment to modify, here's a link to aluminum clamps.

Thanks mjmkjun. I'm bookmarking that link. The wood blocks won't act as clamps but as stops up against the inside of the cockpit. I'll wedge the yoke up tight to "attach" it to the kayak. I can run rope around the cockpit groove or under the boat if I need to but from what I've seen elsewhere that hopefully won't be necessary. Here's the link to the youtube design I copied for anyone who's interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfdo6Q0XgOU

Looks like a great setup, I love the Chosen Valley sling pads for mine. When you are on the trip try to get pics of the setup and how well it worked and any tweaks you made and post in the kayak forum. People are always looking for ideas on portaging kayaks.

Looks great! I'm really looking forward to hearing how it performs, as I'll be searching for any info I can get when I get around to transforming my clamping yoke into a "slide" version.