Sure, it’ll float. But will it carry?

Let’s face it, I can be lazy. Not always - I often work my tail off, and I love my job. But when it’s time to carry a bunch of heavy gear around, I’m not pumped about it. After some soul searching, my wife and I agreed that we’d much rather be lightweight boaters. It opens up more opportunities for us to get out on the water because we don’t hassle with a trailer, we don’t exhaust ourselves loading/unloading heaps of gear, it’s easier to find what we’re looking for, and we don’t really miss it when we don’t happen to have the kitchen sink with us. We find that by hauling and dealing with less and lighter gear, we have more time and energy for hiking, games, and fun.

There are a ton of options for lightening up your gear. We’re backpackers, so we’re already used to giving gear a good hard look and asking whether it’s worthwhile to bring it along. We’ve generally landed on bringing necessary items regardless of weight (pin kit, first aid kit, repair kit, groover, water, etc.) then lightening up discretionary things (clothes, food, games, camp kitchen, etc.). One way to lighten up your boat regardless of how much gear you’d like to bring is to lighten up your frame.

The Better Mounts lightweight frame comes in at roughly half the weight of a competing commercially available frame, without sacrificing strength. We have taken a hard look at every piece of a frame and optimized it for strength, performance, and weight. In our opinion, our lightweight break down frames are the best on the market.

If you’re considering flying in to a put-in (like Indian Creek on the MFS), hiking down to a put-in (like via Chuckar Trail on the Gunnison), or hiking up from a takeout (like North Wash on Cataract Canyon), you may want to take a good hard look at all of your gear, lightening things up can make your trip easier, potentially cheaper, and definitely less work.

If you’re looking to set up a new boat, or improve your current setup, please check out the frame options we offer. Give us a call, we’d love to help get you the best frame for your needs.