I drink hard liquor more consistently. I rarely drink it when not on canoe trip but will have a couple shots of JD first barrel most evenings.

A little bit of good small-batch Kentucky bourbon each evening, sometimes with filtered water, sometimes straight.  Or perhaps a sip of blackberry brandy.  Or perhaps a bit of each at different times.   

Chocolate.  Spartan1 insisted that there must be a bar of German's Sweet Chocolate as a treat for snack breaks.  We broke off sections as needed.  At home we eat dark chocolate, but the German's seems to travel well, so since that was his tradition back in the 70's, it remained.  I squirreled away a Symphony Bar with toffee chips in the bottom of the food box and that was my special treat for an especially hard day.  Sometimes it  survived the trip and made it home.

Marshmallows.  My husband can toast a marshmallow over an open fire better than any human being I have ever known!

I also clicked "others" and I guess that would include swimming in the lakes in my underwear (because I didn't pack a swimsuit) andn some other activities are too personal to share.

I usually like to bring a little Bourbon(whatever brand strikes my fancy at the time) or Sour Mash or sometimes just pick up a plastic bottle of rye at the LCBO for mixing. I pack a few decent cigars, Oliva, Padron, Acid, Cohiba and a few stinkers too. I guess they don’t count as vices but are something you won’t find me doing at home on a typical day: sleeping on the ground and crapping in the woods.

a 3 ltr bladder of chardonnay from a box has been making the trip recently.

I'm a rum drinker and usually bring 4-5 different favorites - top shelf stuff - qty. depends on the crew size.  I drink that at home too, but on the odd occasion, will have a snort after a tough portage.  (side note re: SP2's Bbrry brandy - a pint of that b/w a buddy as a junior in HS...I will NEVER touch that stuff again...I get dry heaves just thinking about it... )

Occasionally swim/sun bathe in the buff, but out of sight of other paddlers...don't want to scare anyone. 

Desserts - which I rarely eat at home, will prepare some pretty gourmet stuff in the back country.  I can do a killer backwoods crème brulee and turtle cheese cake.  None of that backpacker/just add water cr@p - real deal stuff.

pd

Solus wrote on Jun 5^th, 2017 at 10:59pm:


I skinny dipped in 2011 (McNiece Lake) and felt very vulnerable to the fish, turtles, etc.  Yeah, I skedaddled out of there pretty quick.  I ain't gonna be mistaken for a lure when northern pike are around.    I've worn shorts every time since.

I would never go in the water up there without shoes--I have a terrible fear of getting a fishhook in my foot.  Perhaps not rational, but nevertheless, I think water shoes are necessary.  I will never, ever go barefoot in camp for the same reason.

As for swim attire. . .when I was much younger and we went deeper into the parks with more solitude, skinny-dipping wasn't out of the question.  As I got less mobile, I felt less inclined to do so, particularly because we were in the BWCA and not always sure about privacy.  But I have always figured that if I am in my underwear, top and bottom, that I am covered as much as a bathing suit and, therefore by definition, "decent", should anyone happen by.  Now that he is on the insulin pump, Spartan1 rarely swims with me, so he watches from shore and helps me in and out of the lake if need be.  There usually isn't a "beach" and I never have done slippery rocks well.

We haven't had a canoe trip since 2013, and I haven't swum on one since 2011, now that I think about it, so this is all talk about the past.  Kawishiwi Lake was the last time.  It was delightful.  It was a hot day and there was a lovely beach.

And the blackberry brandy was never my idea.  My husband was the one who introduced me to canoe-tripping, and on our first trip in 1971 he explained to me that the drink to take was blackberry brandy.  I have no idea why.  I think it is because the guys he went with on his first trip (five fellow camp counselors from Camp Easton on Little Long Lake outside Ely) took it, so that made it "the thing".  We took it in a clear plastic Colgate 100 Mouthwash Bottle on our first few trips.  That was our "flask".   We didn't graduate to bourbon for probably 15 years or so after that.  But to this day, whenever I taste blackberry brandy, I do think, "canoe trip."      And I do like the flavor, too.

For swimming I like deep drop offs and quick entry...
Demonstration of preferred methodology [Viewer discretion advised: video includes brief glimpse of over 50yo backside].
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That HAD to hurt just a little 

I never shave on trips till the day I get out. I never really have a beard in Civilization.

Crystal Light
Crystal Light and 151 run (or 180 proof brandy) and lake water
Powdered soup
Replace watching TV with watching the campfire