Even more fun than Deliverance

Spent this weekend on a short canoe trip up in Massasauga Provincial Park, about 3 hours north of Toronto, near Parry Sound. Went with three other guys--somebody I know through school, and two of his friends.

The park was spectacular--it is the first time I have ever been canoing. It was a really neat experience--there are lots of times when I have been either hiking, or just stopping by the side of a highway, and thought, "It would be cool to just be able to wander around that lake, hopping up onto that island if there was something interesting, and then paddling off to another part." Well, that's how canoing basically works.



Like I said, a short trip--drove up on Saturday morning, rented canoes, got on the lake, did a short portage (~300 m), and paddled to our campsite. We set up our tents, switched into swimgear, and wandered around the lake. Perfect weather--short sleeves and shorts. We practiced some drills of dumping the canoe, and then righting it--pretty easy if you have one other canoe upright (canoe over canoe recovery). We also dumped after a race, involving the guys trying to tip the canoes over. Cooked dinner, stayed up late drinking whiskey. It was a short trip, so we brought canned goods. However, between the bunch of us, we did not have a can opener. Sadness. I demonstrated what you could accomplish with a screwdriver and a set of locking pliers ("crack open and pull apart the tough shell to get at the tasty innards....")




Didn't see too much wildlift (a beaver, and a crane)--didn't see any Massasauga rattlesnakes, which are common in the area. We did the return trip the next day; unfortunately, the brief period of rain that day was when we were paddling back and putting canoes on the roof. Suck.

One interesting but slightly uncomfortable point of the trip was that the three others have been close friends since high school, so they have been on many trips like this together. I have noticed that when I hang out with circles of friends from past periods of my life, my behavior often bends towards the character I was during that time. No different with these guys--they definitely reverted to more juvenile behavior. This included giving wedgies to each other the night before we left (hearing underwear getting torn in the dark). While hiking, they found dried deer scat to start throwing at each other. Canoeing turned into ramming and tipping contests (my canoe-mate managed to tip the other guys). We finished a 1.75 of Canadian whiskey between the four of us that night, and I wasn't drinking that hard; the night devolved into them tunelessly yowling classic rock ballads (including Def Leppard and 'American Pie') across the lake.

This probably comes across in writing as being an awful experience, but I looked at it with the detachment of an anthropologist, and with a good amount of amusement. More importantly, they were just a bunch of guys having a good time, and they were definitely having fun. They were being completely friendly with me; it's just that there's a certain level of interaction between them that I was not (and didn't particularly want to be) a part of. One example of the difference of my circle of friends and them: I don't think I've ever been on a camping trip before this where we brought booze. I'm not judging in either way--it was fun to have a few drinks there, but it was never a priority with my friends on the trips to Saguaro, Yosemite, or Big Bend.

Anyway, on the way out, I noticed this particular example of advertising co-branding:


The front of the vending machine reads: PEPSI Discover Your True Nature (Pepsi Cola Canada is a proud sponsor of Ontario Parks). Well, I guess it gives money to the park system, and it's not like they're putting up billboards on the lakes. (up next, "A new life awaits you in the Off-World colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure...") If I was in a particularly vindictive mood, I'd like to make a hacked version, keeping the same lettering, and replacing the photo with a shoreline littered with soda bottles.