06-18-2003, 02:11 PM
[cool]I carry a tube one of two ways. I either balance it on my head, which I have done for some pretty lengthy hikes. Or, you can rig straps to fasten to the D-rings...or wrap around the tube...and carry on your back, like a backpack. Here's a pic of me down in Mexico, bringing my gear up from a walk down to the water. I wish I had a dollar for every mile I have trudged a tube on my head.
![[Image: SCOU1712CustomImage0424293.jpg]](http://web.ecomplanet.com/SCOU1712/ServerContent/MyCustomImages/SCOU1712CustomImage0424293.jpg)
If you are only going a mile or so, it is usually not too bad, unless you have to do some serious climbing or work through trees and brush. Down here in Arizona we also have to watch out for spiny plants and cactus. TubeBabe once had a "deflating experience" because of some unseen cholla cactus spines. She sat her tube down in the water when we got there and was unhappy to hear and see several streams of bubbles coming up from around her donut.
If you are carrying the Browning, that is a heavier tube than most people would like to take packing, but you are young and tough. Since it has the big truck tire tube, you have to inflate it with a tire pump...which is more weight to carry, if you pack your tube deflated. The newer craft, with the Boston valves and vinyl or urethane bladders are lighter and easier to inflate quickly with the high volume air pumps.
If you are planning to do some serious pack-in fishing to the remote lakes in the Uintas, you should save your aluminum cans for a smaller lighter craft that you can put in a backpack. Your fins are also the older and heavier kind, so you have a lot of weight to carry just to chase some little troutskis around on those backcountry lakes. But then, nobody ever accuses us float tubers of being totally rational anyway.
If you want a diagram or suggestions on how to rig your inflated tube up as a backpack, send me a PM and I'll see if I can help.
TubeDude
[signature]
If you are only going a mile or so, it is usually not too bad, unless you have to do some serious climbing or work through trees and brush. Down here in Arizona we also have to watch out for spiny plants and cactus. TubeBabe once had a "deflating experience" because of some unseen cholla cactus spines. She sat her tube down in the water when we got there and was unhappy to hear and see several streams of bubbles coming up from around her donut.
If you are carrying the Browning, that is a heavier tube than most people would like to take packing, but you are young and tough. Since it has the big truck tire tube, you have to inflate it with a tire pump...which is more weight to carry, if you pack your tube deflated. The newer craft, with the Boston valves and vinyl or urethane bladders are lighter and easier to inflate quickly with the high volume air pumps.
If you are planning to do some serious pack-in fishing to the remote lakes in the Uintas, you should save your aluminum cans for a smaller lighter craft that you can put in a backpack. Your fins are also the older and heavier kind, so you have a lot of weight to carry just to chase some little troutskis around on those backcountry lakes. But then, nobody ever accuses us float tubers of being totally rational anyway.
If you want a diagram or suggestions on how to rig your inflated tube up as a backpack, send me a PM and I'll see if I can help.
TubeDude
[signature]