CANOEING
The art of canoeing takes all the outdoor elements of backpacking but instead of using your lower body to do most of the work, you are using your upper body to pull a paddle through the water so you can propel your canoe forward.
Typically you are far enough away from civilization so you can hear and see what nature is all about. Like backpacking, you take the necessary gear that you need to survive for 2 to 3 days but you could easily turn into several weeks if you wanted to just by adding a bit more food. So in addition to a canoe, life jackets, some paddles, you essentially need a tent, some clothes, sleeping bag, some packs and food.
Now portaging is part of canoeing and it seems to mystify some people but one only needs to look back to our ancestors in the 1600s to see the true meaning of endurance and why portaging was necessary. Portaging is the act of carrying all of ones equipment (canoe included) from the end of one lake to the start of another. The one advantage we have over our ancestors is that more often than not, there is clearly defined a trail to follow instead of having to hack trees/brush down in order to get your gear through.
My hard rule for life to regular trips is that if you cannot make your portage in one trip, then you have too much equipment. For safety reasons, there should be at least two of you (the buddy system applies to most aspects of life) and typically one person will carry a backpack and the canoe. The other person will carry another backpack, the life jackets, paddles and a small waterproof bag that typically contains “the important stuff”.
I highly recommended that you try this and WHEN you do, I suggest going with either someone who has done it before or with a guide who will show you the ropes. If you do go, I highly recommend that you bring a portable hammock (nylon). Not only is it the best way to relax at the end of the day, you will be the envy of the camp.
List of Canoeing adventures
Worthy Quotes
There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Mark Twain
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
Mark Twain
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx
A Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
Benjamin Franklin
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Mark Twain
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
Benjamin Franklin
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
Jack Handey
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
Franklin P. Jones
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost
Don’t ever wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it.
Cale Yarborough
If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.
Mark Twain
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
Mark Twain
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Benjamin Franklin
Well begun is half done.
Aristotle
There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Steven Wright
Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
Kurt Vonnegut
Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.
Cullen Hightower
If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Anonymous
Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill
He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.
Benjamin Franklin
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.
Mark Twain
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
Zig Ziglar
Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
Benjamin Franklin
Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.
Yoda
Jedi Master
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
Benjamin Franklin
Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
Benjamin Franklin
We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
Robert Wilensky
The measure of a life is not what that life accomplishes,but rather the impact that life has on others.
Jackie Robinson
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.
Erica Jong
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain
History is written by the victors.
Winston Churchill
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Albert Einstein
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
Thomas Szasz
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as
kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic
pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.
Kristian Wilson
Nintendo, Inc, 1989
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Groucho Marx
Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.
Virgil Garnett Thomson
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.
Benjamin Franklin
We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned the day before was wrong.
Bill Vaughan
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein
The manager administers, The leader innovates.
The manager maintains, the leader develops.
The manager relies on systems, the leader relies on people.
The manager counts on controls, the leader counts on trust.
The manager does things right, the leader does the right thing.
Forbes Magazine
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
Ovid
Poet (43 BCE - CE 17)
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.
Frank Wilczek
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.
Native American Proverb
Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.
Alfred A. Montapert
Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn't have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked.
Kimberley Broyles
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Mark Twain
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Mark Twain
You can do anything, but not everything.
David Allen
We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!
Benjamin Franklin
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Winston Churchill
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away
Benjamin Franklin
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry Truman
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Plato
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Mark Twain
If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect.
Ted Turner
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle
Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.
Benjamin Franklin
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
Mark Twain
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.
Benjamin Franklin
Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.
Benjamin Franklin
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
Abraham Maslow