This is a self portrait taken during a ten day solo kayak trip I made during the autumn in the Bowron Lakes wilderness in BC. I was just 17 years old. I did not encounter any other person until the end of the trip. It was a foolhardy endeavour given my inexperience (I had never been kayaking before this journey) and the fact that I had no way of communicating with anyone in the event I was injured. However, during this journey I got to a point when I felt the most profound connection to the natural world that I've ever attained. It seemed like all my senses were supercharged. I could hear the faintest sounds and see the smallest details in things. I could sense animals before they appeared. I remember a moment sitting on a shoreline and watching fallen golden birch leaves rolling in a gentle breeze down a beach. I was enraptured with the sound they made, as if it were the finest symphony performance — I felt pure bliss.

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