CANOEING THE ROUGE

Deep irony lives along old rivers. The regions around the Humber and the Rouge valleys were home to generations of first nations who tamed a small bit of the wild to be a safe place for families. Hills on those same valleys became places where first nations and first Europeans met for trade and commerce: produce from land tamed.

Ironically, each river and valley today attracts a steady flow of visitors but not so much for commercial gain as to escape from it for a time, and to experience the wild within reach of the city. Now it is the untamed that draws them.

"Wild in the City", the laudable vision of Rouge Park, should be maintained for posterity. Elsewhere so much of the wonders of creation have been lost at the steady encroachment of civilization. Here are sufficient amenities - yet the bulk of the park is preserved from busy roads - except for the 401 overhead, and an incongruous Via Rail at the beach(!) - and from too safe paved lighted paths. Rougher more natural trails or the flowing river lead you on. It reminds me of that old hymn: "there's a wildness in God's mercy." (Yeah, I know its "wideness" but "wildness" works, too. Mercy when it comes is always an unpredictable, overwhelming flood. Wildness indeed.)

I can only imagine how the animals experience the Rouge. Some are approaching endangerment so what a blessing to have unrestrained freedom so close but far enough from where the masses drive to work. Animals flourish within the narrow confines of the Humber and also, and especially, the Rouge. May their tribe forever increase!

CANOEING
What a splendid morning it was paddling in a canoe on the Rouge. The number of groups working to expand our understanding of and appreciation for the wild in this city is mushrooming. But Toronto Adventures is one of only a few commercial groups enabling newbies like me to discover - within the bounds of Canada's largest city - the wild on the river itself. They were well organized and offered informed instruction and touring of the Rouge environs and marsh. Our guide was very sensitive to the needs of the beginner kayakers and the one novice canoeist (me).

SWIFT OBSERVATIONS
Stopping regularly to keep the group bunched, he pointed out enumerable flora and fauna, especially birds: kingfisher's speedy flight, watchful wary great blue heron wading on the edge of the marsh, hawks and turkey vultures high in flight way overhead....

Another irony: an old brick chimney from a derelict house has been preserved on the east bank of the Rouge for new residents: the chimney swift. The swift's natural habitat - hollowed out rotting trees - are often cut down as a safety hazard. Without decaying remnants of civilization such as crumbling chimneys, the swift would face extinction.

How ironic, too, that we were promised site of the Rouge's famed turtles basking in mid-day sun on stones by the slowly flowing stream - but they remained turtle-like and never appeared. Sigh.

GUIDE and COMPANY
Our guide knew his stuff and the area. I would gladly try my hand at kayaking on the Humber next time round if he were leading. Most participants came with a friend. Though we stayed together as a group down and back - more or less - a single kayak is very much an individual experience so interaction was limited. That's okay because it seemed to me most were more interested learning to kayak well and in the Rouge than in each other. Still afterward we were mixing better than at the start of the day - eager to talk about what each had learned and how we did.

I suppose the experience is similar to church in some ways. Each enters somewhat uncertain about the others and what the morning will bring. Church pews sit in what is called "the nave" - as in navy - resembling as they do rolling waves. Rhythmic motions of liturgy and prayer, like rowing, move us along together. After shared time either in the closed box of a church or the open-aired river-cathedral, we sense a unity of experience: of defeats and victories, insights and wonders and the presence of something much larger than ourselves.

Not so ironic then that we are changed by God in his own world. Being with God does that to you: both in the big book of creation and the little book of the written word. I offer now and then a thankful prayer for our guide and the crew of Toronto Adventures: may you peacefully dream of the Wild to come.