Every year for the past 9 years three high school/college friends and I take a trip into the woods to stay in a cabin on a lake for 5 days.
We stay at a cabin in the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park if you’re curious. The hike is typically from 3-5 miles and the cabin is rustic, no running water or electricity.
Two of us fish a little, but not that much really. Mostly we play cards, throw around a football & frisbee and drink beer. Quite a bit of beer actually, we went through ten cases last year.
In addition to a deck cards, we usually bring a few other games along monopoly, mindtrap etc. Potato guns have been a lot of fun in the past.
I’m looking for ideas for activities we could do. Four player games are ideal, I’ve picked up a set of Settlers of Catan for this year which I hope goes over well.
I was thinking about getting a set of laser tag, or something similar for an outdoor game.
Mix together four guys, an isolated cabin and a fairly large amount of alcohol. What kind of trouble can we get into?
We’d have to carry our all the stuff in, and we’d all be first timers. We’d also have to find an more isolated area where we could make a mess without pissing off rangers or other park users.
Gotta second the paintball idea. And as long as your wearing the proper protective gear, you can actually be fairly intoxicated without much risk of injury (besides the tripping over a root/running into a tree stuff, but that’ll happen paintball or no…)
some other random ideas:
make a catapult and see how far you can fling random objects.
if you’re musical, bring instruments. If not, a good stereo and a good collection of tunes
beer pong! improvise with a piece of plywood if you don’t have a ping-pong table
get a good book a drinking games, and plow through it methodically
It’s still by far the most popular activity. For a few years we would bring a keg in along the trail over several miles. The cases of cans seem to keep better. We also bring in a cooler of dry ice.
Three of us are from the Marquette area, one is from Minnesota.
Here is an email I got from one of my friends today.
*Gentlemen:
Upon further review, I prefer cases to kegs for this year’s trip. We will no doubt bring several cases anyhow. The keg being bulkier and requiring a large open cooling container will more quickly use our precious ice. We can maintain the cans in sealed coolers with dry ice added when appropriate. The only drawback is more cans to haul out. To alleviate some of the burden, we could preplan a trip on day three to carry out cans and get more cases (stored in a vehicle). Who would go? We could select based on doing something funny such as soiling one’s self.
I propose 12 cans of beer per person per day = 8 cases. I would add a 25% Safety Factor for 10 Cases of beer.
I further propose 3 cans of pop per person per day = 4 twelve packs of pop + the 25% SF = 5 Twelve Packs.
Carry in half of the cans on day one, retrieve the balance on day three. What do you think?
You guys should learn to play poker. If you’re not gamblers, at least get some chips and play $.20 limit. Buy in for $5 each. I could spend an entire weekend without sleep just drinking and playing poker.
In further review of the email, I’ll give you back yer yooper status. That was pure yooper thinkin’ dere. And I had no doubt you’d hike the ten cases of beer in. We’re a tough breed up here. I once brought 36 glass 40 ouncers (aka “jumbos”) of beer to my cabin. For 3 people. For one night.
Don’t you guys camp near a stream or lake? That’s where you keep your beer cold. Just stick 'em in da crick.
Fizzball seems like it would be fun.
What about cribbage? That’s the age-old camp game. Or are you sick of that?
We used to get naked and run around and then…but that was at Gay camp. I got lots of merit badges.
Otherwise, for drunken weekend party games, the general rule of thumb is the dumber the game the better it is…although I would avoid pointy lawn darts.
Tossing those day-glo sticks through a hoop when it is pitch dark is fun…also use them to learn to juggle…sneak an airhorn along and scare the bejesus out of your fellow campers in the middle of the night, of course you might have to walk home alone after that.
But usually, stupid stuff like a nerf ball to toss back and forth while you are sitting around the fire, badmitten rackets and birdie (net not necessary)…set up the empty beer cans and bowl with a full can (loser has to open the can)…a putter and a golf ball and create your own insane minigolf course around the campsite…bring good rope and make a rope swing (but depending on your knotting skills and 12th beer, this might be better if one of you is a paramedic). Of course, squirt guns are always fun (but the paint ball sounds a lot better).
Ok here is the design of the keg/cargo carrier for our trip into the woods. Link
Two people lighter backpacks walk in front and behind the carrier. You can load a huge amount of stuff on it, and travel quite easily provided you don’t have to go uphill too often.
Ok I googled you it seems like a possibility. Did you goto Marquette High School? I graduated in 88
Lake of the Clouds cabin this year, so we’ll use the lake to cool the beer when we run out of ice.
Cribbage works when two people sleep in late, but we stick to four player games mostly. Poker will be popular again this year I’m sure.
The lightstick idea is a good one, since we are often looking for creative drunken things to do after dark.
Supersoakers might be an alternative to paintball, since I can see that an somewhat of an cash investment.
2nd Laser Tag. Cleaner, less painfull than paintball, you can play it in the dark, don’t need a bunch of safety crap (eye protection, hot long-sleeve stuff) and cheaper to get 4 sets to boot!
Motorcycles/ATVs are always a good idea! Like strippers and beer!
Don’t forget lots of Beef Jerky, sunflower seeds and red meat for cooking.
Can I come? I’ll bring homebrew! (you pay airfare)
It appears to me that if you guys seek some entertainment here and there, you can bring a huge wooden mallet. The type of which is typically used at the County Fair to see if you can “ring the bell”. You can use said mallet to crush the seemingly billions of cans of beverages, therefore making the trip out easier by volume if not by weight.
Sounds like a heck of a good time.
Cartooniverse, whose idea of camping is walking along the A.T. for a few miles to a waterfall and sitting down.
The ones where the paint is made out of fish oil and food coloring, and the capsules are made out of gelatin so they’re pretty safe for the enviornment.
Wear the safety mask thing and play drunk, it’s fun.
Just, if you decide to do that macho manly naked thing, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES play paintball naked.
