Hello again my friend. It is another wonderful day. I have been looking forward to our walk today along the river. I found this trail about a week ago and have been dying to show someone. It is a real beaut! I brought with me a couple sandwiches. I hope you like peanut-butter and jam. Its all I had on hand. Besides, I think peanut-butter and jam sandwiches are a direct road to the memories of being young. Of course I am assuming that all kids eat peanut-butter and jam sandwiches. Perhaps I'm wrong. So how about you?...Good, I am glad to hear we both grew up eating these perfect kid sandwiches. Ah, here we are. The trail begins just behind that tight grouping of trees. Lets get started shall we.

There...behold the wonder. How can something so pretty be hidden away so well. Its like it is only meant for a few to discover and share. See how the river has etched away it's story in side of that rock. Yes by the bend over there. It is deep and fast there. The water looks more like glass then water. Nothing but tree and rock for this river to see along here. Come, lets walk with the river for a while. It smells so clean and fresh. I love the smell of these pine trees that grow along the river's edge. It reminds me of another river I once knew. Please, if you don't mind, I'd like to share this memory with you.

When I was a young man, well, just sprouting from boyhood to manhood actually. I met a girl. She was fascinating. Yes that would be the best word for it; Fascinating. She was the first female that I had ever experienced that feeling with. Her name, Wendy. She was a northern girl and was built like the north. She was sturdy and beautiful. She smelled fresh and not unlike the pine trees we are smelling now. She wasn't afraid of the wilderness either. She would swim in eel infested rivers and not think twice about it. She would bait a hook and gut a fish without batting an eye. She was everything I respected in my male friends but had a smile and charm that none of my male friends could ever muster. She walked different then them to. She was simply fascinating to me. The problem was, she was fascinating to a lot of boys. One of which was my cousin. Dave acted as smitten with Wendy as I did but he was there first. That gave him first rights... That is if she so chose. Dave and I where good friends and I wasn't going to risk that friendship. That's when I asked Dave to join me for a walk along old Aux Sable River just outside of town in Chutes Provincial Park. That place is beautiful and the river is one of the nicest rivers you could ever see. The Park drew lots of people. Everyone from canoe people to hikers to hunters. Every year those woods would steal away three or four people that would never be found again. Some of those people lost where not strangers to wood lore either. The woods aren't always as safe as they are pretty. Boys don't always give fear its proper respect. They can be bold are reckless. I asked Dave to go and he eagerly agreed to take the adventure along the river. Here is what happened...

The day was hot as it was summer in full stride. The river was a little lower then usual. When rivers are lower, the run faster along the rapids. You can ride them on your backside and get shot along with all that rushing water with little risk of being swept too fast and too far. It was fun and nothing short of driving old cars in the bush until they either died or got so badly stuck they would be abandoned could compare; Though that was great fun to. Dave and I walked beyond the areas where people collected to run the rapids. We walked along Aux Sable for about forty minuets without talking. Our focus was on maneuvering through the stones and rock that framed the river. Some parts of the river had towering flat rock faces that stood forty or so feet above us. When we managed to get to an area that didn't require so much attention to walk on, I started to talk about Wendy. My idea was to find out what Dave's real thoughts where regarding her. He smiled when I mentioned her name and I swear he started to talk in a language that fell just a little short of poetry. I found Wendy fascinating but it soon became evident to me that poor Dave crossed over into a land crazy love that I had no experience with. I truly believe it was a real kind of love for her that sent him there. He was way further then fascinated with Wendy. I let him go on about her for quite awhile without interrupting him. All the while we kept on walking along that river. We must of walked that way, him talking about her and me listening, for another hour. Once he exhausted all that pent up emotion, we decided to sit for a spell and eat some wild blue berries we came upon. I told him I didn't know he had such feelings for her and I wondered if she knew. He, in the nature of young men, forbid me to ever tell her of anything he had just confided in me. I had to cross my heart and swear on my mothers grave. Funny thing, swearing on ones mother's grave. She wasn't dead and is still isn't today but that swear seem to have special significance some how. Well that was the end of that. I had my answer. Wendy would remain a fascination for me but a fascination at a distance. The day was growing late and we where expected back soon. I believe it was my idea to try to save time by short cutting through the forest back to the farm. I felt I knew roughly where the farm was and that way we would catch trouble for being late. That is when we got lost.

Rivers are not very direct runners. They seem to like turning this way and that and then looping back on themselves only to stray off in a new direction. If one doesn't pay proper attention, one can be thoroughly disoriented without ever knowing it. Dave and I where not paying attention while we had walked along the river. The direction I felt the farm was turned out to be very wrong. All we managed to do was wonder deeper into the wilderness; Well away from any populated areas. The nature of males is to not admit to being lost long after he has admitted privately to himself that he is lost. Dave and I walked pretending we where confident for about another hour. That hour was quite a tense hour of pretending we knew the farm was just beyond the next rise. It never was. It was me who admitted aloud first. We where lost. We where expected to be home now and we couldn't even figure out which way the river was. Things did not look good. Dave got very angry at me for suggesting the short cut in the first place and I got very angry at him for being angry at me. Truth is, we where angry because we both where very scared. But that's something else males find hard to admit to. We did what we could do; we kept walking. Anger dissolved to fear of the trouble we where going to catch. That fear dissolved into something that was remarkable. Once we accepted the trouble we would get from our family, we started to work like a single person. Our talk changed from chatter to direction that was spoken with looks and gestures rather then words. We started to put to work all the lessons we had in survival to figure our way out of the woods. We determined direction by the fungi that grew on the tree trunks and that way the sun was moving. We would climb to the highest ground to find the tell tale signs of our river; That is a gap in the trees that makes some sort of line. Once we fell into that kind of team work, it wasn't long before we found our river again. We where way further in then either of us had figured we where. Hunger was an issue but it was a small issue. Berries only fill your belly for so long don't you know. Good thing they where so plentiful. We followed the river back for over three hours before we started to see landmarks either of us recognized again. Salvation! We where out. We made our way back to the farm. I remember we walked slower then. We where safe from the woods but in dire trouble from what surely waited for us at the farm. Our talk was minimal still. Only because neither of us cared to guess at what we where in for.

Well I bet you can guess what happened. We walked in that old house and where received with hugs and kisses and expressions of worry and fear we where lost and relief we where safe. Someone had seen Dave and I go into the woods along the river and had told them. Dave's dad went in looking for us but didn't go too far cause he felt we may come back out somewhere else. We got a hot meal and sent to bed early that night. Not a bad punishment if you ask me. We feared the worst and ended up with the best. And we learned how deep a bond two young men could make when trouble comes a knocking. Another moment in time that created some of this fellow you are walking with now. Dave and I fell out of touch as the years went by. I wonder if he still remembers that day when he and I where lost. I bet he does. And I bet that day shaped him some, like it did me.

Speaking of lost. where are we now? Ah yes. I am glad you have been paying attention. Yes, just over there. There is a road that runs along this river. If we go back in that direction, we will end up at the start of this little journey. It is a pretty river. I am happy you think so as well. I am glad I got the chance to show it to you. We had better head back. I wouldn't want to get you in trouble for being late on my account; Eh? Ha ha. That lesson I learned well. Once again I feel so good inside after sharing that story. It was like it just happened yesterday. I thank you for walking with me and listening today. I can't express well enough what that means to me. Here we are, back at the beginning. We part ways again. I wish you all the best and I hope we meet again soon. If your interested, I know a place that we could trek to that has quite the significance to me. We could go there and I would love to share with you another memory. You would like that? That is fantastic. Then we shall do so soon. Thank you again, it has been a wonderful day.