|
Pre
trip preparations
|
|
We
used two canoes for our trip, but couldn't fly both
of them on the pontoons of the Beaver and still
carry enough gear for the trip. To free up enough
capacity, we nested a 16 foot canoe inside a 17
foot craft.
|
|
|
Once
the seats, deckplates and thwarts are removed, the
smaller canoe fits snuggly inside the longer one. I
had to modify the gunnels a bit to provide a device
to screw the deckplates back into, but it didn't
take long to modify the original design.
|
|
|
The
nested canoes are a great fit and will provide no
more resistance than one canoe in flight. This
gives us about 150 pounds extra cargo
capacity.
|
|
|
The
16 foot canoe all but disappears inside the longer
boat. We could have waited to dismantle them just
before flying out, but figure we'd get a little
better gas efficiency this way. Besides, it was
worth it to see some of the double takes on the
long drive north.
|
|
|
Ground
Zero - This is action central for the pretrip
packing, our living room. It takes a while to
organize and double check all the gear before
packing it away.
|
|
|
|
