Still have about a week before heading in for a 6-8 day solo, but I have been putting all the pieces together in preparation.

Will be depending on quite a bit of DIY gear this year - pack, canoe seat, bug shelter, solo yoke, rod holster and if I have time to sew them, perhaps some rain pants. Plus several dog-related items, like her little tent. Build threads on these items are in the DIY subforum if anyone cares.

So here are some photos of it all rigged for single portaging. Canoe weighs 29.6 lb as pictured - that includes the paddles, bailer, painter, seat, back band and fishing rod.

Pack, with all food and 2.25L of water, weighs 26.75 lb - that also includes the PFD you see strapped on.

Does not include Cerberus, her pfd and her saddlebags, nor does it include my worn clothes.

Can't wait.

Wow, I guess you don't carry much food on your trips! My food weighs about 1.5lbs/day. And it's pretty lean - I don't know what ration can provide on average more than 1800 Cal/Lb, unless it's pure nuts and oil. If I had your pack that would leave only 10lbs for gear. My waterproof Granite Gear Superior weighs 4+ lbs empty. My scotch on 12-day trip will be another 2-3lbs...

I'm leaving the scotch at home this time.

I am carrying about 1 pound of dry food weight per day for 7 days, and longer will require a fish dinner or two. Will also hopefully have a shore lunch or three as well.

I'm a bit better than the 1800/lb you quoted - low 2000's I think. This is helped by Greenbelly's Meal2Go - 650 cal bars which I call lunch.

But to your point, subtracting the food and water, it's about 15 pounds of gear in the pack. And that does include the pack (15.5oz).

Reminds me of Shawn James' pool noodle portage system. Looks great, and so rewarding to use your own gear. Hope you have great weather and a great time.

MidwestFirecraft: "Reminds me of Shawn James' pool noodle portage system. Looks great, and so rewarding to use your own gear. Hope you have great weather and a great time."

That was the inspiration - the pool noodle system. Tried that for one trip and decided I could make something similar but more comfortable and stable...

I think you might be able to save yet a bit more weight if you drop down to a 4 lbs test line on that reel.

Seriously, That's some very impressive DIY work and crazy good discipline at packing! I think I pack a lot more like Eddyturn! Interesting that you measure to the nearest 100th of a pound. I tend to round to the nearest 10 pounds. Needless to say, I do not single portage. Have a great trip!

What you do is terribly impressive! I'd hate to follow your route, but I envy your style. It could be that we usually trip in different locations - and geography does dictate many of our choices - but I find it necessary to bring a repair kit and portage cleaning equipment that weigh combined 4lbs, another 8lbs of rain gear and spare clothing &c. My boat is 45lbs, but it's an advantage! - means that I can easily shed 15lbs from my carry just getting a new boat. What I don't understand is why you carry 2 liters of water in BW. Of course you can afford it, but - any other reason?

Awesome! Have a great trip!

EddyTurn: "What I don't understand is why you carry 2 liters of water in BW. Of course you can afford it, but - any other reason?"

That's just leaving the parking lot - enough for a decent chunk of the day before I need to filter some more. I am usually carrying 1L or less, on average.

Unless it's Angleworm, in which case that 2L is just enough to get me from the parking lot to the lake.

This is as helpful as it gets for someone going to Angleworm in a month.

I have a couple of trip reports on Angleworm...I'm a fan, but the portage is every bit as long as you've heard.

Dewormed is hilarious, I always enjoy a juicy description of someone else's misadventures. I myself once spent some unforgettable hours clearing what I thought to be an overgrown portage (it was on Crown land) to find myself by noon on the very same lake from which I had started at 8am, just few meters away from the starting point. At least I was lucky not to have anyone to bear testimony to this act of incredible stupidity.

That is awesome - channeling some Charlie for sure.

And perhaps like you, I'd rather be paddling even further north by a few hundred miles...

I wish I could go that light. My Blackwater with SPOT, Inreach, map strips for the entire route, bailer, rudder system, yoke, same exact paddles as yours, compass, red light for map reading (1 oz.), and pee bottle, weigh in at #37. My pack is barely sub #40. My PFD is heavy with an ACR rescuelink, strobe, compass, and a few emergency items. Then there's the fanny pack, carried on my front with the days food fuel for between breakfast and dinner, emergency poncho and sometimes a hypothermia kit ( a candle lantern to place under the poncho ). I need more than 2000 calories a day for the long days I put in though. You're really set up to MOVE!

I'm excited to go - and to cover some ground...though I do like layover days.

However I just learned that two of my children are accompanying me on my solo...now in an 18 foot Northwind.

Not as mobile, and I am fairly certain I can't call it a solo anymore...

sns: "However I just learned that two of my children are accompanying me on my solo...now in an 18 foot Northwind.
Not as mobile, and I am fairly certain I can't call it a solo anymore..."

You still might, depending on your kids' attitude. I'm not sure how to classify me operating 18.6 canoe from the stern while my wife was taking care of our toddler son in the bow - if it wasn't solo then what was it? But I can only envy your tripple-solo with your sons! Don't forget an arm-chair, professional set of zoom lenses and what-not for them to carry :). My elder kids stopped going on flat-water trips altogether after they hit 15 or 16 years old threshold.

EddyTurn: "

sns: "However I just learned that two of my children are accompanying me on my solo...now in an 18 foot Northwind.
Not as mobile, and I am fairly certain I can't call it a solo anymore..."

You still might, depending on your kids' attitude. I'm not sure how to classify me operating 18.6 canoe from the stern while my wife was taking care of our toddler son in the bow - if it wasn't solo then what was it? But I can only envy your tripple-solo with your sons! Don't forget an arm-chair, professional set of zoom lenses and what-not for them to carry :). My elder kids stopped going on flat-water trips altogether after they hit 15 or 16 years old threshold."

OK, you get to keep the 'solo' moniker.

But I've tripped north of Quetico with these two jokers before...then 10, now 13...I'm expecting some real contribution.

Might skip past the arm-chair and bring the Palanquin. :-)

That's how I pack. I don't bring water with. I use a .06L BFree

Blatz: "That's how I pack. I don't bring water with. I use a .06L BFree"

I own one of those - should probably use it more on solos! Net weight reduction for carrying less water, for sure.

I've noticed some consistently negative note in Befree reviews (both on Amazon and by professional reviewers) in regard to its bottles being leak-prone. For multi-day tripping it's a major deficiency. Same goes for another seemingly attractive filter - Sawyer Squeeze. I'll be trying this season new Platypus QuickDraw micro filter. It looks very promising, weighs close to nothing, offers no-clogging filter and Platypus bottles reliability is well-known. My major concern is that none of this manufacturers makes a pre-filter for their bottles to get rid of sand and dirt when filling from a creek or from a lake shore in shallow water. Steripen makes one, but it's not exactly compatible with Platypus bottle.

Voyager: "I wish I could go that light. My Blackwater with SPOT, Inreach, map strips for the entire route, bailer, rudder system, yoke, same exact paddles as yours, compass, red light for map reading (1 oz.), and pee bottle, weigh in at #37. My pack is barely sub #40. My PFD is heavy with an ACR rescuelink, strobe, compass, and a few emergency items. Then there's the fanny pack, carried on my front with the days food fuel for between breakfast and dinner, emergency poncho and sometimes a hypothermia kit ( a candle lantern to place under the poncho ). I need more than 2000 calories a day for the long days I put in though. You're really set up to MOVE!"

You could cut weight by carrying one rescue beacon instead of three (spot, inreach and resculink).

sns: "Still have about a week before heading in for a 6-8 day solo, but I have been putting all the pieces together in preparation.

Will be depending on quite a bit of DIY gear this year - pack, canoe seat, bug shelter, solo yoke, rod holster and if I have time to sew them, perhaps some rain pants. Plus several dog-related items, like her little tent. Build threads on these items are in the DIY subforum if anyone cares.

So here are some photos of it all rigged for single portaging. Canoe weighs 29.6 lb as pictured - that includes the paddles, bailer, painter, seat, back band and fishing rod.

Pack, with all food and 2.25L of water, weighs 26.75 lb - that also includes the PFD you see strapped on.

Does not include Cerberus, her pfd and her saddlebags, nor does it include my worn clothes.

Can't wait.

Now That's how you do it



"

Watertribe requires both a SPOT and Resqlink for their canoe challenges. I use the Inreach to contact my wife in case I have to pull out somewhere and have her pick me up.