MARION RIVER and the art of the carry
Spring arrived early this year and I was
anxious to get out and paddle in the
Adirondacks before blackflies made
their presence known. I chose to start out
on Utowana Lake, then carry 0.4 miles on a
trail to the Marion River.
In most of North America, the act of carrying a watercraft over land, either between
two bodies of water or around an obstacle
in a river, is referred to as a “portage;” in the
Adirondacks it is simply called a “carry.”
From a gravel pull-off on NY Route 28,
between the hamlets of Raquette and Blue
Mountain lakes, I shouldered the canoe and
walked about 200 feet on a path, which led
past a huge boulder to the shore of Utowana
Lake. I do not like to carry a canoe, even a
lightweight one, for longer distances on my
shoulder because the gunwales tend to dig
into the shoulder and hip bones.
Not long after I pushed off from shore,
a pair of loons swam nonchalantly past
before diving out of sight. The lean-to on
the north shore was, unsurprisingly in late
April, unoccupied; most of the rest of the
Utowana’s shoreline is private, yet there is
very little development on the lake.
After paddling 0.6 miles, I reached the
west end of the lake, and the start of the 0.4-
mile carry to the Marion River. From 1899 to
1929, over the same route as today’s carry, a
0.85-mile railroad carried vacationers who
were traveling on steamships that arrived
from Raquette Lake and the Marion River to
the west, and Blue Mountain Lake and Eagle
Lake to the east. The carry trail is perhaps one
of the easiest in the Adirondacks, with minimal
elevation change and fairly smooth surface.
I seldom use a cart to wheel my canoe
along Adirondack trails – most trails are just
too rough and bumpy, often with roots, rocks
and mud along the way. I would, however,
consider using a cart on a relatively smooth
road-like trail. For instance, I have wheeled a
canoe four miles on a dirt road to Newcomb
Lake a couple of times, reaching the lake
with canoe and camping gear in two hours.
Folks have also been wheeling canoes and
kayaks into Third Lake in the Essex Chain
Lakes Complex by skipping Deer Pond and
staying on the dirt road.
Carts should have either wide tires
(wheels at least 10” in diameter) or taller
bicycle-style wheels (at least 15” in diameter) to help smooth out the ride. The wheels
should be fairly wide apart, to prevent a tip-over when one wheel hits a rock, and there
should be good ground clearance between
the wheels.
I attached my canoe to my fat-wheeled
cart making sure the canoe and cart were
aligned properly and the canoe was centered over the cart. One strap went around
the front thwart of the canoe and another
strap around the rear thwart to prevent any
shifting. Paddles and pack were left in the
canoe and off I went enjoying the view to
my left of the Marion River cascading over
rocks. Things went smoothly until I arrived at
two trees that had fallen across the trail, and
I had to lift the canoe high enough so that the
wheels would clear this dead-fall. Soon after,
I reached the end of the carry.
My cart folds down and is stored easily
in the canoe. Sometimes I have just hidden
the cart in the woods and picked it up on
my return – kayakers might want to use this
strategy if there is little storage space available in or on the kayak.
The Marion River here was fairly shallow
and had a little current. As the river wound
its way for four miles toward Raquette Lake,
it grew wider and deeper, and the current
became less noticeable. A hill to the northeast had rocky cliffs and I made a mental
note that maybe next time I should climb
to the cliffs for a view. The river meandered
through an expansive marshy area. There
was also some cedar swamp and a variety of
conifers on drier land.
Three whitetail deer swam across the
river well ahead of me; then my illusion of
wilderness was interrupted by a small motorboat coming in slowly from Raquette Lake.
The boat was soon out of earshot; serenity
returned, and I was back in my wilderness.
At the lake I turned around and headed back
enjoying some views of Blue Mountain in
the distance. A handful of blackflies greeted
me back at the carry but these “early birds”
were, thankfully, not biting.
For a comparison of carry styles, I had
also brought along my usual carry set-up:
a removable clamp-on yoke. Most tandem
canoes have a permanently-installed carry
yoke but solo canoes, including pack canoes,
do not come with yokes because the paddler
sits close to the center of the canoe. A wooden yoke is usually sufficient for a short carry,
but on longer carries some sort of padding is
desirable, even on the deep-dish contoured
yokes often found on better tandem canoes.
There are several yoke pad styles commercially available – I’ve happily been using
CVCA pads for years.
After clamping the yoke at or near the
balance point of the canoe (slightly stern heavy is good), I tuck my paddles between
front and rear thwarts and the yoke without
the need to tie them in – Velcro or shock cord
could be used to tie the paddles in, if needed. My life jacket and any other loose items
get attached to my dry pack, then I hoist the
canoe up onto my shoulders and go. I wrap
my bow painter rope around the thwart in
front of me, and hold on to the dangling end
to keep the canoe balanced overhead; some
folks use a rope that goes from front to back,
and hold onto it at their hip.
Packs made for the canoeist do not
rise above the shoulders like ones made
for backpacking – this keeps the pack from
interfering with the yoke on a portage. If the
pack has a hip belt I leave it unattached so
as to keep the pack below shoulder level. My
day dry pack is about 35 liters in capacity and
my overnight dry pack is over 100 liters.
Carrying the canoe and all the gear in
one trip is referred to as “singling” the carry.
I’m usually in no rush to get anywhere so I
sometimes will “double” the carry, making
two trips. On the first trip, I might carry the
pack and paddles to scout the route, then go
back for the canoe. On this walk back, I can
take more time to enjoy my surroundings,
since visibility is compromised somewhat
when there is a canoe over your head.
In the case of two paddlers in a tandem
canoe, the ideal is to have one person carry
the canoe and a small pack, while the other
person carries a large pack with shared items
like stove, cookware, tent, etc., plus the paddles. In many cases, especially when using
a heavy canoe and/or bringing the kitchen
sink, doubling the carry might make more
sense to avoid injury.
Stepping over the downed trees was
easy. Back at Utowana Lake I removed the
yoke, detached the cart from my pack, and
got on my way back to the put-in. It was a
very enjoyable and scenic spring paddle
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