Lake. Loons. Lily pads. Like-minded friends.

Also, trees. Silence. Birdsong. Peace. Good conversation, too!

<from Sept. 4/23>

Here I am in Ontario, Canada's beautiful Algonquin Park.

Ahhhhhh.

Here's a view of the lake from where I'm sitting as I write this:

Hearing loons calling off in the distance.

It's so quiet … & beautiful … & peaceful … here, I really can't describe it.

Words can't do it justice!

For me, at least, it's like having died & gone to heaven.

Just ..... paradise!

I've been doing an annual camping trip on this lake for the past 14 years.

With good friends ... amazing friends, really! They're the ones who supply the canoe (it takes about 20 minutes to paddle to this site from the "put-in" area where we leave our cars). And the stove & pots & dishes, & water filter. & tarp. And lawn chairs ... yes!! Lawn chairs in the "wilderness!"

I just have to bring myself, my tent, sleeping bag & inflatable mattress, clothes, a spare water filter. (& books! I always overdo the books!) Oh, and my food barrel.

We don't exactly camp "light!" It's somewhere in between car camping & "glamping," I suppose. Unique, really. (It's positively amazing what these friends can pack into a canoe!! I arrive after they've already set up the site. Spoiled rotten, that's me!)

The site we usually stay on is at one end of the lake, where it's amazingly quiet & peaceful. Right near a very cool long rock face + hill/escarpment that no camera can begin to do justice to; it must be seen to be believed.

Here's an old photo taken from up high on that escarpment that gives you an idea of the surroundings.

No neighbours at all here.

I always set up my small tent – my "home away from home" – in a little nook in the trees – right by the lake. So near it, in fact, that when you see it from out in the canoe, it looks as though it's going to slide right into the lake!

When I/we are not being quiet & drinking in the beauty & silence (well, & plentiful birdsong) – or swimming – we have some pretty great conversations (and, since I maintain that …

that’s nothing to sneeze at!)

These are long-time friends – fellow environmental activists (though I am merely a retired activist at this point) – & the three of us are pretty much like-minded on the "big" issues.

We've done our fair share of slogging in the anti-nuclear trenches – they much more so than me!! Seen more than our fair share of corporate corruption, & government collusion with same. Corrupted science & wildly corrupt so-called "regulatory agencies." (Robert F. Kennedy Jr's term for these corrupt "regulators" is "sock puppets for industry," & this applies whether you're talking nukes, pesticides, the fossil fuel industry, chemicals of all kinds ... or pharmaceuticals.)

Somehow our decades of activism have failed to "save the world."

Oy. Talk about an understatement!

Oh well. At least we tried! And not just on nuclear issues, for the record – on a whole long list of different environmental issues over the decades.

It's all been good work! Work we can be proud of.

We're aware of how bad things really are. Environmentally-speaking. What a wild ride our species is actually on (seems like not everybody "gets" this).

Very aware of myriad forms of pollution & corruption & the plunder of the earth's (finite) resources. And, speaking for myself at least, of real evil afoot in the world. Tyranny seriously, furiously on the march. Both ramping exponentially, or so it seems to me. An increasingly insane, increasingly dystopian world. Sadly.

And … my old friends & I are also deeply aware of what a stunning, abundant, beautiful planet we've been gifted with!

Appreciative.

Grateful.

Grateful to have this amazing place to retreat to every summer for a while. Slow ourselves right down.

Drink in the peace. & silence. & beauty.

Just. Be. Still.

Listen to (& watch) the loons. Enjoy the birdsong. Listen to an owl hoot at night from across the lake.

Have great conversations.

And some laughs!

Good food (my friend is a VERY good cook!)

Swimming!! How I love swimming...

Gaze at the stars.

Holy cow. We had 2 nights in a row of simply mind-blowing star-gazing this year!!

Lying on the rocks, over at the island – which we paddled to in the dark (also pretty fun!)

A very special experience indeed.

Gazing at the heavens is a really good way of putting human activity on this planet into perspective. We "Earthlings" are sure not the whole story!

It's always so wonderful to get a real break from all the human nonsense & noise & cacophony.

From city life.

Human shenanigans of all sorts. Which seem to be at peak frequency in recent times ... don't you find??

A break from the human looneyness that is all too abundant all around us, back home, & instead drink in the sights & sounds of those beautiful birds – the loons – we so enjoy seeing & hearing.

Ahhhhh.

Somehow these interludes help put things into perspective.

Here's a pretty stunning photo my friend took a few years back.

A rainbow over the lake.

Can you see a small speck of red over to the far left of the photo? (It's quite possible you can't. It's miniscule!)

The red speck is a kayak I was paddling in along the rock face that so fascinates me. After visiting with other good friends at a campsite down the lake, I'd headed "home," cos' it looked like a storm was coming. Luckily, though, it passed us by.

So I meandered slowly along the shoreline, gazing up at those ancient rocks … wishing they could tell me their stories. Ancient stories of – & from – geological time.

I was one very happy camper!

Janet

p.s. I almost forgot to include the lily pads! It's not a great photo, but ... t'will serve. And also, how gorgeous is that lily flower?

p.p.s. Several years ago now I put together a posting (on my old site) of a few different camping-related essays I've written over the years. It’s here. Canoe Trips.

p.p.p.s. one more photo from the campsite. Just ‘cos I can!