AFTERWORD

Nowhere makes you feel as small and insignificant as wandering alone across ancient lava flows that were already a billion years old before the first dinosaurs ever walked the earth. Nowhere makes you feel so alive as on a pristine lake, the spray of cold water in your face and an impossible horizon to be reached with your paddle strokes. Nowhere I know conjures up so much enchantment and wonder as an ancient forest, with fragrant spruces and tamaracks, birdsong, and wolves that look you in the eye. There’s a kind of magic to these wild places; the kind of thing that can’t be captured in words.

It’s a magic that’s becoming rarer in our fast-developing world, which pushes back the wild a little more, year by year, including here in Canada. But it’s still there, if you trouble yourself to look for it—you don’t necessarily have to wander for months alone in the wild to find it. Look at that great old tree, that field, that bird, that squirrel, and you might just catch a glimpse of it.

I think everyone can benefit by becoming a little more attuned to wild places—even if it’s just for a day, or merely an hour to “unplug.” I’m asked how I deal with the stress of my journeys, but in reality that’s easy. What’s hard is dealing with the stress of a modern, hyper-connected world—traffic, emails, texts, social media, 24/7 connectivity, paperwork, asphalt, concrete, noise. That’s stressful. But there’s a tonic to it—take a stroll in a nature park, or sit and watch some birds, or if you really want, try plowing a canoe through ice. If you let it, it will work its magic on you: that’s the beauty and charm of nature. It can help us de-stress, rejuvenate, and reawaken our sense of awe.

But that’s also why it’s crucial we find ways to preserve and restore wild places in Canada and beyond—from the vast areas of the North, to the very fringes of our sprawling cities and even within them, to the countryside and small towns, and everywhere in between. When we lose these things, we lose something of irreplaceable value and something indispensable to our physical and mental well-being; we lose the biodiversity of the planet—the magic of our world.

The solutions to prevent that are pretty much known, it’s just a matter of will. And the first part of that is to care enough to want to change things. If this book helps anyone care a little more, or to look upon wild nature with fresh eyes, my journey will have achieved its purpose.