Well, here's the thing: I live in Edmonton, and the closest
whitewater IS two-and-a-half hours away (Near Rocky Mountain House),
so long drives are part of any WW paddling we do around here. Usually
we try to make a weekend out of it, but one doesn't always feel like
dragging out the camping gear and giving up the whole weekend every
time they feel like paddling, ya know? As for it being "just
recreation"... Well, I think a lot of people would take exception to
your trivialization of recreation! For many of us, it's through
recreation that we achieve real spiritual fulfillment. Anyhows, be
very glad you live in Ottawa... And I'm not even going to start to
describe the seething envy I have for those paddlers who get to paddle
almost year-round!

Ben

(William R. Watt) wrote in message ...
people drive two-and-a-half hours for an afternoon of paddling? and here
I am wondering why gasloine is in short supply and prices are high. thanks
a lot.

when I moved to Ottawa I looked around to see what was available locally
in recreational persuits and chose from among them. fortunately we have
plenty of outdoor stuff here, paddling and skiing being two. but hey,
there's always cyling and backpacking and lots of other things. why drive
hundreds of miles for one afternoon of paddling? its just recreation.

I've paddled until mid December. There's always a gap between freeze up
and build up. You can't just stop paddling and start skiing unles you have
some sort of plastic pleasure dome. I mean real skiiing, not that downhill
only stuff on fake snow.