I’m going on a trip soon and there will be 3 of us with 3 canoes and gear. There is a particularly long portage we will have to deal with. I normally just take all of my gear in one go, and drop off some gear halfway through then come back and get it.
But…it seems to me that it could be more efficient to have the three of us carry gear partway in a conveyer belt fashion.
I carry what I can to the end, a person carries gear 1/3 of the way then goes back for more, and the other person carries gear 2/3 of the way and goes back to where the first person dumped stuff and carries the gear to her dumping off point. I then can go back to the 2/3 point and carry stuff the rest of the way.
Does my explanation make sense?
Anyway, is this more efficient (theoretically or practically) than everyone carrying some gear all the way across then coming all of way back for the rest of the gear?
I’m open for any suggestions on the most efficient way to get all of our gear across the portages.
I kayak quite a bit and portage fairly frequently (if only across sandbars and around beaches). IMHO, with the exception of very heavy items (like canoes) that require more than one person, it is less tiring to divide the portage into multiple segments. In fact, I usually find that each person can handle a heavier load for a shorter segment and we can do the portage in fewer trips. This is especially true if there’s an obstacle, like a seawall, where one person can lift the equipment to another person. For a portage of a 1/4 mile, for example, one person can often carry virtually all the equipment for 100-150 yards without too much strain. I don’t know if the same applies for much longer distances. Again, strictly my opinion and experience.
I did a canoe/fishing trip with a friend a few years ago. The put-in was difficult to get to, a 1/4 mile trip down a pretty nasty grade. We took my canoe and supplies first, then went back up for my friend’s boat.
As we were readying to paddle, I mentioned how much heavier his canoe was compared to mine. He told me that was because of his anchors. Huh? He had two cinder-blocks in his canoe to use as “anchors”.:smack:
I think the pattern is called ‘leap frogging’ and I think its supposed to require fewer trips logged by each person. I’d like an explanation if this is really true.
one canoe and one pack for each person; carry the pack first, come back and get the canoe.
thats part of the question…is it better for eacg person to carry the canoe all the way then come back and get the pack, or is it better for a person to carry it part way, dump it and the other person carries it the next part.
Transferring gear between people instead of carrying it all the way adds additional steps to unload/reload on new person, otherwise they are identical. If your gear is neatly packed in backpacks so loading/unloading is trivial, this won’t matter. If the gear is more complicated, it might make a difference.
It can be complicated further by experience, speed, and the pulling-your-own-weight factor. On my last portage trip, I ended up walking 12 km on a 2 km portage, and luckily 5 km of that was unladened. I can excuse the three girls, but the other guy that was with us was useless. So if you define “efficiency” for the group, it will be different than efficiency for any particular individual.
OK, if it’s only one pack and one canoe each. I would hike the path with my gear first to get my bearings and scout out the trail ahead then go back for the canoe. I’d prefer to stay together, for safety or if anyone needs help, etc… besides I’d rather enjoy the trip than worry too much about efficiency. In this case, I don’t see any point in over-complicating things.
That said, if there was more gear involved that would require more than the 2 trips, I might rethink it. As Balthisar said, it really depends on who the others are and their strengths and weaknesses.
This is a simplified case where ‘portage and a half’ makes sense:
2 people with two packs and a canoe (or 3 things to carry)
I drew circles and arrows for a few cases and it looks like it makes more sense that if you have 2 people and 3 things to carry (where you can’t do it all in one trip)
You will be more efficient if 1 person carries a load all the way, and the second person carries their load 1/2 way, then goes back for the final load, which they carry the entire way. The first person comes back half way to get the second carry that was dropped off.
Both people arrive at the destination ideally at the same time.
This is better than both people carry a load across then one (or both) go back to get the remaining pack.
I haven’t bothered with how this would work for a “3-body” problem with odd or even number of packs.
