Well Shazz has been on at me to write something else. I considered doing a crossword, but it began to be too much like hard work so here we go.

Those with long memories will recall that I am a member of the university's Outdoor Club. Anyway, they send me emails every couple of weeks telling me what events are coming up. Generally I go on the occasional hike, but this time I decided to go on a proper long trip (well, two nights)- by canoe.

Part of the fun of this is of course planning, especially if going with someone who hasn't done this sort of thing before. The basic set up was two groups of eight, with each group divided into pairs, each pair being responsible for two meals each. So there followed discussions about whether rice is a good food to take (I was right, it was) and whether there would be running water to wash in (I was wrong, there wasn't).

I'm On Ma Wey¹

We had to meet at 5.30am, which is known to students everywhere as 'too ing early'. However, we all made it pretty much on time with the exception of the leader of our group, whom the organiser had to phone up and who reportedly told him 'Oh crap.'

Thus we did not leave until about 7 o'clock, scotching plans to avoid the rush-hour traffic temporally. Fortunately there's a spacial alternative, since Toronto has a toll highway running most of the way through it and few people use it. Presumably the toll isn't too much when divided between five or six people in a van², but it's too much for most commuters to pay every workday. Hence we were not overly delayed and made it to the canoe place in four hours, after stops for refreshment and to ensure that the canoe did not fall off the roof.

Bears try to steal picnic baskets

It still took us a while to get sorted out and canoe to the campsite. Or rather find a campsite, since the booking only specified which lake we should be on, not exactly where we should be. There's nice little pictures of tents to mark likely spots, though, and so after lunch, a swim and a couple of cuts to my foot, we were setting up camp.

As well as putting up tents, this being Canada, we had to set up a pulley system to lift the food back off the ground, so the bears couldn't get at it. There was a special barrel thing that stops the smell from getting out and the bears from getting it, but it only held so much, so the winch was used. It was also indeed necessary as the following morning we found claw marks on the tree from which the bag hung (it was also as well that we selected a tree a fair distance from the actual site). Scary, huh?

Portage is not a type of soup

Speaking of canoeing to the campsite³, the lake we were camping on was not the same one we began on, so we had to do a 240 metre portage, which involves carrying all the stuff, including the canoes from one lake to the next. Now canoes are designed to be
carried by just one person, the method being to put it upside down on your shoulders. On this portage I avoided this, but the following day we had to help the other group move campsites (there was a booking mix-up, so they couldn't stick in the same one both nights), which involved another portage with most of the canoes, but only about half the stuff, as ours was still at our site. So I got given a canoe to carry. I think my comments at the time, to no-one in particular, were something like this:

Hey this isn't that bad.


Actually it is a bit heavy, maybe I'm not holding quite correctly.


Ow ow ow ow OW OW OW!

Well, I made it about a third of the way, then someone else turned up and took it.

So what else have I done? Well a month or so prior to the canoe trip, I managed to comment that I didn't think there were any beaches around here, so a week later I was taken on a trip to one by my housemate, his sister and some of his friends. Now this did take a couple of hours, since the beach was on Lake Erie, whereas where I am is on Lake Ontario so by the time we arrived it was very hot.

Would that this had lasted, since the cool breeze that blew and the low temperature of the water deluded some of us into believing that we weren't actually getting much sun. I don't know about the rest (I think they weren't as bad), but my housemate and I ended up glowing bright red and spending several days attempting not to come into contact with anything. In addition my housemate tried out various 'cures' for sunburn, such as putting a towel soaked in cold tea on it, or covering oneself in yoghurt. The most successful remedy was some moisturiser with aloe vera which I bought from a local drugstore⁴.

So obviously I decided never to do anything quite so stupid again. My nose is peeling a bit from that canoe trip.

Bagpuss

15.08.02 Front Page

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