Portage refers to the practice of carrying a canoe or other boat overland land to avoid an obstacle on the water route (such as rapids in a river), or between two water routes. Over time, depending on the importance of the portage, they were sometimes upgraded to canals with locks, and even railways. Portaging generally required unloading the vessel and carrying vessel and contents across the portage in multiple trips. Voyaguers would often employ a tump line on their forehead to carry a load armfree on their back. Small canoes can be portaged by carrying them inverted over one's shoulders and the center brace may be designed in the style of a yoke to facilitate this.
Places where portaging occurred often became temporary and then permanent settlements and the settlements sometimes were named for being on a portage, particularly in North America. Some places so named are:
- Cranberry Portage, Manitoba
- Portage, Indiana
- Portage, Michigan
- Portage, Ohio
- Portage, Pennsylvania
- Portage, Wisconsin
- Portage la Prairie, Manitoba (often referred to as "Portage")
- Portage Glacier, Alaska
- Portage Township, Michigan
- Portage Township, Pennsylvania
There is also the settlement of Portage, New Zealand and Volokolamsk in Russia.
It is also a computer program: