Our next Must Have: Clamp-on Yoke Pads

One of the things that came out of the post mortem after CC 2006 was that we wanted to make the canoe carries more comfortable. The distance of the portages was never a problem, but the pain from the yoke digging into our necks was and this was one of the big things we wanted to correct before CC 2007.

The solution was simple...buy a basic yoke pad. Now my first thought was to buy one that was flat and would match the curves in the yoke, but these seemed nothing more then a piece of foam and we wanted something better.

After refining my google searches I stumbled across this canoe accessories site and knew that this was exactly what we have been looking for!

This is a sling type yoke pad (sold in pairs) that bolt on to the yoke and rest between your shoulder and neck. It is designed to wrap around the shoulder, spreading out the weight load over a much larger area, avoiding the painfull pressure points associated with an unpadded wood yoke.

Availablle in original or thick padding sizes, after discussing it with Gerry we decided to go with the original, as the thick looks like you would have to give up some balance for comfort.

The bolt on original size pad are $50 US/ pair....but will be worth there weight in gold next year if they are even half as good as they look.