THE PATHWAY TO WATER

Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free. ’tis the gift to come down where you ought to be. --- Traditional Shaker

There's no season for me, that gathers up more feelings of nostalgia than autumn. The sound of brown crisp leaves crunching underfoot, the taste of apples and pumpkins doused with sugar and cinnamon and the spectacular sight of migrating geese heading south before winter. It's always a thanksgiving of memories and reflection for me.

I got that same sentimental feeling when I was watching naturalist and canoe guru Bill Mason's 1984 semi-autobiographical documentary, Waterwalker, this past week.

Photos courtesy of the Mason family

In the film, Mason guides us in his canoe along the rugged coast of Lake Superior and on some of Ontario's exciting rushing rivers and through its peaceful meadowland lakes. All the way, he paints, camps, and tells us stories about his love of canoeing in the Canadian wilderness. En route, we escape into his paddling world of beautiful scenery and wilderness pleasures, as he teaches us to reflect poignantly on nature and the history of land's native people.

"There is no wolf attack, I don't get ravaged by wild mountain men or robbed by bandits," Mason tells us in Waterwalker, "In fact, there are no bad guys at all. Just you and me paddling the biggest and most spectacular lake in the world... Lake Superior."

Long before the days of high definition, drones, and special effects, Mason's films now have a nostalgic feel to them. Using a 16-mm film, he blended the natural sound of birds chirping, waves crashing and rushing water to enrapture us into the scene. To bring us in closer, he developed a pre-GoPro perspective to get the shot, using a motorcycle helmet and wood from a hockey sticks to create a helmet cam. It was not lightweight by today's standards and could only shoot a maximum of 90 seconds before the film ran out. There is a story, that Mason almost drowned the first time he jumped in the water with it on. From then on they say, he used several extra PFDs to provide enough flotation for him and the camera to stay afloat.

"It is a testament to his creative genius that at a time of mass online media," wrote Conor Mihell, in a tribute to Mason in Canoe & Kayak Magazine, "Mason's canon of films remain relevant and entertaining on the 30th anniversary of his death, on October 29, 1988."

In Waterwalker, Mason quipped us along about being an artist who loves to canoe or a canoeist who loves to create. His passion for both was poured out freely, all the while encouraging us as Mihell wrote of him, to explore the real world—a dynamic, wondrous and beautiful place of wild rivers and freshwater seas, to be traced slowly, joyously and thoughtfully by canoe.

"I love his simple joy of building a relationship to the world with a canoe, " wrote James Raffan offering Mason more accolades in Paddling Magazine, "Bill didn't really care whether you did this stroke of that stroke in this or that circumstance. Going into nature was the most important thing. How you got there in your canoe was incidental."

I thought about Mason the last time I paddled on Lake Natoma. It was easy too, after a chance meeting with John Weed. A local paddling legend in Northern California, it's obvious Weed and Mason were cut from the same cloth.

John Weed

Like Mason, Weed is somewhat of a mystical spirit. A long-time instructor and guide for Current Adventures Kayak School & Trips he has been known to go on solo trips to Mexican Baja coast for months at a time always bringing back stories wild tales of surviving sudden storms, dodging drug smugglers and meeting great friends along the way.

"When you paddle with others, you can immerse yourself in nature." Weed  was quoted as saying, "When you paddle solo, you are nature."

Always a great paddling companion, on my recent trip to the lake, Weed told me stories of growing up inside the walls of Folsom prison as we paddled up past the Rainbow Bridge near the prison. His dad was the prison's chaplain in a time when many of the prison's employees and their families would live on its grounds and the only way to get to the river then was to stage a prison break.

"It was maximum security then," laughed Weed as we angled around the curve in the river where we could see the prison's tower and stone walls, "Every day at 4:00 PM they would blow a whistle that would send everyone back for lockdown. But for me, that would single that it was time to jump the wall and come down here to go fishing."

And ever since, Weed, just like did Mason has followed the well-worn path to the water. As Mason said, “A journey by canoe along ancient waterways, is a good way to rediscover our lost relationship with the natural world and the Creator who put it together so long ago.”

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for all those like Bill Mason and John Weed for showing us that pathway to the water.

Canada's greatest canoe legend lives on YouTube. Check out Bill Mason's film Waterwalker as it continues to inspire an all-new generation of paddlers. 

 

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