Hi gang,

        Just got back from an 8-day trip through Michigan. We were able to
camp by and swim in 3 Great Lakes (Michigan, Superior and Huron) and saw
lots of beautiful country. This was the first road test of my new
roof-rack setup. I've dithered about this for years --- fearing that I'd
get the rack but not be able to lift the poptop with the canoe on it.
Having tried it, I can only say that those who can lift the poptop with a
canoe on it (and a number of listees claim it can be done) must be built
like the Governor of California. I can't even budge the thing. However
(and this was my backup plan when I bought and installed the racks) it is
very easy to simply hop up into the luggage rack, stand up and lift the
canoe --- with attached rack and poptop ---- from there. I got my wife to
push the bar on the inside poptop support into place ---- but feel sure
that I could rig something so that I could do this alone if necessary.
Anyway --- I just love being able to lift the top without unloading (and
then loading) my canoe. It was so easy that we'd lift the top if we pulled
over for half an hour --- something that we could only do when travelling
without the canoe. Don't know why someone hasn't suggested this before.
Lowering the rig is sort of a controlled crash --- I can ease the fall of
the canoe/poptop combo so that it lands gently ---- just don't ask me to
lift it back up :-)

Cheers,
Doug