I am somewhat late coming to this post because my wife and I have just been in an area where there is no Internet - namely, Quetico. We just spent three days "yurting" and snowshoeing at French Lake and reminding ourselves of why we've been coming up here (most years) since 1981 to find peace and solitude.

In 1973, the year after we got married, on the advice of a good friend, we decided to travel west to Winnipeg from Ottawa around the north shore of Lake Superior. En route, we happened to stop at the car camping campground at French Lake, mainly because I had vaguely heard of this park called Quetico. While there, my wife got the idea that maybe someday we might want to try a wilderness canoe trip. She had done some canoeing at her girls' camp when she was much younger. I had never been in a canoe in my life so I said "sure"!!

Well, 8 years passed and finally in 1981 (after a couple of  short "try-out" canoe outings around Ottawa) we decided to go for it and planned a 13-night canoe trip in Quetico. (I had no idea what I was doing). We drove our car literally to the end of the logging road southwest of Northern Light Lake, parked the car at the end of the road and bushwhacked for what seemd like forever to the nearest water (a channel leading from Northern Light Lake to Red Sucker Bay of Saganaga Lake). From there we did a circuit into Saganaga, Knife, the other border lakes, Basswood, Louisa, Glacier, the Falls Chain, Saganagons and back out to Northern Light Lake and our car (which was still there all by itself and still in one piece!)

Although exhausting for two novices like us, the trip was exhilarating and beyond anything we had ever experienced. And we knew this was not to be the last time we'd see Quetico. In fact, a Quetico trip has turned out to be a defining characteristic of our marriage.

We have been to all corners of the park (except the famous portages into and out of Cache Lake) and we hope to continue to do so until our joints, our stamina and our will gives out.

I appreciate this opportunity to talk about a place we both love so much and which means so much to us.