db wrote on Oct 24^th, 2013 at 10:21pm:

... About 30 years ago, as I paddled out at the end of a particularly challenging trip for me (at the time) using "never again, never again, never again" as cadence for every stroke of the paddle for miles 'n miles before the take-out....... I haven't missed a year since but for those few hours, you couldn't have paid me enough to do the same thing again.

LOL!

I still remember starting out wilderness canoeing as a twenty-something in Algonquin. My buddy and I had come back from a trip with one of those "Never again" portages, very pleased with ourselves about how tough we were. I think the portage was about 200 m long with a 3 m rock slab uphill section at the start, something that nowadays we would all blast through without blinking.

Like db, I've kept coming back. Seems after a few months, the memory of the previous year's challenging section fades, and planning for the next year's trip usually involves something that's even longer, boggier, and buggier than the previous year. And when I make it through that trip ("Last year wasn't too bad, but this one - Never again!") the cycle starts over.

Have others had the same experience?