Canoe Envy

Friends of mine embark tomorrow on a week long canoe adventure in The Massassauga Provincial Park. (The definite article is presumably there to differentiate this one from the hundreds of other Massassauga Provincial Parks in Ontario...)
The Park stretches from Parry Sound to the Moon River and encompasses 131 km². I'm told their campsite is four hours by canoe from the park entrance, and a map and compass are needed to get there.

Heaven. Not their first time there, and I doubt it will be their last, either.

I've only been canoeing once in my life. It was in that general area, actually, but it was so many years ago now that I can't remember what lakes we covered. I remember it was a camp; that my cousin Terri was a counsellor or guide or whatever she was called ("boss lady" seems to fit); that, being as I was in a group of kids my own age, bullying surrounded me like a cloud of mosquitoes; that Terri kept most of it at bay without twigging everyone in on the fact we were related.  I loved her for that.

I remember portaging through thick mud, uphill, discovering for the first time in my life that I had some strength in me. I remember sleeping like the dead. But mostly I remember the sounds: the wind on the lake and soughing through the pines on the shore; the pattering of rain; the loons; the utterly relaxing noise of the paddle stroking through the water.  I can't say I had much stress in me at ten years old or however old I was...but whatever stress I did have was leached out of me in short order. Well, the portaging helped, too. Canoes are freakin' heavy. Turn-in time would see me basically fall comatose.

The dark. You don't know dark until you've camped out in an Ontario wilderness on a clear, moonless night. Stars speckle the heavens, each one a tiny firefly impossibly far away; other than that there is nothing. If you're in the forest you can't see the sky for the canopy and if that's the case, you can't see your hand in front of your face, either.  Yet somehow this isn't a frightening dark at all. It's almost...sensual. It thoroughly enwraps you, caresses you, and makes you a part of itself.  Okay, maybe a little frightening. Best shared, at any rate.

Your odds of seeing any significant wildlife are slim, although deer are plentiful and moose can make an appearance that far south. You might see a five-lined skink (Ontario's only lizard). What you really need to watch out for is the Massassauga rattlesnake (which happens to be Ontario's only venomous snake). Now, these friends of mine returned not all that long ago from a sojourn in Australia, so a Massassauga rattler is probably a plaything to them. I mean, in all recorded history the snake has only killed two Ontarians, and it's not an aggressive snake either. But it will deliver a painful bite, and antivenin is hard to come by, especially four hours from nowhere.

I envy the heck out of them. A week cut off from all civilization is something I could really use right about now. Safe trip, you two. Happy paddling.