Lake Of The Woods: A Surprise Adventure

A float plane flying over my head sputtered and circled in the morning sky.  I looked out at the edge of a lake with 65,000 miles of shoreline and 14,552 islands.  Just then the plane turned directly toward me.  It was coming down!  

For 4 generations, my family has been coming here to Lake of the Woods.  In their retirement, my parents now spend summers at a cabin up here.  I have probably spent over half of my birthdays on these shores at the edge of this small Canadian town population 290.  So it is only fitting that I ring in this milestone birthday here in this spot.  

I only realized what was happening when I saw the plane come in for a landing.  My 3 siblings had surprised me by showing up in Canada and then kind of blew me away by setting up a float plane to fly the 4 of us to a private lake to fish for the day.  It’s not private because it is owned by some country club or anything.  It is just so damned isolated that the only way in is by bush pilot.  There is not another soul for miles.  I had never ridden in a float plane before but was about to get my first chance.

The Canadian Shield

We crammed into the tiny cabin and I took the seat next to the pilot.  How does anyone usefully keep track of all these gauges and controls?  As we rose up over the lake, I could see miles back into the Canadian shield.  Exposed bedrock, birches, and pine trees, with an occasional black bear or moose hidden in the backwaters.

Catching Something Prehistoric

I genuinely appreciate my siblings and we get along well.  Living in 3 different states with 10 kids amongst us, it is super rare that we spend time together with just the 4 of us.  We caught and released over 100 walleyes that day and one angry snapper:

Catching that many walleyes one after the next just may have ruined regular fishing for me. We took turns yelling and hearing the crystal clear echo come back from the expanse.  Why have I never done this before I wondered.  The cost of this day was less than a flight home for Christmas.  I guess I just never thought to set it up before.  I recently talked with someone who offered up that people spend lots of money to have great experiences served up to them as a substitute for the creativity that it takes to make experiences a reality for far less.  Spending on value is something that I think quite a bit about.  However, I too miss opportunities for amazing value sometimes.    

Poutine and Jumping Off a Cliff

You never know what kids are going to think is awesome but mine get pretty excited by the fact that most of the candy bars are different up here.  They cracked into a Mackintosh’s, an Aero, a Crunchy, a Caramilk.  On this Canadian adventure, I also got to introduce them to buffalo chicken poutine and cliff jumping:

Toward the end of this trip, I caught a musky while fishing with my dad one evening.  I looked out at a late summer sunset on the glass lake:  

It’s a pretty amazing world and I am grateful to be here.  State of mind can be the difference between having an amazing lifelong memory, or just another vacation.  Sometimes we plan awesome trips but then stress about everything going perfectly rather than enjoying the moment.  Other times we get surprised. Sometimes the less spectacular enjoyed with the right state of mind can be even more unforgettable.