CANOEING
The Art of Portaging
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By Brian Cooke
MY FIRST PORTAGE NEARLY broke me. The canoe paddles, tied from the centre thwart to the bow seat, were pressing down into the flesh covering my shoulder blades. With each gangly step forward I could feel my body collapsing from the strain. The canoe’s tumpline, a device rarely seen on canoes since the advent of lighter, more forgiving boat hulls, only added to my torture. Designed to help support the boat by transferring weight to the carrier’s forehead, it instead slipped forward and tightened itself around my neck, which restricted my breathing every time the canoe’s bow dropped.
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Photo (origiinal) by Gerald Oskoboiny.
This spectacle, witnessed by my fellow trippers, resembled more a funeral procession than a joyful expression of youth. When I returned to camp some days later I felt like I’d been beaten. I felt this way because the councillor-in-training who accompanied me on this trip carried his canoe with a stoic determination that defied his age and experience, or so I thought. Later that summer, when my canoe continued to get the better of me, this 16 year old shared with me the prophetic words that I have since shared with all struggling trippers. “Portaging,” he said, “is only 10% physical and 90% mental.” Strength is all good and fine but you need to have the will and the heart to ignore the weight, the bugs and the fallen trees. To a young man, unsure of his own ability, these words put my entire ordeal in perspective. No trip was going to be the same after that. Now, I love the portage. I love the portage because of where it takes me. A portage, much like life itself, is never easy. It can have long, steep uphill slopes. It can be slow and muddy. When the clouds explode and the rains come down, you must be prepared for it. If you’re not, the experience will leave you shaken. Many canoeists in their
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