Canoe Trip Memories

     Sometimes I think the best part about a canoe trip are the memories it creates.  We often tell people who are heading out into the woods that a canoe camping trip is always an experience, whether it’s good or bad is up to the individual.

     There are people who see the glass half-full, others who see it half empty and still others who can’t even see the glass.  We process everything through the filters in our individual brains and how we see or experience things is highly dependent on those filters.  Here’s an example…

     You are in your tent attempting to go to sleep after a long day’s paddle.  You hear a sound and determine it is either a bird or a frog.  Its unique sound is welcome as you attempt to drift off to sleep peacefully.

       Your tent mate hears the same noise, hops out of his sleeping bag, rushes down to the water front and finds the source of the music.  He starts singing along with the frog and after a few minutes joins you back in the tent.  He is excited about the frog and tells you it is the most beautiful thing he has ever heard.  He falls asleep quickly, before your other tent mate returns from a long visit to the latrine. 

      He crawls into his sleeping bag and immediately starts to complain about the "noise."  "It’s driving me nuts, when is it going to shut up?"  "What the hell is that?"  On and on he complains until he finally unzips his bag, gets out of the tent, finds a big rock and tries to locate it so he can smash the frog into oblivion.  He is up all night complaining about the noise.

     This is an extreme case of how people experience situations and create memories from them.  How they experience the situation and put it into their memory bank may be completely different.  The optimist may describe the sound as a beautifyl symphony highlighted by moonlight and a distant call of the loon.  The irritiated companion who was upset during the frog ordeal remembers the night fondly and even laughs about how upset he was and his pursuit to kill a frog.

     These are experiences and they are the stuff memories are made of.  When you take a canoe trip you are creating memories.  We at Voyageur want these memories to be some of the best ones you have and we will do everything we can to make that happen.