by

Ben Klingler

Imagine yourself looking out a window of an airplane. You are five thousand feet above the ground, and all you can see is green. The air is so clean it looks as though you can see forever. Among this green of the trees are hundreds of lakes that form deep blue splotches as far as you can see. Buildings are non-existent; in fact, you haven’t seen any form of habitation for some time now. What you are seeing is an area in Northern Ontario, and you are on your way to a fish camp situated in the middle of nowhere. Everyone has some point in his life he can never forget. That point in my life was my first trip to Canada. This Canadian adventure made me realize I really could have fun fishing, made me went to spend more time outdoors, and made me want to learn how to fly.

I have never been an avid angler, but this trip made me realize that I could have fun while fishing. One of the experiences that made fishing fun for me is beaver dam jumping. To do this, you take your boat and race it as fast as it will go toward the big pile of mud and sticks that make up the dam. When you hit the pile, you go soaring through the air. As I was soaring through the air, I was amazed that I was sitting in front of my sixty-five-year-old grandfather doing this. Another activity we enjoyed is what I like to call "Thunderstorm Racing." While these came along, we would crank the throttle up all the way to make the boat go as fast as it could toward shore. We made sure we had our rain slickers on and were sitting on life jackets so we would not get electrocuted if lightning struck the boat. This experience probably was not the safest in the world, but it sure was fun. I also enjoyed our shore lunches. We would cook the fish that we caught but never more than we could eat because we were participating in the catch and release program. There is nothing that compares to cooking lunch over a campfire far away from civilization. I felt more in touch with nature at those moments than I ever had in my life.

This trip to Canada made me want to spend more time outdoors. I guess the main reason is the wildlife. I saw animals in their natural habitat unlike any I had seen before. I remember seeing moose grazing beside the lakes, eagles soaring high looking for fish to catch, and loons carrying their young on their backs. Seeing the pristine water and the woods that looked untouched by human hands started me on my state-side searches for more areas like this one. I started doing more backcountry backpacking and camping that made me realize that this search comes close to the land that I saw in Canada. I will spend much more time outdoors, but I don’t think I will ever be able to match this untouched land in Canada.

Another effect that this trip had on my life is that it made me want to learn to fly. The biggest influence that created this desire after I went to Canada is the bush pilot. These pilots were not the clean-cut businessmen that we see flying for Delta. They are the renegades of the flock. They fly in and out of the shortest strips whether on tires, floats, or skis; they have skills that no other pilots can match. Another reason the trip encouraged me to learn to fly is being able to see the complex cockpits of the planes. I had never really seen an aircraft cockpit before. I knew as soon as we took off that I just had to learn how to use all the buttons, gauges, and controls that made up the aircraft’s cockpit. I had to learn how to use all these controls so that I would be able to feel the freedom of flight.

This trip had many effects on my life. It taught me many lessons about the outdoors. It also convinced me that I wanted to learn to fly. All of us have vacations that we can remember, but few of us have a vacation that changed our lives. I will look forward to the day that I will be able to go back to the wilderness of Northern Ontario. Next time you look up into the sky and see a small plane heading north, think about my story and how much fun it would be travel to the most pristine area in North America. The person flying that plane could be me heading back for another adventure.