Canada XI - The Dawn

     We'd passed the three or four creeks necessary to reach our turn.  Uncle Emil wasn't sure which number was right but he was positive if we missed our turn there wouldn't be another chance to hang a left for two hundred miles.  Two hundred miles?  That's a long way for a city kid like me who knew the next turn was only a minute away by bike.

     Turned out it was four.  While we headed west, the land rose.  Not a lot but thankfully we left the swamp behind.  And any kind of view.  Trees to the left of us and more of the same to the right.  Here and there a crumbling sand and gravel outcrop.  My uncle had me pull out the road map just to see what we were missing on the other side of the forest.  I looked at the map and found a pair of huge lakes to our south, no more than a mile or two away.  So close we could have smelled them.  I looked out the window.  Trees.  

     "The map isn't lying is it Uncle Emil?"

     "I doubt it.  But it might be.  I've been on this road before and what you're seeing now is exactly what I've seen.  Spruce and jack pine.  Probably better there's nothing much to see I suppose.  The way this track curves I'd be a dead man for sure.  There's no way I could keep my eyes off any piece of water wondering what the fishing might be like.  One second I'd be down below in my mental boat reeling in a yard long walleye, next second I'd be flying through the evergreens reviewing my life as it flashed by."

     A minute passed.  "What about that sunset last night?  Are all of them like that up here?" 

     "Nope, but not a one of them can hide when you're camped out on a lake.  One thing you've got to sit up and take notice of, sunsets are like rainbows.  When the sun goes down and there's an open sky with a half dozen popcorn clouds to catch the light you'll see every color of the rainbow, top to bottom and bottom to top.  On the clouds and in the sky, everywhere.  Not only that but you'll even see a couple of colors that don't exist.  And there's no way you can see them since they're out of the visual spectrum.  But you will.  And the next morning you'll forget them like they'd never been there.  But if you dream in color, they'll come back.  It's a Canadian boonies thing.  Doesn't happen down in the States.  And if it did, some booger in Washington would make both those imaginary colors illegal and people would go to jail for trying to smuggle them over the border.  Of course I'm exaggerating but not about the colors, they're there alright."
     Uncle Emil paused, fired up his Zippo, lit another cigarette and popped his inhale.
     "With a little luck we might see Northern Lights.  Not like they'll be come fall or winter but just maybe.  They're the ghosts in the heavens above put there to protect us and bring good fishing.  Can't say for sure that's true but I do like the sound of it."
     "Me too."
     The idea of good fishing and camping in the wilderness was beginning to grow on me.  The thought  of huge fish was starting to give me the tingles.  Just because you're physically in a place doesn't mean you're aware of where you are.  Sometimes it takes a while to catch up to reality.  As we continued west I began to open up to the possibility of what was waiting up the road.  And realize where we were, how far we'd come and what those lakes we were driving toward might be like.  Wow!  Light bulb time.  Finally dawned on me this was really happening.  We were on our way to one of those places I'd only read and daydreamed about.  Only it was really happening to the two of us sitting up there in the front seat of the Nomad.
      "Uncle Emil.  Thanks for taking me on this trip."
      "My pleasure.  Archie me lad, it wouldn't be the same without you."