ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Height of Land Portage

Imagine you are on a big adventure exploring a forest and you come across a really big hill. You want to keep going and see what’s on the other side of the hill, but it’s too steep to go straight up and over. So instead, you look for a path that goes around the hill and helps you walk to the other side without going up or down too much.

Well, the height of land portage is kind of like that! It’s a special path that people make to help them move things from one side of the hill to the other. But instead of carrying heavy backpacks or suitcases, people are actually moving big, heavy boats!

Now, you might be thinking, “Why do people need to move boats?” Well, sometimes there are big, strong rivers that go through the forest, and if you want to travel from one river to another, you need to somehow get your boat across the land in the middle. That’s where the height of land portage comes in.

Picture this - you have a boat on the first river, and there’s a big hill in between that river and the next one. The river at the top of the hill might be too shallow or too rough for your boat to safely travel on, so you need to find a way to get your boat from the first river to the second river without going over or into the top river. That’s when people make a height of land portage.

To make the portage, people create a special pathway that goes up and over the hill, but without going too high or too low. They make sure the path is smooth and flat so that they can roll their boat over it. Sometimes they build wooden tracks or use big wheels to help them slide the boat along the path. Once they go over the hill, they can safely bring the boat down to the second river and continue their journey.

It’s like a really cool adventure, just like in the forest, where you have to find the best way around a big hill, but instead of just walking, people are moving boats and exploring new places! The height of land portage helps people safely and easily transport their boats from one river to another, even when there’s a big hill in the way.