Post your tales of "unique" paddling partners here......wether for good or ill.

I posted this a few years back but I still get a kick out of it........

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I have managed to avoid any bad tripping partners but I once went with my 3 nephews (all brothers) in their 20's.  I didn't know this but one of them was prone to something called night terrors. In the middle of the night there would be loud screams coming from his tent until his brother could wake him.  It was a little unsettling to hear this the first time as I immediately thought the worst.  I imagined a bear or moose in camp but soon calmed down when an explanation was given. 

I'll add another one.  The first time I took my son he was 17.  At the time he wasn't a fisherman or didn't do any outdoor things beside running.  He would run 5-6 days a week and the weather didn't matter.  He is tough mentally.

So, we plan for basing on Malberg for a week with day trips.  I want to ease him into it with a relatively easy trip. The one thing I didn't count on was his dependence on all things entertainment and electronic.

He never complained but his body language gave himself away.  He didn't speak much and slept a lot. He did not enjoy fishing unless there was action.  Paddling over large lakes was clearly getting on his nerves.  On the way out his spirits picked up and thoughts of restaurant meals and phone service put him in a great mood.

I don't fault him at all and actually am grateful that he never really complained but just endured a week in the BW.  I thought that was the end of his tripping but a few months later he shocked me by saying he wanted to go again the following summer.  And we did!   He also expressed an interest to move more and "not stay in one place".  This was great news for me and we had a great time. He now knew what to expect and clearly enjoyed it a lot more.

BTW, this skinny kid joined the army, did 3 years on a casket team at Arlington Cemetary, just finished Airborne School, comes home Sunday and then starts the "Q Course", a 2 year school to become a Green Beret in January. Oh, and he can't wait to try Quetico someday.  A happy proud poppa I am.  :)

A similar experience with my twin sons. I took them on a canoe camping trip in the Sylvania Wilderness while they were still in elementary school. I didn't know much about canoe camping then, so the trip, while still fun for me, was for them just a lot boredom broken up only by extended periods of hard work. They always loved fishing....from power boats.... and staying in cabins on the annual Canadian fishing trips we would take ever since they were 2 years old. They hated this trip. So I waited a few years and with promises of the "potential" to catch some big fish, they came along with me to Quetico and did enjoy the fishing. We have been on a trip together to Quetico almost every year since. They still love the fishing but recently have begun to appreciate the scenery, solitude and adventure.

I'm not sure it was inheritance or influence or maybe something else but both my sons, now 27 years old, are more adventurous than me. One lives and teaches in Beijing, learning the language and traveling throughout Asia over the past 3 years. The other is headed to Panama with the Peace Corps.  The effort I spent trying to convince them to try a canoe camping trip again was well worth it. As comments on the trip reports I post here on QJ have said, those trips to Quetico with my sons have become cherished memories.

TomT wrote on Dec 13^th, 2013 at 2:51pm:

BTW, this skinny kid joined the army, did 3 years on a casket team at Arlington Cemetary, just finished Airborne School, comes home Sunday and then starts the "Q Course", a 2 year school to become a Green Beret in January. Oh, and he can't wait to try Quetico someday.  A happy proud poppa I am.  :)

Many thanks to your son for his service.

Pat

Would you call me a bad trip partner?
I talked one of my trip partners into bushwhacking 3 miles across previously unknown terrain to McKenzie Lake.  I got him lost, tired, out of drinking water and to where there was no hope of getting to water or a camp site that day.  We survived!  We both look back at it as a good memory. 

My paddling partner wet her pants as she ran down the portage after me. 

The rest of the story is more than a little embarrassing: It was my 6 year old daughter's first portage of her first canoe trip.  I can't remember my logic, but told her to stay at the beginning of the portage (about a 1/2 mile long), while her brother and I carried gear and canoe and then we'd come back to get her and more gear.  I told her "it's okay, Max (our big golden retriever) will stay with you."  Max stayed with her as long as he could see me (about 2 minutes), then he took off running down the trail. 

As we unloaded gear at the end of the portage and prepared to head back, I hear the sound of wimpering, and soon see my little girl running down the portage crying, wet pants, with the bail open on the fishing rod/reel she was carrying, with line out the entire portage. 

My bone-headed stunt should have forever soured my daughter on wilderness  canoeing.  I deserved no less.  But Liz has paddled with me every year since then, and now at 26 is a married woman who brings her husband along with us. 

I'm a lucky man.

prouboy

Where do I select the "like" on your message Prouboy.  That is a great story!

starwatcher

Magicpaddler wrote on Dec 13^th, 2013 at 11:45pm:

Would you call me a bad trip partner? I talked one of my trip partners into bushwhacking 3 miles across previously unknown terrain to McKenzie Lake.  I got him lost, tired, out of drinking water and to where there was no hope of getting to water or a camp site that day.  We survived!  We both look back at it as a good memory.

Bad trip partner? Hardly
I remember being jealous, wished I was there.

Jim J Solo wrote on Dec 14^th, 2013 at 4:49pm:

Magicpaddler wrote on Dec 13th, 2013 at 11:45pm: Would you call me a bad trip partner? I talked one of my trip partners into bushwhacking 3 miles across previously unknown terrain to McKenzie Lake.  I got him lost, tired, out of drinking water and to where there was no hope of getting to water or a camp site that day.  We survived!  We both look back at it as a good memory.  Bad trip partner? Hardly I remember being jealous, wished I was there.

hmmmm..........didn't I read about this adventure in BWJ? Reading between the lines it seems to me that this was more than just a tough bushwhack. A bit borderline perhaps? I don't mind working hard but getting turned around and running out of water wouldn't be a cause for envy on my part........of course looking back on such a trip after it all works out OK is supremely satisfying.  8-)

I now know a easy way to get from that logging road into the park.  Anyone want to go with me! ;) ;) ;) :dankk2

Joking

rlageman3 wrote on Dec 13^th, 2013 at 11:04pm:

TomT wrote on Dec 13th, 2013 at 2:51pm: BTW, this skinny kid joined the army, did 3 years on a casket team at Arlington Cemetary, just finished Airborne School, comes home Sunday and then starts the "Q Course", a 2 year school to become a Green Beret in January. Oh, and he can't wait to try Quetico someday.  A happy proud poppa I am.  :) Many thanks to your son for his service. Pat

Ditto on that  :thumbup

MP, look on the bright side on your bushwack adventure. ;)
You can blame it on having a "senior moment"  ;D, what's your partners excuse. ;) ;D

I had a weird tripping partner, someone who's been going to the BW/Q since 1976.  We were camped on Crooked Lake and took a day trip to Curtain Falls, my first time there (this was my 6th BW trip).  He moved the boat to a different place and when I got back from exploring the portage trail, I couldn't find either him or the boat.  When I caught up with him he gave me no end of grief and a lot of sarcasm because I didn't know where he'd gone to.

Later on we switched positions, and he took the bow.  I asked him to put a little bit of sweep in his stroke and, instead of asking me why (there's a very good reason), he just mocked me and continued paddling his way.

I'll paddle with him on local rivers but if given the choice I'd go tripping alone.