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Poll: How many alcoholic "drinks" per day on a canoe trip?

Poll: How many alcoholic "drinks" per day on a canoe trip?

  • None

    Votes: 20 52.6%
  • 1

    Votes: 3 7.9%
  • 2

    Votes: 5 13.2%
  • 3

    Votes: 2 5.3%
  • 4

    Votes: 4 10.5%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • 7 or more

    Votes: 3 7.9%

  • Total voters
    38
Whew, thanks Brad, I thought you meant the incident on our trip where banjo music was playing and I was running around in my tighty whiteys screaming "Moo Like A Cow", which was preceded by "Squeal Like A Pig". Nothing like a snoot full of hooch and some barnyard antics to spice up the old canoe trip!
 
Many of the guys I run with could be characterized as alcoholics with a fishing problem. :) They enjoy staying "loose" when escaping their daily lives, but never get hammered so to speak, more like maintaining a happy buzz through the day and into the evening. Me, I rarely drink during the day, mostly just enjoy sipping quality whiskey at night while making dinner and around the fire before retiring. Beer is too much of a hassle, requires a bigger cooler, more ice and takes up more space than I would need otherwise and requires hauling out the empties. So I find a small flask or liter sized container for extended trips of quality spirits much easier to deal with in every respect. Some nights I may end up sipping 2 shots, other times 4 or 5 over several hours and sometimes no shots. Depends on my mood and the circumstances, but generally the more people in the party the more drinking that tends to go on. Hunting trips are a totally different mindset, never any drinking during the day, only at dinner and around the fire, if at all.
 
Whew, thanks Brad, I thought you meant the incident on our trip where banjo music was playing and I was running around in my tighty whiteys screaming "Moo Like A Cow", which was preceded by "Squeal Like A Pig". Nothing like a snoot full of hooch and some barnyard antics to spice up the old canoe trip!
I'm still trying to forget that "spice". Ever since then whenever I hear pigs and cows I go into convulsions and whimper like a puppy. Scarred. I'm definitely scarred.
 
Usually I like some blackberry brandy or schnapps at night with hot chocolate....got to have dessert
 
Having second thoughts about imbibing on our planned trip in June. What goes with...smudge fires? Quite frankly anything, heck everything will taste smokey and peaty sitting in smoke, it needn't be pricey alcohol. We're now looking at bug shelters; the drinks menu might be forgotten. Or perhaps we'll be sitting under netting watching purple sunsets with some vino. We'll see.
 
Blackflies struck last night! Big as buzzards, had to drink lots to stay sane. Don't skip the booze!
But I've read that alcohol can be a blood thinner. I don't want to die by a million black fly bites, bleeding out like an oozing sponge. Okay, sorry for the gratuitous gore, but you get my meaning. Brad standing at a campsite looking like Carrie ain't gonna be pretty.
 
That’s a tough question. The “on average” and “typical 24 hour canoe trip per day parts especially.

A trip with my family is different than a gentlemen’s debauchery trip than a solo trip. Locale matters; an easy lake out and back vs a river trip where I might want less weight and easier maneuverability. Tidal or salt water trip where I need to pack all of my water as well?

Season matters; I’ll quaff a few hearty dark beers in the winter every evening if I have them, summer time I’ll put away more than a few ales. Even on a trip with beer some days I may have one or two, some lazy hang around camp days I may down a six pack.

The fewest beers I have ever carried would be zero, but that was back in my lighter packing whisky drinking days. The greatest number of beers I have carried was 3+ cases, but that was 22 days on a desert river, for an average of 3.6 per day.

I like the taste of quality beer, so I’m guessing 4-5 a day if quantities are available. No one has picked 5, and I don’t want to jinx myself by guessing low, so 5.
 
" smokey and peatey " ....sounds like a job for some Irish whiskey there Brad.

I like all of the finer brands of alcohol but unfortunately it no longer cuts me any slack. The Captain and I have a separation agreement that includes a no contact order. Last night I was gunned down by a single silver bullet. ( Silver bullet Thursday). Wings and draft night with a friend and one beer put me in a coma as soon as I got home.

As you can see, my soberocity is nay by choice laddies, but rather by frailness. Take pity on an old woman.

Christy
 
I don't always take alcohol but if I were planning for it for a trip I would go with 4 drinks per day. I can see having a ritual to have two shots in the morning (Irish coffee) and two in the evening. Or if you skip the morning drinks 4 would be a good number for me for an evening session. And if you skip a day, 8 drinks wouldn't be too much that you couldn't catch up although I wouldn't be using an axe.
 
Only stayed 2 nights, but I drank all my beer and wine.

Under the arbitrary definitions of this poll:

6 x 16 = 96 oz. beer = 8 drinks
1 liter = 33 oz. wine = 11 drinks

That would be 19 drinks over two nights = 9.5 drinks per day.

This convinces me that my wine definition is unrealistic. The "standard pour" is often considered to be 5 ounces, even though wine glasses can hold more than that. I'll edit the OP to make this change.

So, 33 oz. wine would be 6.6 drinks.

I began my canoeing career in 1954 = 63 years. So far, 26 years were drinking and 37 totally non-drinking. I would say that in each of the 63 years I drank as much on canoe trips per day as I did when not on canoe trips.
 
This has been an eye opener for me...I just voted and skewed the results a bit more!
For some folks, alcohol and genetics make for a really bad combination. Some of those folks learned at a very early age that a bad example is OK, as long as it is recognized it as such. A propensity towards addiction, alcoholism and mental illness swims in my genes. Partly by luck, and mostly by intention I have avoided the fate of most of my family!
So, no alcohol for me while tripping, or anywhere for that matter...
 
I don't know how it works in the US, but in Canada, most wine comes in a 750 ml bottle (26 ounces), just to add to the confusion. Cheap wine usually comes in litres. or boxes. I will only drink cheap wine if I'm on a canoe trip and there is no other liquor of any kind.
 
I'll tell a story from my drinking daze.

I always believed in light weight, so on canoe trips I only took hard liquor: Scoresby scotch. I decided that even the glass bottle was too heavy, so I carried the Scotch in a one liter aluminum Sigg fuel bottle. These were used for Coleman fuel and were red and sort of torpedo or bomb shaped.

In my business life I was flying a lot for several years. Being too cheap to spend my money in hotel bars when traveling, I began to bring my own bottle in my carry-on suitcase. Since my lightweight scotch philosophy had served me well on canoe trips, I figured I'd save some suitcase weight by using the same Sigg fuel bottle trick. Smart guy, I was.

Then, sometime after the Iran hostage crisis and the airline skyjackings in the 80's, airports began X-raying carry-on luggage!!!

"Code 83, Code 83, BOMB ALERT, BOMB ALERT."

As I sat there talking to the FBI or Secret Service or whoever the heck they were, I sensed there might be a problem.
 
I don't know how it works in the US, but in Canada, most wine comes in a 750 ml bottle (26 ounces), just to add to the confusion. Cheap wine usually comes in litres. or boxes. I will only drink cheap wine if I'm on a canoe trip and there is no other liquor of any kind.

When I used to take wine on trips I used to refill one of the empty bladders that comes in the wine box with the wine of my choice. The plug with the spout in it was removable. I never had a leak and when it was empty you can blow a little air in it and sit on it.
 
wasn't it WC Fields that said:

"I feel sorry for people that don't drink, when they get up in the morning that's the best they're going to feel all day..."
 
wasn't it WC Fields that said:

"I feel sorry for people that don't drink, when they get up in the morning that's the best they're going to feel all day..."

I was never a big W.C. Fields fan and he is wrong. I feel terrible when I get up and feel better as the day progresses, and I don't even have to drink to feel better.
 
I don't know how it works in the US, but in Canada, most wine comes in a 750 ml bottle (26 ounces), just to add to the confusion. Cheap wine usually comes in litres. or boxes. I will only drink cheap wine if I'm on a canoe trip and there is no other liquor of any kind.

Pretty good but everyday wine now comes in boxes. In the US its a 3 liter box for the better wine for about $18 ( in Maine). A five liter box of inferior wine is about 12 bucks. Its a bit of sticker shock to come to Ontario and only find four liter boxes which is a bit too much.. Even more too much is the price of $48. And I think that is before tax. So on Canadian trips its no booze.

See, this poll is more complicated than you might have thought.

Florida trips are nice for a crisp white.

And while the bladder used to be reusable ( I used mine for kayak skegs) I haven't figured out how to break into Black Box bladders.
 
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