carring a fully loaded t-zip boat

[newtron]

Hey Yall,

Wondering if anyone here has developed a sweet system for portaging with a fully loaded boat with overnight gear in the t-zip with a bow bag on the boat. I specifically have a decked gnarwall and use a bow bag. Here in Washington every new river adventure sure seems to include portaging due to wood, but say you have a long walk around an un-runnable gorge but dont want to fully take the boat apart, any hand strap points anyone has added, to carry a heavier boat like a pack?

Roman Dial has a youtube video of the old days of boats with no big booty and they all used to just attach their packs to the bow in a way that they could just use the backpack straps like normal and have the boat over head. I've done this and it works well, but I'm not going back from the bow bag, it changed my boating experience ha ha

[MikeC]

I glue 2 alpacka grab loops to the inside of my cockpit, at the bow, right about where my toes touch when I'm sitting in the boat. These patches are glued about a fist-width apart.

Then I connect them with a loop of ~5mm p-cord. This creates a handle that I can grab while shouldering the boat, w which allows me better control of the boat when portaging.

Not perfect, but much better than without.