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Stumpy
distinguished member(2173)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
01/25/2025 07:52AM  
This was tacked up in my garage.
I’ll be 65 this year.
The North portage is over a half mile, over a high hill and lots of mud.
 
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01/25/2025 08:21AM  
wow, what a voyageur
 
thegildedgopher
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01/25/2025 08:26AM  
I’m 43 and couldn’t do that right now!
 
Jackfish
Moderator
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01/25/2025 10:44AM  
A lot of us feel the same way, Stumpy. The days of "Jackfish the Sherpa" are far in the rearview mirror. :)
 
01/25/2025 11:16AM  
The Little Red Engine(Grumpy)
As he neared the top of the portage, which had so discouraged the other voyaguers, Grumpy went more slowly. However, he still kept saying, "I think I can, I think I can".
finally reaching the top by drawing on bravery and then went on down the trail, congratulating himself by saying, "I thought I could, I thought I could".

Just one more time"True Grit"
 
NEIowapaddler
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01/25/2025 12:47PM  
Jeez Louise, I couldn't do that now, and I'm 31 and reasonably fit.
 
01/25/2025 01:00PM  
Another old fart with some great memories. Always nice to stumble upon some photo or what you might find and have a positive flashback. Thanks for the post.
I would grunt some work song I picked up from a movie where trolls were working in a mine like the cadence we used marching in the army. Still do that sometimes.
 
scottiebaldwin
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01/25/2025 02:04PM  
Impressive. Only the likes of George Bonga could pull that off!
 
01/25/2025 03:32PM  
Impressive. I'm 52 and that would be a double portage for me.
 
01/25/2025 03:43PM  
Just curious, what were you eating for breakfast back then???

TZ
 
Jakthund
senior member (98)senior membersenior member
  
01/25/2025 07:12PM  
I'm with you Stumpy. Turned 63 last fall.
Still carrying the Old Town Penobscot that I had in 1994. However, 30 years ago I used to also carry a heavy Duluth pack. I could easily jerk the canoe up and hump over the goat trail into Fourtown.
I was taught about the conservation of mass in school, but I swear that damn canoe is heavier than when I bought it.
I resolved myself to an extra portage a few years back, but I'm still too cheap to buy one of those fancy kevlar canoes. I still really like the old beast.
 
MidwestMan
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01/25/2025 10:48PM  
TrailZen: "Just curious, what were you eating for breakfast back then???

TZ"

Beans straight outta the can and coffee beans
 
01/26/2025 12:03AM  
Well I’m 54…so close to where you were at in age back then…when I was 34, I could have and did do similar…now at 54 no way. So you are way ahead of me…as usual :)

Sometimes you gotta learn how to enjoy your activity a different way is what I am finding.

T
 
01/26/2025 08:43AM  
I'll take that food pack. You go, man.
 
01/26/2025 10:04AM  
Yep - Knees hurt, muscle has turned to belly fat and in general i've decided alot of the lakes I used to paddle through on my way to "better" lakes will suit me just fine. 8 hr travel day used to be the norm. I'll be 49 this year and a 4-5 hour travel day suits me just fine.
 
Stumpy
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01/26/2025 11:17AM  
TrailZen: "Just curious, what were you eating for breakfast back then???


TZ"

I know I had oatmeal that morning....fast get away breakfast as we were coming out of Sunday Lake.
Bacon and eggs a few days on the trip.
 
01/26/2025 05:42PM  
Thats double tough man.
 
Dreamer
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01/26/2025 11:02PM  
I was 44 at the time, with my 2 daughters, and we had an old plastic canoe that weighed 90 pounds. I was huffing and puffing and stopped at a the Clearwater portage to West Pike to rest off to the side. It's a big wide portage with lots of room. And while we're sitting on a log, a short guy at least in his 50's pulls up in the exact same canoe, puts a huge pack on his back that had to be 70 pounds and then flips that 90 pound canoe over his head like it was a feather and marches down the trail like he was without a care. My daughters looked at me and I said slowly and very much in awe, "That, right there, is a real man!"

I feel the same reading this note. Respect!

We did end up single portaging a 38 portage loop several years later out Missing Link, but I hurt my knee on that trip and have never single portaged again...
 
mgraber
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01/27/2025 02:37PM  
Man, that was a load! I use to do similar, except with a 65# canoe. No longer, at 60 I am slowing down fast! sucks getting old :(
 
01/27/2025 03:52PM  
Stumpy: "This was tacked up in my garage.
I’ll be 65 this year.
The North portage is over a half mile, over a high hill and lots of mud.
"


Stumpy is that your pink flamingo in campsites. Once on Cairn I seen it, it was like the first of June and very cold with snow flurries in the air.
Wondered if you swamped the canoe, whomever it was had a huge clothesline up like trying to dry all your clothes and equipment.
 
01/28/2025 07:30AM  
Isn’t the pink flamingo Jim Carrier who does articles for the BWJ…also on Quiet Journey a lot. I might be remembering wrong?

I don’t remember Stumpy doing the pink flamingo… too much weight unnecessary weight for him LOL

T
 
01/28/2025 08:35AM  
timatkn: "Isn’t the pink flamingo Jim Carrier who does articles for the BWJ…also on Quiet Journey a lot. I might be remembering wrong?


I don’t remember Stumpy doing the pink flamingo… too much weight unnecessary weight for him LOL


T"
You may be right, I am not sure?
 
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