10 weird things you can only do in Canada

[Catty1]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/10-weird-things-you-can-only-do-in-canada-191658097.html?cmp=cafb_news

How about a sour toe cocktail in Dawson City?https://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/BKgikJTadGvslLtr4WZp6A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9MzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/153/2010/11/26/macleans-160x30_195940.jpeg (http://www.macleans.ca)<cite class="byline vcard"> By macleans.ca | Maclean's – <abbr title="2014-09-05T19:16:57Z">Fri, 5 Sep, 2014</abbr></cite>








https://s1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/QTGAh4EO1JYYd3X5oNHOOg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9NjE1O2NyPTE7Y3c9ODIyO2R4PTA7ZH k9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD00NzI7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2014-09-05/224822e0-3531-11e4-8cb9-4f7025cdde68_09_05_WEIRD_THINGS02.jpg

(https://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/sour-toe-cocktail-photo-1409944599812.html)Maclean's - Image for Sour Toe Cocktail: Dawson City, Yukon.






Robin Esrock, author of "The Great Canadian Bucket List: One-of-a-Kind Travel Experiences," shares his picks of some unique undertakings across the country:


1. Sour toe cocktail (Dawson City, Yukon): You can drink fermented horse milk in Mongolia or rocket-fuel raki in Albania, but only in Canada can you drink a cocktail served with a human toe. Sixty-thousand people have joined the Sour Toe Cocktail Club. The toes occasionally get swallowed, despite a hefty fine.


2. Snorkel with salmon (Campbell River, B.C.): For a unique view of the Pacific West Coast’s annual salmon run, grab a wetsuit and let the current carry you downriver. You’ll float past tens of thousands of salmon migrating upriver to spawn and die.


3. Fire a gun in a mall (Edmonton): The West Edmonton Mall is the largest on the continent, attracting 30 million visitors a year. It’s also the only mall where you can fire a .44 Magnum, and other weapons, in the Wild West Shooting Centre.


4. Narcisse snake dens (Narcisse, Man.): Each spring, the world’s largest concentration of snakes, up to 150,000 red garters, slither into rock dens for their annual mating ritual. Visitors can pick them up, so long as they’re gentle.


5. Crooked Bush (Hafford, Sask.): Wild aspen forests in the prairies grow straight and tall, unless you visit this mysterious grove, which bend, twist and knot like a Tim Burton movie prop. Blamed on an unexplained genetic mutation.

6. Spend a night in jail (Ottawa): Canada’s hotel options are vast, but only one is a former prison, haunted by ghosts of the condemned. When the Nicholas Street jail closed in the 1970s due to inhumane conditions, it reopened as a backpacker hostel. Guests lock themselves in cells for the night.


7. Go for an Ice raft (Quebec City): Each February, Quebec hosts the world’s largest winter carnival, where you can ice-raft, dance in ice palaces and watch paddlers race across the cracked-ice soup of the Saint Lawrence River for the annual ice canoe race.


8. Raft a tidal wave (Urbania, N.S.): When the world’s largest tides back into rivers that feed them, it creates a true tidal wave. Hopping on a raft with an on-board motor to slam into this natural water park is distinctly fun, and uniquely Canadian.


9. Get Screeched (St. John’s, N.L.): To become an honorary Newfoundlander, visitors kiss a petrified cod (or a toy puffin’s behind), listen to ribald banter and shoot strong rum, known as screech. Only the brave pucker for the fish; screech has that effect on people.


10. Fly in a DC-3 (Yellowknife): Buffalo Airways is the world’s only DC-3 airline, serving remote communities on the 1935 aircraft, and providing fodder for the TV series, Ice Pilots NWT. Aviation enthusiasts visit from around the world for a ride.

[mrspunkysmom]

Sourtoe Cocktail? People are just too gross. Blech

[Karen]

The Sourtoe cocktail begs too many questions - where do the toes come from, and who donates them and how are they preserved and how long, how old are they, how many drinks have they been in before mine, and who decided this would be a good idea for a cocktail anyway?

[Catty1]

There's a lot of booze consumption in the Yukon, Karen. I doubt that this was invented by a sober person!

Here's a story of its history:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sourtoe-cocktail

Contributor:


UPDATE: On August 24th the ninth "sour toe" was swallowed. A customer came in, ordered the infamous Sourtoe Cocktail, chugged the drink swallowing toe and all, and slammed down 500 dollars, the fine for swallowing the toe. Luckily the bar had a backup toe in waiting. The fine has since been raised to 2500$.


Established in 1973, the Sourtoe Cocktail has become a Dawson City tradition and is exactly what is sounds like: An actual human toe that has been dehydrated and preserved in salt is served in a drink.

According to the story, Yukon local Captain Dick Stevenson found the toe preserved in a jar of alcohol while cleaning a cabin in 1973. After discussing it with friends, Captain Dick preserved and started serving the toe in a "Sourtoe Cocktail" at the Eldorado hotel bar. Thus the Sourtoe Cocktail Club was formed.


The first toe is said to have belonged to a miner and rum runner named Louie Liken, who had his frostbitten appendage amputated in the 1920s. Liken preserved it in a jar of alcohol in his cabin, where Stevenson found it some 50 years later.
Unfortunately, the first toe lasted only seven more years after its discovery. According to the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, "In July 1980, a miner named Garry Younger was trying for the Sourtoe record. On his thirteenth glass of Sourtoe champagne, his chair tipped over backwards, and he swallowed the toe. Sadly, Toe #1 was not recovered."


Since then, seven more toes have been donated to the bar. Number two was given after an amputation due to an inoperable corn; number three was from a victim of frostbite (it was also swallowed accidentally); four was an anonymous toe (later stolen by a hunter); toes five and six were donated by a Yukon old-timer in return for free drinks for his nurses; toe seven was an amputation due to diabetes; and toe eight arrived in a jar of alcohol with the message, "Don't wear open-toe sandals while mowing the lawn."


Today you can still drink the Sourtoe Cocktail (which is still garnished a real toe) and join the club - complete with a proper certificate. The original rules were that the toe must be placed in a beer glass full of champagne, and that the toe must touch the drinker's lips during the consumption of the alcohol before he or she could claim to be a true Sourtoer.


The rules have changed in the past 27 years. The Sourtoe can now be had with any drink, but one rule remains the same: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow—but the lips have gotta touch the toe."
Edited by: wythe (Editor) (http://www.atlasobscura.com/users/wythe), pantone292 (http://www.atlasobscura.com/users/pantone292), Dylan (Admin) (http://www.atlasobscura.com/users/dylan), Allison (Admin) (http://www.atlasobscura.com/users/allison)



Apparently some people even leave a toe or two in their will to keep the supply going.

[mon]

Ya, um no. Sounds like an urban legend to me. The toe looks a bit like a date with a toenail. Extremely revolting. I think one would have to do crack, mushrooms and drink 2 Texas mickies to even consider chokin' that down.

[mon]

Ya, um no. Sounds like an urban legend to me. The toe looks a bit like a date with a toenail. Extremely revolting. I think one would have to do crack, mushrooms and drink 2 Texas mickies to even consider chokin' that down.

My dad worked in the Yukon. It' s very dark and cold and secluded. No matter how hard they all work or as drunk as the may or may not become. I figure it's pretty safe to say, there's probably not a helluva lota toe eatin' goin' on ;):D

[mon]

Ya, um no. Sounds like an urban legend to me. The toe looks a bit like a date with a toenail. Extremely revolting. I think one would have to do crack, mushrooms and drink 2 Texas mickies to even consider chokin' that down.

Besides, if one has the bad enough taste to eat a freakin' pickled toe... who really cares? :D

[phesina]

O Canada!... :eek::rolleyes::D

[mon]

:D Actually, every word is true! I myself have several mason jars filled with toes for happy hour! :D;):rolleyes:

[mon]

I keep them in the igloo, right beside the tooks and the hockey sticks! :)

[Catty1]

i keep them in the igloo, right beside the tooks and the hockey sticks! :)

Like :D