[Matt Q]

(cross posted with Sam)

A couple of initial thoughts:

Lying is an ethically dubious practice at the best of times, and possibly more so when one is between a woman's legs, especially if that's how you got there in the first place. (Although given the acoustics and the probable position of the mouth to tell a lie between a woman's leg, it's possible the lie might not be heard, which might be a mitigating factor: perhaps he is lying only to himself?)

More seriously: The poem seems to be a celebration of male (hetrosexual) friendship. (The N might be a gay man or a lesbian, and/or the friend a lesbian, but that seems unlikely). So, the two men do manly things, at least in terms of a certain view of what's manly: they drink whiskey, swim and canoe in rivers, fish, hike though forests, camp, and set fire to things.

The joy they share in doing this is only really surpassable by sex with "some woman", which seems to indicate that only the physical joy of sex is being considered, as which particular woman it is doesn't seem to be a factor: the joy being contrasted is not the (arguably greater) joy one experiences when having a sex with a woman one loves, for example. Also, the possibility that deep friendship with a woman or a romantic relationship (sex aside) with a woman might bring similar joy seems to be discounted.

If you wanted to see a metaphor in the stump they burn and cast into the river (that they destroy, discard or liberate), I'd say it might stand for their metaphorical emasculation/castration.

-Matt