Friday, September 01, 2000

After eight months in the recording studio, the band finally finished the recording, mixing and mastering of their first CD, and decided to celebrate along with 8 other close friends by going white water rafting on the Ottawa river with Wilderness Tours. What better way to spend the Labor Day weekend then by hurtling yourself down a rock filled river at 40 km/h in a rubber boat? The weekend started off Friday with James, Kevin, their roommate Trevor Ash and  good friend Mark D'Ambrose, who were travelling together, dropping off the final artwork and mastered tape to Accudub, who would be manufacturing the CD for us. Once done, we met up with Travis, Jon, Nick Rizzuto and Manny Cordeiro on the 401, and headed off towards our destination!

After arriving, checking in, and setting up our campsite, we played a little game of floor hockey, the first two travelling groups to arrive squaring of against each other. Team 1999 Blazer defeated Team 2000 Blazer in a closely contested match, 10-8. Things were kind of rough at times, boys will be boys, after all. But everyone shook hands afterwards, ate supper, and then awaited the arrival of Team 2000 Honda, which included Donald Crocker, Ryan Vandepolder, Christian Kennerney, and our soundman Kevin Woodburn. Then everyone spent the night sipping on a few brews at Rafter's Bar, and singing some songs by the campfire into the wee hours of the morning.

The next day we rafted at 11:00, everyone was up on time, and ready. After squeezing into our wetsuits, we headed to Rafter's to start the voyage. We passed the time on the bus ride there by belting out "Barrett's Privateers", which we were then asked to sing again for the other 100 or so rafters while we were all sitting in our boats getting briefed before the trip. Not to be outdone, our guide Mike snuck out and got "debriefed", and streaked in front of the whole crowd, much to the delight of the females in attendance, with nothing but a helmet protecting the family jewels. 

The action was fast and furious on the river. Jon was the first victim of the rapids, getting the dunk into the water on the very first run, McCoy's Shoot. There were 8 rapids altogether, and we made it through everyone no problem (oh yeah, Jon fell in on the fourth rapid again). There were no casualties, and everyone made it back safe and sound, grabbed a bite to eat, and repeated the activities of the night before. The major events of Saturday night were Kevin's tent getting ransacked while he was in it sleeping by some late night munchie seekers (much to their chagrin, he had none), and our site getting visited the neighborhood skunk!

Sunday morning started off with everyone taking a kayak out on the lake. It was a perfect day, the water was flat and there were only a couple of clouds in the sky. We kayaked for about an hour, and then headed back to rafters for a dip in the hot tub and a horseshoe tournment, with James and Mark coming out the winners. Then it clouded over and we packed it up and started on the 5 hour drive back to Toronto. Although we didn't want to leave, it was a blessing in disguise, as we missed all the traffic and cruised back into the city with no problem. A fun weekend had by all!