I forget to mention that just before taking my kayak off the wheels to load it on my truck, they failed catastrophically. Since I would not have a reason to ever put them back on the kayak, I decided to see if I could figure out why they were so wobbly. As I was moving them around to find the slack, a bolt broke and the entire system fell apart. I had put very little pressure on the wheels. They would never have made even one more portage before failing. I am incredibly shocked to have the good fortune of having this failure 10 feet from my truck and not on a portage someplace. Had this happened on a portage, I would have had great difficulty in getting back. This reinforced my idea on having a kayak that is easier to portage on your shoulders.
It also reinforced my instinct of leaving the NFCT until I have a better portage system. My instinct told me that it was not safe doing a solo trip with a questionable portage system. There are too many other potential problems that will require a functional portage system. In the event of severe weather, injury, or illness, I would need to move quickly and with as little difficulty as possible. I could not do this with my current portage system.
Portage system before failure
Portage system after Failure
I am truly sorry things didn't work out. But on the positive side you can learn from the things you experienced. And then the next time you take the tour, you will conquer it and it will be a more memorable and enjoyable experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm very sorry to hear about the end of your trip. As for portage carts I don't know of anyone who has used a cart like yours. Everyone I know of has used center carts. To my eye the one you used unsuccessfully looks like it might be good for getting kayak form the car to the put-in but certainly not for long rough carries.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading about your next adventure in a year or two, best of luck.
It's probably the shape and weight of my kayak that made finding a cart that works so difficult. I just bought plans to build a new kayak that should weigh about 40 pounds when done. I'll set it up to be portagable by carrying it or by cart. It's the 5% or so of portages that are rocky and hard to use a cart that makes doing a solo trip with a kayak so difficult. By being able to carry the kayak like a canoe, I hope that makes these sections much more doable.
ReplyDeleteI'll also probably build my own cart. There were problems with all of the carts I looked at or tried. Even now, I've been unable to find anything that I think would have worked with my kayak. I have several ideas that I think might be improvements over commercially available carts or maybe someone already tried those ideas and found they don't work. It should be an interesting experiment.
Thanks again for sharing your expertise concerning your trips on the NFCT. I really appreciated your ideas!