Photo Rex Roof, CC BY 2.0
Portaging and lining
Getting the boat past what you cannot paddle: carrying it, or walking it through on ropes.
What you need
- A yoke or a pair of paddles lashed across the thwarts
- Painter lines, about 5 m on the bow and 5 m on the stern
- Two or three dry bags with proper straps, not loose gear
- Boots you do not mind soaking, with grip
- A throw bag where a hand can reach it
- Gloves, because wet rope through bare hands takes skin
How
- Scout first, on foot, before you commit the boat to anything you cannot see the end of.
- Unload on a flat spot at the landing. Carry the gear over first so you learn the trail with a pack, not with a boat on your head.
- Roll the canoe up to your thighs, then onto your knee, then over onto the shoulders with the yoke in place. Take the lift in stages and use your legs.
- Walk with the bow a little high so you can see the trail. Rest on a low branch or a rock rather than putting it down flat.
- To line down, stand on shore with the boat in the current, bow line long, stern line short, and let the current hold the boat out while you walk it down.
- To line up, reverse it: hold the bow in tight and let the stern swing out so the current pushes the boat away from shore.
- Keep both lines clear of your feet and never wrap a rope around a hand, a wrist or a waist.
Do and don't
Do
- Make two trips rather than one bad one.
- Keep the boat empty when lining. A loaded boat that pins is gone.
- Treat an unknown drop as a portage until you have walked it.
Don't
- Do not line a boat in water you could not swim out of.
- Do not stand downstream of a rope under load.
- Do not get between the boat and a rock in current. A pinned boat has tons behind it.
Watch for
Danger
- Foot entrapment: never stand up in moving water above your knees. If you are swimming, get on your back with your feet up and downstream.
- A boat that swings broadside in current will fill and pin in seconds. Let the rope go before it takes you with it.
- Wet rock, alders and a canoe on your shoulders is how ankles get broken. Slow feet.
Notes
Most of the trouble on a river trip happens at the two ends of a portage, not in the rapid.
A short carry you can walk twice beats a clever line down something you did not scout.
Updated 2026-09-20
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