Empty pristine untouched wilderness in full summer bloom is some of the most beautiful places on our planet.
I live in northern Ontario where we have bare rock, lakes, swamp, mud, mushkeg, skaggy bush and pockets of sandy beaches. Close to inhabited areas, it’s easy to just go a mile and you’ll run into deforested areas, cut over areas, regrow areas or areas where there has been mining roads, logging roads and just roads leading to now where but destruction. It’s getting harder and harder every year to find untouched wilderness.
But I’ve been way in the far north around James and Hudson Bay.
I remember one summer going up near Fort Severn on Hudson Bay with family and friends. We camped out in the wilderness away from town and I took a few hikes into the bush with my cousins.
Even as a teen a knew I was seeing something amazing. We walked down the river, up a branch of the main waterway and along a creek until we met a small beaver dam. Behind the dam was a small lake. We stood on the dam and the lake behind it was like a dream from some fantasy movie or novel. The sun was streaming through the tall trees, the greenery was thick and dense everywhere and it looked like it was all just fake. The bushes were thick and lush and the plants nearby were strange wild varieties I’d never seen before mixed in with little yellow flowers and tall grasses. The water was dark but we could see the layers of branches underneath, the green growth in the water and the lily pads and reeds everywhere.
The wind gave a soft roar like the ocean in the trees. Crows called in the wind. And water trickled and flowed near and around the dam. Even the smell and scent was unreal. It was a thick scent like mud or earth together with the freshness of plants and pollen. And the smells just rose and fell between the small gusts of wind that blew the most fresh air I’d ever felt or breathed.
I just couldn’t believe it and I still think about it often. We were far away from anyone and there were no signs of people here yet it looked like some gardener had arranged and planned everything. It was so unbelievable, it was hard for me to imagine that it was all just natural … but it was.
Empty pristine untouched wilderness in full summer bloom is some of the most beautiful places on our planet.
I live in northern Ontario where we have bare rock, lakes, swamp, mud, mushkeg, skaggy bush and pockets of sandy beaches. Close to inhabited areas, it’s easy to just go a mile and you’ll run into deforested areas, cut over areas, regrow areas or areas where there has been mining roads, logging roads and just roads leading to now where but destruction. It’s getting harder and harder every year to find untouched wilderness.
But I’ve been way in the far north around James and Hudson Bay.
I remember one summer going up near Fort Severn on Hudson Bay with family and friends. We camped out in the wilderness away from town and I took a few hikes into the bush with my cousins.
Even as a teen a knew I was seeing something amazing. We walked down the river, up a branch of the main waterway and along a creek until we met a small beaver dam. Behind the dam was a small lake. We stood on the dam and the lake behind it was like a dream from some fantasy movie or novel. The sun was streaming through the tall trees, the greenery was thick and dense everywhere and it looked like it was all just fake. The bushes were thick and lush and the plants nearby were strange wild varieties I’d never seen before mixed in with little yellow flowers and tall grasses. The water was dark but we could see the layers of branches underneath, the green growth in the water and the lily pads and reeds everywhere.
The wind gave a soft roar like the ocean in the trees. Crows called in the wind. And water trickled and flowed near and around the dam. Even the smell and scent was unreal. It was a thick scent like mud or earth together with the freshness of plants and pollen. And the smells just rose and fell between the small gusts of wind that blew the most fresh air I’d ever felt or breathed.
I just couldn’t believe it and I still think about it often. We were far away from anyone and there were no signs of people here yet it looked like some gardener had arranged and planned everything. It was so unbelievable, it was hard for me to imagine that it was all just natural … but it was.