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waves, wind and rain would soon swamp us. Exhausted we made it to the shoreline.As the darkness began to engulf us we found a bright reflective sign indicating acampsite. We d ecided wed share if we had to but we needed to stop for the night.The site was little usedor so it appeared. It was dark. We set up the tent sloppilyand as quickly as possible. It was cold and we were soaked. The fire we tried to startsimply fizzled. We had a few crackers and went to sleep in our tent with the raincontinuing to fall heavily. The wind blew harder. It was getting colder and colder.We werent comfortable. Then, all kinds of strange noises started all around us.Something was trying to scratch its way into the tent, above us, at the corners,everywhere! We were terrified. Bears. Wolves. What could it be? It was, we soonsaw by way of flashlight, tiny silhouettes of mice crawling all over the tent.Horrifying but not deadly. Needless to say we did not get any sleep that night.The morning was cold and damp but at least it wasnt raining. The mice had foundour crackers and eaten most of them. Mist rose from the lake. My brother and Ilooked at each other. We both saw, without speaking, that we were both thinking,this is a nightmare. Our heads ached. What should we do? We could pack it inand head back to the city. We decided, instead, to take off our clothes and go for aswim as the sun began to rise. We dove into the frigid waters. We swam more andmore joyfully, roaring, and laughing and splashing to warm ourselves. Our headscleared. We felt free, cleansed, happy, energized, totally liberated and fully in touchwith nature. It was so utterly unexpected! That moment changed our lives. Wecontinued the canoe trip and enjoyed several days of calm quiet beauty in the backlakes with no other campers, as the portages did prove brutally difficult, a greatbarrier to those unwilling or unable to break through especially those with big heavyGru mman aluminums. And yet the challenge, the exhaustion, the satisfaction ofgoing deeper into the quiet places brought a greater calm, a more wonderfullysurreal aspect to the sunsets, and a sleepy openness to the clear star filled skies atnight. Food tasted better. Things made more sense. We talked late into the nightabout nothing ordinary. We were one with the universe.189