Omer Canoe Trip 2011
I haven't written in a while. Sure I've been moonlighting on the running blog, because, despite the fact it may not be all I'm doing in life, it is definitely changing it. Instead of going out and hanging out late on Fridays, I've spent a lot of them just resting, hydrating, and taking care of myself the night before a race. I'm also losing my sleep in day on Saturday, sometimes getting up earlier than I do for a work day. For some reason getting up to run is much more motivation to get out of bed than work. I think I'm officially on the hook.
Anyway, that's now what I'm here to write about, and I'm not here to write about anything else but our canoe trip last month, before I completely forget about it. It's been a month already...
Ken and Jen got a bit of a head start, because I had to work Friday, and didn't feel like taking a full day off just to sit at a camp site for a day. The whole point is night time, fire, and the canoeing, so getting there early isn't worth anything. Jessi and I packed a majority of our things the night before, and just packed blankets and tents when I came home.
As is tradition, I packed only horrible horrible "vacation clothing." First up for Friday: horrible STP tie-dye shirt from 1996
We got up there and immediately ran into Joe who arrived just minutes after. We checked in and paid our part back to Ken that fronted the money for everything. I gave him a little extra, as usual, because I know how much of a pain it is getting all your money back and making sure everyone pays you. I'm usually that guy.
After that, I went to park my car by the sites. Every camping trip has a mini-incident. It's just inevitable that something bad will happen at some point. Well, I christened us for safe sailing from the start of the trip. While maneuvering through a few trees, I looked back at a small one and figured I had it cleared so I ignored it, and then *boom*, I clipped it enough to put enough pressure on the plastic to where it just kind of popped. It sounded awful, like I completely destroyed the back of my car, so I was happy that was all that actually happened. It was a complete man-failure on my part, though.
With that out of the way, we could enjoy the rest of the trip. We got the tents all set up without any problems. Justin arrived shortly after, followed by Mike S., and then other Mike F. and Katie. So we got the fire going and let into the hard cider that Mike S. and I bought from the orchard out in Flushing. If you've ever had JK Scrumpy or JK Solstice Cider, it's made here. It's kind of a big deal, and both are organically delicious and gluten free. Solstice is my favorite because it tastes (to me) like those apple cider donuts they make during the fall time. We bought about $70 worth for the camping trip and I only have 2 bottles left now. It was a good night of burning stuff, drinking, and discussion (which Mike and I somehow hijacked into a comparison of obscure American presidents and their policies, which eventually led to our exile for the night). However I did get a chance to burn those horrible wooden tulip lawn ornaments that the previous owner of our home left for us.
The next morning we got up early to get ready for the canoe trip. We went and got breakfast at a little diner in Omer called Ma's Girl Cafe, and the omelets were fantastic. We stopped by a party store to pick up some canoe beers and I saw a bucket of lost toys they were selling out of (with each toy being 2/$1). I thought our canoe needed mascots, so I ended up with these two.
Nick arrived shortly after, complete with a story about how, after denying money to a homeless man, his bag of clothes and towels for the trip were stolen from his car when he went back into the apartment. His matching hat was not stolen, so we were able to remain hat twins. Note my new horrible shirt outfit (which was actually after canoeing). I'm sporting a Humani-tee with tree frogs, and a dress shirt with Fender engineering diagrams (awful, i know). What you don't see is my actual canoe outfit which consisted of a t-shirt with sunglasses and a backstage pass printed on it for some oldies cover band that was teal and pink and a button up shirt with sunflowers printed on it.
The canoeing went well. We spilled a few times, but nothing too horrible, and the water level was so low that most of the tipping was just because of sand bars or risky maneuvering around drunken tubers. Everyone lost it at some point, even the perfect Justin and Ken. The only real bad thing was how much of a hurry everyone seemed to be in. Listen guys, we paid for a certain distance that usually takes people 4-5 hours, there's no cookie for getting there in 3 (even after we stop to play around with a frisbee mid-way). Stop paddling so hard, and enjoy the nature. Jessi and I, obviously were last.
After that we showered off the river and the sweat, then we took a nap. Jessi, Katie, Mike F., I got ice cream.
Then came another nice night of drinking beers and grilling brats after a few short rounds of volleyball with the other campers.
After a pretty late we listened to the neighbors fight about the one site's dogs (who just were let loose to run wherever they may). It's not like they were dangerous, but come on, they were annoying and disturbing everyone around them. We let it slide most of the day, but it got real old real quick. Buy a fucking leash.
About 4am I was hearing something rustling the trash near our site, and figured it was a raccoon or whatever, but then i heard something that sounded more like footsteps at our site. So I'm getting mildly paranoid. Is it a person? Is it a big animal like maybe a cougar or bear (we do, in fact, have them as rare as they may be)? Is it just actually a raccoon shuffling the gravel around enough to sound like a person?
I've seen enough horror movies to know not to turn the light on or go out unprepared. So i flip out the big knife and wait. Then i hear a knock on the tent and Mike F's voice say "Brent, it's Mike, I think we've got a creeper." So I step out and we look at the trash that's been rustled around. Obviously there was an animal at it, but we still both were half sure there were human footsteps. So we shined the flashlights all around the site, and did some perimeter checking. While we were doing this, if anyone was watching us, all they saw was one man walking around with a huge knife and the other walking with him carrying a shovel.
Eventually we came to the conclusion it was probably the stupid neighbors retrieving their dumb dog. We heard nothing more the rest of the night. I'm hoping they saw us walking around and said "we better keep our dogs locked up....these guys aren't gonna fuck around."
I woke up early to go to St. Michael's in Au Gres. Pretty sure I've been there before. When i came back we packed up everything and headed up to East Tawas. I found some nice red tape for my tail light and finally got legal (and classy).
Once again we showed up when a classic car show was going on. I actually saw a few old 40's Packards, which seem to be going away and are my personal favorites. I guess they're just not cool, so the only people with them are usually quite old. So when they go, it seems so do the cars, especially since the parts are getting more expensive and rare.
After getting a wake-up coffee from a local shop, instead of MIke S. who whipped across two lanes to take a left into a Tim Hortons, we went to G's pizza, and got our usual photo by the Hippo (we couldn't convince the children to vacate).
Justin, Ken, Jen, Mike S., Jessi, Me, Nick, and then children.
After that we headed home, traffic was a bitch like it always is coming home late during a Michigan summer weekend, and a few days later I visited a junk yard and replaced my headlight assembly, so there was no permanent damage.
The End
Mike got a shot of my sunflower and ugly shirt ensemble
Anyway, that's now what I'm here to write about, and I'm not here to write about anything else but our canoe trip last month, before I completely forget about it. It's been a month already...
Ken and Jen got a bit of a head start, because I had to work Friday, and didn't feel like taking a full day off just to sit at a camp site for a day. The whole point is night time, fire, and the canoeing, so getting there early isn't worth anything. Jessi and I packed a majority of our things the night before, and just packed blankets and tents when I came home.
As is tradition, I packed only horrible horrible "vacation clothing." First up for Friday: horrible STP tie-dye shirt from 1996
We got up there and immediately ran into Joe who arrived just minutes after. We checked in and paid our part back to Ken that fronted the money for everything. I gave him a little extra, as usual, because I know how much of a pain it is getting all your money back and making sure everyone pays you. I'm usually that guy.
After that, I went to park my car by the sites. Every camping trip has a mini-incident. It's just inevitable that something bad will happen at some point. Well, I christened us for safe sailing from the start of the trip. While maneuvering through a few trees, I looked back at a small one and figured I had it cleared so I ignored it, and then *boom*, I clipped it enough to put enough pressure on the plastic to where it just kind of popped. It sounded awful, like I completely destroyed the back of my car, so I was happy that was all that actually happened. It was a complete man-failure on my part, though.
With that out of the way, we could enjoy the rest of the trip. We got the tents all set up without any problems. Justin arrived shortly after, followed by Mike S., and then other Mike F. and Katie. So we got the fire going and let into the hard cider that Mike S. and I bought from the orchard out in Flushing. If you've ever had JK Scrumpy or JK Solstice Cider, it's made here. It's kind of a big deal, and both are organically delicious and gluten free. Solstice is my favorite because it tastes (to me) like those apple cider donuts they make during the fall time. We bought about $70 worth for the camping trip and I only have 2 bottles left now. It was a good night of burning stuff, drinking, and discussion (which Mike and I somehow hijacked into a comparison of obscure American presidents and their policies, which eventually led to our exile for the night). However I did get a chance to burn those horrible wooden tulip lawn ornaments that the previous owner of our home left for us.
The next morning we got up early to get ready for the canoe trip. We went and got breakfast at a little diner in Omer called Ma's Girl Cafe, and the omelets were fantastic. We stopped by a party store to pick up some canoe beers and I saw a bucket of lost toys they were selling out of (with each toy being 2/$1). I thought our canoe needed mascots, so I ended up with these two.
Nick arrived shortly after, complete with a story about how, after denying money to a homeless man, his bag of clothes and towels for the trip were stolen from his car when he went back into the apartment. His matching hat was not stolen, so we were able to remain hat twins. Note my new horrible shirt outfit (which was actually after canoeing). I'm sporting a Humani-tee with tree frogs, and a dress shirt with Fender engineering diagrams (awful, i know). What you don't see is my actual canoe outfit which consisted of a t-shirt with sunglasses and a backstage pass printed on it for some oldies cover band that was teal and pink and a button up shirt with sunflowers printed on it.
The canoeing went well. We spilled a few times, but nothing too horrible, and the water level was so low that most of the tipping was just because of sand bars or risky maneuvering around drunken tubers. Everyone lost it at some point, even the perfect Justin and Ken. The only real bad thing was how much of a hurry everyone seemed to be in. Listen guys, we paid for a certain distance that usually takes people 4-5 hours, there's no cookie for getting there in 3 (even after we stop to play around with a frisbee mid-way). Stop paddling so hard, and enjoy the nature. Jessi and I, obviously were last.
After that we showered off the river and the sweat, then we took a nap. Jessi, Katie, Mike F., I got ice cream.
Then came another nice night of drinking beers and grilling brats after a few short rounds of volleyball with the other campers.
After a pretty late we listened to the neighbors fight about the one site's dogs (who just were let loose to run wherever they may). It's not like they were dangerous, but come on, they were annoying and disturbing everyone around them. We let it slide most of the day, but it got real old real quick. Buy a fucking leash.
About 4am I was hearing something rustling the trash near our site, and figured it was a raccoon or whatever, but then i heard something that sounded more like footsteps at our site. So I'm getting mildly paranoid. Is it a person? Is it a big animal like maybe a cougar or bear (we do, in fact, have them as rare as they may be)? Is it just actually a raccoon shuffling the gravel around enough to sound like a person?
I've seen enough horror movies to know not to turn the light on or go out unprepared. So i flip out the big knife and wait. Then i hear a knock on the tent and Mike F's voice say "Brent, it's Mike, I think we've got a creeper." So I step out and we look at the trash that's been rustled around. Obviously there was an animal at it, but we still both were half sure there were human footsteps. So we shined the flashlights all around the site, and did some perimeter checking. While we were doing this, if anyone was watching us, all they saw was one man walking around with a huge knife and the other walking with him carrying a shovel.
Eventually we came to the conclusion it was probably the stupid neighbors retrieving their dumb dog. We heard nothing more the rest of the night. I'm hoping they saw us walking around and said "we better keep our dogs locked up....these guys aren't gonna fuck around."
I woke up early to go to St. Michael's in Au Gres. Pretty sure I've been there before. When i came back we packed up everything and headed up to East Tawas. I found some nice red tape for my tail light and finally got legal (and classy).
Once again we showed up when a classic car show was going on. I actually saw a few old 40's Packards, which seem to be going away and are my personal favorites. I guess they're just not cool, so the only people with them are usually quite old. So when they go, it seems so do the cars, especially since the parts are getting more expensive and rare.
After getting a wake-up coffee from a local shop, instead of MIke S. who whipped across two lanes to take a left into a Tim Hortons, we went to G's pizza, and got our usual photo by the Hippo (we couldn't convince the children to vacate).
Justin, Ken, Jen, Mike S., Jessi, Me, Nick, and then children.
After that we headed home, traffic was a bitch like it always is coming home late during a Michigan summer weekend, and a few days later I visited a junk yard and replaced my headlight assembly, so there was no permanent damage.
The End
Mike got a shot of my sunflower and ugly shirt ensemble