Here’s a fun idea. Go rafting on the Riviere Rouge. Right around the time of my comps a grad student, a prof and I drove over through Ontario then back up into Quebec to make the run down the river. It is a great way to relieve stress, cool down and have a lot of fun.
I just did it again last weekend.
You get two runs down the river, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with lunch and dinner provided.
They put you through the ‘washing machine,’ ‘ the photocopier,’ ‘papa bear, mama bear and baby bear,’ all names of the various rapids in a range of configurations from easy to moderate to downright sadistic.
I got put throught the washing machine when I got dumped out of our raft. I got spun around head over heels, doing a full underwater somersault before the raging torrent spat me out downstream where a nice man threw me a rope. The first run is hell.
The second run is heaven. You spend a few hours ‘surfing’ massive turbulences, and the experienced guides know just how to hold the boat in place so the water flows over the edge and into the boat, which is designed to do such things without sinking.
Anyway it’s a blast. Ask someone from Quebec they’ll probably know what you’re talking about.
