Why would anyone want to go with someone who wasn't 100% bonafide?  I love to laugh, and there isn't anything funnier than watching someone do something stupid when they should: a) know better, and b) already been told not to do it that way.  You don't have to be a newbie to fall into the category of being the joke of the day.    Just wanting to save a little time or take that shortcut...didn't work out the way it was supposed to, did it?  Sometimes failure is the best teacher.  And if you can't laugh at your own mistakes, you didn't really learn your lesson.

I too am lucky enough to have one paddling partner I can count on.  Me... for now.

There was an old man in his late 70's I met in the woods a couple falls ago.  With long wavy proud gray hair, that made his way through life as a jazz man, owned a bar in the tc area.  This lucky fellow had his daughter leading the trip, into her forties herself I'd guess.

They had a bear visit there camp the night before I met them.  Lots of folks would have been camping somewhere else after their evening.  For them it was just another experience.

Chemistry 101... with the woods.

k