if you try a tumpline you better have a neck like a football player.my Duluth pack came with one and they are a canoe country icon. transfering the load from shoulders to head/neck might have been fine for someone who carryed loads over portages before the modern style pack was invented but not we have less painful ways to carry gear.the first tumplines were not even attached to a pack but just slung under bales and box's.i no longer use mine.