Why Lifesavers Are The Key To Your Next Portage
What gets each canoeist to the other side of a portage varies, but finding ways to motivate yourself is the common refrain (and also, Aqua).
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Callan: Life Savers are Key to Portaging
- Thread starter Glenn MacGrady
- Start date
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I looked for a roll of Lifesavers last month in several stores. All I could find were bags of individually wrapped lifesavers. I fear that the roll may be another fine thing to disappear into the mists of history.
They will be missed.
They will be missed.
I eat a mini Snickers before a long port
With due respect to Mr. Callan, candy corn is the power of the portage!
What about candy corn?
1. It's loaded with sugar, and portageurs need energy.
2. It's quite salty for a candy, and portageurs sweat like pigs and need to replace their salts.
3. What does candy corn make you think of? Halloween, late fall, dark afternoons. That's the time of year you think about all the trips you didn't do last summer and how lame that is.
What about candy corn?
1. It's loaded with sugar, and portageurs need energy.
2. It's quite salty for a candy, and portageurs sweat like pigs and need to replace their salts.
3. What does candy corn make you think of? Halloween, late fall, dark afternoons. That's the time of year you think about all the trips you didn't do last summer and how lame that is.
Having tripped with a type 1 diabetic, while this is a cool story... meh, it's not that simple.
Now I take both beef jerky (high salt/protein) and corner store candy (nothing but sugar), and keep it available. Energy bars are tops.
Never liked Callan's stories much. He can portage like a mofo, but he likes short trips - or at least trips in more busy environs than I do. I like it more remote. I do own at least three of his books though. He's a great storyteller even if his stories leave me wanting.
I met him once at a show. Great guy.
Now I take both beef jerky (high salt/protein) and corner store candy (nothing but sugar), and keep it available. Energy bars are tops.
Never liked Callan's stories much. He can portage like a mofo, but he likes short trips - or at least trips in more busy environs than I do. I like it more remote. I do own at least three of his books though. He's a great storyteller even if his stories leave me wanting.
I met him once at a show. Great guy.
I'm T2 and carry a tin cigarette box full of Werthers on me whenever I'm away from my gear.
Lemonheads for me.
I'm guessing the experienced can time portage passages by the number of lifesavers consumed. I uderstand that Canadian Voyageurs of old did the same by using the time to lilght up and smoke a pipe. or "pips" as they were called. A three pip portage was a good distance to go.
I prefer a mouth devoid of candies, gum, or bonbons on the trail. All the better to hold a conversation with those voices. lol *
If I've carried the wrong song in from the outside world, I push it aside with something I'd prefer accompany me. I rarely remember all the words, and cannot for the life of me carry a tune, but that matters not. Sparse snatches of verse here, a familiar chorus hummed there, the ragged song becomes part of the path, and vice versa.
* Honestly, I can't be the only soul who talks "to myself".
If I've carried the wrong song in from the outside world, I push it aside with something I'd prefer accompany me. I rarely remember all the words, and cannot for the life of me carry a tune, but that matters not. Sparse snatches of verse here, a familiar chorus hummed there, the ragged song becomes part of the path, and vice versa.
* Honestly, I can't be the only soul who talks "to myself".
As a man approaches the sink in a public restroom another man walks out the door. This other man is obviously disturbed as he loudly talks to himself. The first man looks at himself in the mirror and says, "I'm glad I'm not like that."
Alan
My light pack that I carry with my canoe has gorp, coffee etc. It also has a plastic squeeze bottle of honey. Honey gives me quick energy without the “crash” like when sugar is all burned up. I look forward to a good glug of honey at the end of a grueling port, it helps me to keep going. Some ports are double glugers.
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