• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Canoe tripping code words

Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
4,373
Reaction score
2,985
Location
Appleton, Maine
I mostly travel solo, but from trips I have taken with others in the past or from conversations over the net with potential fellow trippers, I have picked up code words that let me know if we would be compatible.
Please note that I have my tongue in cheek and in no way am I trying to be mean or nasty.....just having fun between trips.

"We like to cook big dinners over a fire"- translates to "I need someone to gather a ton of firewood while I sit and prepare a somewhat average meal that requires you to fetch more water and firewood whenever I need it. You will have to forgo evening fishing or solo paddles cause we eat when I'm ready and you need to standby and be ready to fetch fetch fetch!!!
BTW, the cook needs to relax after such a wonderful prepared dinner, so you will need gather more firewood, boil more water and wash a bunch of dishes while said cook retires to a lakeside rock and sips an afterdinner cocktail.

"We like to cook big breakfasts over a fire" -same as above, but add a picture of the cook waiting in his/her canoe as you finally finish the last of the dishes, extinguish the fire and start to take down your tent. His/her map comes out, a glance at his/her watch, you stuff your sleeping bagintoasackwithyourwettentflycauseyourinsuchafrikin'hurry....sh*&....havin' fun yet?

"I have a really great walleye recipe" -which means you get to carry a cast iron crock pot for 7 days for a real waste of fine walleye fillets (I speak from experience)

"I have been accused of carrying too much"- guaranteed you will be carrying a bag that belongs to your new friend with a book, writing pad, two spare cans of bug spray, a battery powered shaver, one of those barbecue lighters with the long needle nose and spare fishfinder batteries across every portage to help your new friend keep an easy but necessary pace.

"We like to fish"- translates to the slowest pace you ever had, you spend much time floating in your canoe waiting for the fishermen to explore another "hot" looking cove.

"I like to keep a brisk pace"- translates to a 19" wide canoe, 18' long at 12lbs. and a 12oz $400 double blade, one pack filled with granola bars for a 2 week trip. Superman straps a water pack onto his/her back with a tube to his mouth and takes of like a Canada goose on take off, double blade flailing across the lake like none other.

"I'm a gadget freak"- translates to every new gadget that can be found will be in his/her canoe...just to get us across a lake to that big yellow portage sign I can see 2 miles away.
Then you get to look at a solar battery charger out front of the campsite sucking up the last rays of sunlight and think isn't this what I came to see...more wires and plastic.....

All in fun. Anybody else every hear canoecamping code words that send up a warning sign?
 
Oh Robin, I love it! Well, there is the "I've been here a million times", that's when I get out my maps and double check. Or the famous "I've got a bad back; I sure hope it doesn't go out this time" , that's when I look them in the eye and say "I've put down horses and dogs I've loved, I'm sure you won't be any problem." How about the somewhat scary, " As long as I'm on my meds I don't hear the voices". That's when I evaporate to somewhere far away.
All in all, I guess that's why I solo. Except for my dog of course.
Very Best Wishes, Rob
 
"I love a cold one in the evening" equates to breaks the bottle or can policy of most parks and there is now a 100 pound pack in the canoe with beer...not my drink for trips.

" I get the best sleeps in the woods" equates to have seperate tents...only one person in any tent can sleep at the same time.

"I have to start every day with a good breakfast" equates to don't pack lunches becasue it's pancakes and heavy foods every morning.
 
"the trip will be at a leisurely pace". Spoken by a C1 racer in a Wenonah WW 2. Eighteen miles later in one hour and forty minutes I collapse from trying to keep up.
"the trip will be at a leisurely pace". Spoken from an easygoing guy soloing a tandem but with a group . Everyone knows how to paddle. They all also know how to take first through fifth lunch. Four hours later we are done with a nine mile trip.

"Its just a few easy miles"....
 
Back
Top