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Outdoors
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Reflection on Sept.11
Smithers |
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| by Kym Putnam On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, six people from the Bulkley Valley were camped beside a remote and beautiful lake in the Coast Mountains. It had taken us two days to paddle and portage to Seel Lake via Tahtsa, Troitsa, and Blanket Lakes. We had no inkling of the event that was unfolding on our continent that day, what you might call ‘our bigger backyard’. We had spent the day in camp around the fire and in our tents, since non-stop rain had greeted us that morning. As usual, when we are completely removed from outside contact with humanity and news, we wondered how things are ‘out there.’ On this trip, we even spent a few hours discussing what we would do if the world had somehow been destroyed while we were gone. We felt so safe and protected in our piece of wilderness, but deep down we knew we were ill prepared to survive for very long. The next day, however, the fog had lifted by 10 am and the weather looked promising enough to make a trek up the nearest mountain, instead of having to head home and away from the rain and drizzle. This day, and the next four days, were glorious and we delighted in our beautiful world of clean water, alpine meadows, peaks and ice fields, and even grudgingly admired the beauty of the Devil’s Club that we traveled through for far too many hours. On Saturday afternoon we paddled down Troitsa Lake on perfectly calm water with loons, moose, and beaver our only other company. After the paddle across Tahtsa Lake we drove up to the Huckleberry mine site to return some borrowed canoe wheels to a mine employee. That was when we noticed the flags at half-mast and knew that something tragic must have happened, somewhere in the world. Our friend from the mine solemnly described Tuesday, September 11 to our unbelieving ears. We learned that on Friday a candlelight vigil was held in Smithers for the victims. We recalled our Friday night as being the most beautiful one of the trip, where we had all been up at one point in the night looking at stars reflected in the perfect stillness of the lake, hearing nothing but silence. I guess, because it was our last night out, we were appreciating the beauty of our wilderness backyard. The next day we would be back to a different world. We just hadn’t realized how different it would be. For us living in the northern BC, it is hard to truly relate to the horrible events that took place in the United States that day. I had many thoughts go through my head when I heard the news - I was glad to be living in the safest place in the world - why were all of us so lucky to have chosen this place to live, where we have wonderful communities, wilderness in our backyard, and not enough importance to the world for any terrorists to take notice. I truly hope we haven’t forgotten that we are extremely privileged to live here. I hope we are able to keep on being the wonderful communities that we are, that we will always have wilderness to enjoy and remind us that our true home is our earth, and that we can be generous enough to share with others. I wish everyone that was affected by the tragedy on Sept 11 could come to our wilderness for a little healing. (Kym Putnam owns and operates Soul Purpose Adventures in the Bulkley Valley.) |
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