The Mighty Mosquito

Our Lazy Daze group left before noon the next day.  After saying goodbye to everyone, we eagerly took the boats off the top of the RV.  This was what we had been waiting for.  Meziadin Lake is beautiful, and we were lucky to get a campsite right on the shore with a small beach to launch our boats.  David had to rig up his fishing poles and ready his Pack Canoe, but I could not wait around for him.

As soon as Little Miss Sunshine hit the water I was gone. First I paddled out and around the little island just in front of the camping area.  I had not been kayaking for nealy a year, and wanted to get comfortable before I ventured out too far.  When I got to the far side of the island, I could not believe my eyes.  The mountain we could see from our campsite was only a small part of a beautiful mountain range that encircled the south end of the lake. 

For over two hours I paddled along the shore line looking for signs of wildlife or birds, and was surprised not to find any.  As I paddled further north, I could hear waterfalls and realized that they were caused by the snow melt on the opposite shore.  Since the water was calm and there was no sign of changing weather, I paddled out across the lake by myself, and explored the various falls. 

For years I have been following the teachings of Eknath Easwaran.  He taught what is known as

"Passage Meditation". Out there on the water, all alone, surrounded by the incredible beauty of creation, it occurred to me that I was practicing "paddle meditation".  Easwaran would not have called that meditation, but he surely would have smiled.  I did.

Mid-afternoon David returned with two big Dolly Varden Trout.  He was ecstatic.  He had actually caught five and lost two others. While I was taking pictures of his catch, our neighbor, Don, came over with his fish scale.  The bigger one was 24" long and weighed in at 4 pounds 11 ounces!  You can bet we feasted on fresh fish that night.

After a full day of fresh air and exercise, we decided to go to bed early that night, and were tucked in before ten o'clock.  We were just drifting off to sleep when we both heard the distinctive whine of a mosquito. I burrowed down into the bedcovers and tried to ignore it, but who can ignore the mighty mosquito?  It was impossible to go to sleep knowing that we were sitting ducks, so to speak.  Finally we took out our flashlights and started combing the crooks and cranies of the RV looking for it.  It had us on the run.  Amazing how such an itty-bitty creature can threaten 300 pounds of human flesh!