Check out the auto accessory section of your favorite sporting goods store these days and if you’re like me you’ll begin to wonder “why didn’t I think of that?” What with all those choices of roof rack, hatch back, bumper and receiver hitch options for carrying your outdoor gear you could go crazy – if not broke.

There is a multitude of choices for carrying our latest recreational gear on our SUV, our ATV, our motorcycle or bicycle. It seems we’ll go to any length to get ourselves and our collection of outdoor gadgets from home to the range or favorite body of water. Then there’s a whole slew of other gizmos we can use to store our playthings at home and out of the way.

And when we can’t find the appropriate rig at the store, some of us rely on our Yankee ingenuity to modify someone else’s product to make it work for us. Still others put pencil to paper and come up with something homemade that works just fine, thank you (at least in our would-be inventor’s eyes).

My last vehicle, for example, was a pickup truck with a bed cap. The cap had a rack to carry a canoe, but when my interests turned to kayaking, the rack just wasn’t quite right. I needed some sort of saddle to cushion the kayak against the square aluminum cross bars. I found a couple of blue foam blocks that fit the bill. But then I needed a way to safely load my kayak way up there on those blocks. It wasn’t a convenient lift and I didn’t want to slide my boat over the racks from the back of the truck and scratch my boat.

So I set out to design an outrigger I could temporarily attach to the front rack, thus extending a saddle-shaped support out over the side of the truck. I could lift the bow of the kayak up and place it in the saddle, then go to the stern and lift it up and place it into the blocks on the rack. Then I’d walk back to the bow and move it sideways onto the front block. I could then remove the outrigger and strap the boat to the rack. It worked just fine. It made the job a cinch and it cost me next to nothing since I used scrap wood I had on hand. I must have spent several hours in the research and development and maybe another hour in the construction phase, tinkering here, shaving a little off there and generally standing back and admiring my inventiveness.

I pressed foam into the saddle with the black, non-slip side up so when I put the bow in the saddle it wouldn’t slip out. I had wooden pegs that I could insert to hold the rig in place while I loaded the boat and then remove after that task was accomplished. My rig was a piece of art, I tell you. I eventually sold the truck – but I kept the loader.

Another time I got to mulling over how to move my kayak around before and after loading it on my vehicle. Wouldn’t it be nice, I reasoned, not to have to carry this awkward piece of polyethylene around the yard or the launch site? What if I could just strap some wheels to the boat near the stern? They would serve as another set of hands assisting me in the task of getting from water to car or garage to car. Theoretically, I’d be able to move a loaded kayak to and from the water by myself simply by lifting on the bow toggle and towing the boat behind me.

I set to thinking about this, looked at what was on the market and eventually knocked out a prototype that seemed to work, well, most of the time. It had a few bugs, but I was some impressed with my handiwork. My rig has gone through a couple of reincarnations and the latest generation seems better than the original, although I’m still using the prototype.

My next dilemma was storage. I had to rig up some overhead slings I could use to keep my kayaks out of the way when they were not on the roof of my car. These turned out to be really low tech – nothing more than a couple of one-inch wide tie-down straps slung between pieces of 2-by-4s nailed to the stringers in my garage. One end is easily removed so I can slide the kayak into the front sling and slide my hands back to the stern and easily fasten the rear loop. When the pop-up camper is in the garage I can rest the boat on it and the job is even easier.

Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

Here’s a couple of problems most of us paddlers face – wet gear and too little space in our vehicles. We’re always looking for someplace to stow our wet gear so it doesn’t soak our dry stuff or get the inside of our car wet, and we’re always looking for more room in our cars to carry all our junk.

One of my paddling friends came up with an inventive solution. She stopped by a lobster trap maker and had him bend up a squat “trap” that would stretch between the two crossbars of her car’s roof rack and fasten to it. It’s sort of a Down Easter’s version of one of those fancy Rocket Boxes you see fastened to tourists’ Volvos, Excursions or Suburbans (as if 12 cubic yards on inside room isn’t enough). Except that this one does double duty in that the “porous” nature of its shell hastens the drying process. (It also hastens the wetting process if it’s raining, but who said things had to be perfect? Besides, a good rain eliminates the need to rinse the salt off your gear with the hose once you get home).

Her lobster trap-drying-rinsing bin is at least a step higher on the technical scale than another paddling friend’s technique. He wraps a long tie-down strap around his roof rack and kayak and strings onto it his paddling gear a piece at a time, kind of beaded necklace fashion. I’ve not had a chance to ask him whether the flapping gear on the roof distracts his driving. Again, great drying technique if it’s not raining, but my guess is that it promotes wear and tear on his gear – to say nothing of the paint on his vehicle’s roof.

My paddling buddy, Robert Causey, fancies do-it-yourself inventiveness when it comes to boat transportation and gear storage needs. (Actually, I think he’s a frustrated engineer in veterinarian’s clothing.) As for transporting his boats, he’s the macram? king. By the time he’s tied two kayaks and paddles to his Honda Civic’s roof rack, he’s fashioned no less than a baker’s dozen knots in some five color-coded ropes. The process is a bit time consuming but entertaining.

Then there’s a whole different mechanism he is assembling out of PVC pipe that will allow him to single-handedly load his sailing dingy, an eight-foot Walker Bay, on the Civic’s roof rack. Here’s where Archimedes (“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world.”) would be proud. There’s part of a spare mast involved (to lengthen the roof rack) and a couple of 11/2-inch PVC legs (assembled with an appropriate number of elbows) that serve as a ramp up which the boat is pulled via a pulley system attached, I think, to a sky hook. It’s something you’d have to see, but it works, he assures me – at least when the wind’s not blowing. (I think that when he gets to the launch ramp he simply turns the car upside down and sails off…)

Inside the Civic, in true Winston Cup fashion, he has assembled a PVC pipe-cage system that serves as a place to hang paddling gear and satisfy the whims of anyone looking for a mobile jungle gym. Hey, whatever floats your boat!

I may get a chuckle out of Causey’s machinations, but he gets the last laugh at the gas pump. There’s no comparison in gas mileage between his Civic and my old Jeep Cherokee. Truth be told, my friend has figured out a sure-fire way to bypass the gas pump, and I discovered his secret recently. This may rock the automotive world, and I’m sure “Car and Driver” will be pestering me for verification after reading this: Causey has figured out how to use mouse power to propel his little blue car.

A couple of weekends ago we ventured to Schoodic Point to watch the surf, and as is usual on our departure from town we stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts to get a coffee and bagel (it’s the No. 3 combo) and sometime I’ll let you in on a secret about ordering it and getting what you want). As we pulled in and came to rest in a parking spot, a mouse popped out from under the hood by the windshield wipers. We (the mouse and I) stared at each other for a few seconds. As I whispered for Causey to take a quick look, it disappeared under the hood, but re-emerged seconds later on Causey’s side near the windshield post.

Howling with laughter we got out to take a look under the hood, and sure enough, there was the mouse on the grill. The critter disappeared under the hood, and we were unable to locate him. I figured he went back to the mouse wheel for his next shift.

Back to boat transportation…

The easiest and safest way to load and unload your boat, of course, is to have an assistant, a paddling or sailing buddy, to give you a hand with the heavy lifting. Sometimes you can conscript an onlooker at the boat ramp.

Another solution is to buy a light-weight “glass” or Kevlar boat. But that would take the invention out of necessity, wouldn’t it? And besides, each step down in weight will cost hundreds of dollars. Why not save that money for gas and coffee for your season’s outings – or for mouse food for your Honda.

If you have a different means of handling, transporting or storing your kayak, and want to share it with others drop me a line at the e-mail address below.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.