Portage pad preferences?

[Stick in Mud]

I'm looking to buy some portage pads, and I'm wondering what preferences we all have...

I saw these at a local sporting good store. Anyone had any experience with them?

It's a shoulder/neck-fitted piece of foam glued onto a yoke...I've used the big foam pads that rest on your shoulders, the plastic+foam "cup" kind that are designed (poorly, for me at least) to fit arround your shoulders, and the "sling-style" kind.

Is there a majority prefeence? I tried on the ones in the pic, and they seemed nice, but without a canoe on them, it's tough to say....

[Stick in Mud]

No preferences, eh?

[Duffman]

I'm still running rectangular pads but am thinking of going with the updated sling style pads from Chosen Valley Canoe Accessories.

I better like them for how much they cost.

[Stick in Mud]

Hm, interesting looking pads. Do you have any experience trying them?

[Duffman]

No experience with them Mike. I took a BW trip with the guy who makes them a few years ago. They peaked my interest, I have problems with my shoulders cramping up, so I'm willing to try something new.

I'll let you know if I like them or not. Probably by summer.

[PartyWhine]

Here's a link to my suggestion.

Minnesota made.

Wonderful product.

I've been using it for 20 years and would never go back.

And ... it doubles as a very comfortable seat !

Shouldn't everything on a camping trip have more than one use ?

I'll be on Waconia with it this Sat.

http://store.springcreek.com/Seats/Seats/Spring-Creek-s-Canoe-seat-yoke-p1598.html

[B@ssmaster]

An emphatic +1 to PartyWhine's comments. I have also been using this yolk for years, would never portage without one again. In fact, my son and I (mostly me) portaged (and paddled) my 17' aluminum canoe about 100 miles through the BWCA in 9 days on a Boy Scout High Adventure trip using it. I highly recommend them.

All the canoes in our annual guys BWCA fishing trip are outfitted with them, 6 canoes I believe. We all love them.

[nofishfisherman]

When I bought my canoe I ended up just making a set of pads myself. They might not be the prettiest looking things on the block but they are the most comfortable pad I've ever used.

I made them out of 1x4. 2 pieces of 1x4 bolt together to sandwhich to portage yoke you you don't need to drill into it. One of the 1x4's is covered in 6 inch foam and wrapped tight in a durable vinyl. The 6 inch foam compressed down to about 3 inches when wrapped.

I had all the materials laying around the house so it cost me nothing.

My canoe is almost 80 pounds and it doesn't hurt the shoulders at all with these pads.

You can kind of seen the pads in the picture below.

[Stick in Mud]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys. I am hoping I'll be able to see (and maybe try out) some of them at the Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Expo.

And I've also considered making some...I was looking at a book about canoeing the other day, and it had directions for making them that are a lot like what nofishfisherman recommends.

So many choices.

[Duffman]

Midwest will have the portage pads I showed, he makes them for Bell canoes. Made in MN.

Good luck!

[Hula_Grub]

I have the vinyl-covered block ones, and I really like them. You can move them fairly easily to the sides if you want to shove a pack under the thwart. I've also seen the sling-type used on trips I've been on with no issues.

My buddy has a broken set of the springcreek ones that partywhine mentions. I used these on a kevlar rental and they were great, and my buddy's set came from a rental also, so maybe that's why they broke. Of course, they broke on day one of our 6 day trip while on Knife Lake, so we had to baby the heck out of them all week. They also cost $90 and may require modifications to your current canoe.

Of the 4 mentioned in this thread, the LAST ones I'd get are the ones in the picture at the top. They're fixed position and glued on.