riverman wrote:
One thing about Old Town that I could never understand: they put
their
carrying yokes in backward. When you have the canoe on your
shoulders,
its nice to have that secondary thwart in front of you to hold on to.

We always turned the yokes around on all our new OT boats.

To which Jon replied:
Huh. I haven't used our canoe in a few years (OT discovery 15'6"),
but I've always cartopped it solo (and portaged a similar OT in
Grand Teton NP solo) and never noticed this. You're probably right,
my recollection is always holding on to the sides. I'm hoping to get
it out this year, so I'll check this out.

For most portages, like from the car to the water, the sides are
completely adequate. But for some long wilderness portages (the longest
I ever did was about 5 miles around a gorge on the Chimachouane in
Quebec), you really appreciate being able to move your arms around to
different locations. You can also use just one arm for a bit, on the
center of the front thwart. And best of all, there is this clever way
to rig your two paddles running lengthwise, tied to the two thwarts so
that you can shift the boat forward and back and adjust the weight. It
works especially well if you are hanging excess gear on to reduce the
number of portages you need to make.

--riverman

I never put the canoe into the side of a car, but I have knocked
innocent bystanders on their ass a few times.