New Water

     Yes, lakes I'm familiar with have their charm. Something like visiting old friends. Mostly they're comfortable but every once in a while will throw in a new twist I didn't see coming. Maybe even an angle that changes my outlook on a place I've been to dozens of times. Truth is, even though I think I know what I'm doing, I really don't. Never the same river twice also seems to fit for lakes.
     Old friends aside, I have to admit I like new water. It's exciting standing on the shore and looking out on a world fresh with possibility. There have been a few times when that feeling struck me hard. Two in particular, East Pike Lake in the Boundary Waters in '66 and South Stocking in the Chippewa National Forest close to thirty years later. Those two moments filled me with a tingling, gut feeling. It's a feeling that still hangs on as I sit here at the keyboard. Both lakes live in my head as changing points. East Pike planted the seed and South Stocking provided the first fruit. Yes sir, it was a long time coming.
     That morning on South Stocking led to an exploration of what grew to be my home water and eventually to numerous, wilderness canoe trips with my son and a few others. None were great undertakings but a few led us more than three days off the beaten path in the Manitoba bush. Both my son Allan and I found a little bit of ourselves on each of our paddles over the horizon. Even the tough times were good times.
     Come this summer the two of us are off on another adventure, just Allan and I. And we'll be on new water where we'll wet a line to see what truth can be found beneath the waves. New water is always out there, somewhere, waiting for a man to come visit. It's also inside patiently biding its time, holding onto unrealized truth. In my life I've come to fish both ways, inward and out. Can't say which is better. And no, it's not a religious thing, at least not in an organized religion kind of way. Call it more of a oneness with a few big pike thrown in as a bonus.