The Beginnings - Summer of 1980?

I remember very little of my first canoe trip. I'm not sure where we went, other than in Ontario, nor how many there were, there were either 4 or 6 of us, nor can I remember how long the trip was. I believe I was in my late 20's and I do recall that the weather was perfect and that it was a blast. Maybe this was when the 'bug' for canoeing first hit me.

On the first day I recall that I was in the front and that a friend, Steve, was in the stern. It was hot and we had a cool case of beer in the canoe. Because we didn't want to get too inebriated and we wanted to put some miles behind us, we agreed that we would only stop paddling for a drink every 50 strokes. We calculated that this would be the equivalent of travelling 500 feet per drink and assuming 10 drinks per can of beer - we should get about a mile per beer. I'm not sure what went wrong with this plan but at the end of the first day we were travelling an estimated 20 miles an hour - if you calculated distance travelled based upon beer consumption.

The next day I recall that, along with perfect weather, the wind was blowing in the right direction and we rafted up the canoes, jury rigged a sail, and drifted down a long lake while playing "Catch the Bottle". The rules were simple. A bottle of Tequila was passed around and we each took a drink. The last person to drink would throw the bottle (after carefully replacing the cap) ahead of the canoe. It was the responsibility of the front people to retrieve the bottle from the lake as we drifted past. I think this game was also designed to slow down our rate of alcoholic consumption.

If you missed the bottle it was your responsibility to jump over the side to retrieve it. I missed it once and over the side I went. It was easy to retrieve the bottle but it was a shock to see how fast the canoes were being blown down the lake. I never swam harder in my life, because I knew the bastards would leave me behind if I didn't catch up to them - after all there were several more bottles of Tequila on board.

Anyway - as I said, this was my entry into canoeing and it captured me for life.