high speed, knee-wrenching marathons
over slick rocks and muddy leaves. They can
be taken at a pace for seeing wildflowers,
hearing bird calls, or even just listening to
your own breathing as it echoes inside the
shell of the canoe.
Look forward to a three-hour sunset at the
end of the day. (They really do take that long
to fully disappear.) Listen in total silence for
15 minutes to your crackling campfire. It’s a
lullaby guaranteeing a deep, soul-refreshing
sleep. Leave behind the MP3 with 5,000
hours of music and listen instead to haunting
loon calls, or the ridiculously funny quack of
ducks over the water.
Consciously walk or paddle a little slower
when hiking or kayaking. Simple enough,
but it can help unhook anyone from the
life speed we’re accustomed to. And it
might make you look forward to outdoor
adventures more than you ever have.
To clinch it, get up at 5:30 a.m. in the woods
to listen to the silence, watch the passing of
time, and smell the aroma of coffee. And
Emerson’s poetry sounds wonderful when
whispered beside a still lake.
Allen Macartney is planning a
2,000-kilometre canoe solo into the Arctic.
«OO
www.OttawaOutdoors.ca OTTAWA >> SPRING/SUMMER 2009 9
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