Sometimes we focus on the wrong things too much. It may not seem like it at the time, but it becomes apparent once priorities drop into focus. The big trips of life can have an easy time occupying all the attention, but sometimes it takes a little wander, almost inconsequential, to remind us how important these moments really are.

It doesn’t take long in a canoe for me to drop into relaxation mode. Annette and I took some easy trips down local rivers lately, hardly paddling, just cruising down river talking about things and just enjoying a little bit of easily accessible nature. My watch reports my heart rate drops during these trips, to the point of almost my sleeping heart rate, even though I’m still slowly pulling my paddle through the water.

The Assiniboine River doesn’t seem like it will offer much, driving over it via a bridge, looking down the rivers looks like a steady stream of mud flowing slowly across the prairies. But step into a canoe on top of it, and expectations vanish quickly. Except for the banks, the river water full of sediment is hiding a sandy bottom. The heavily lined tree banks give the illusion that you are paddling through a forest when in reality just beyond the bank is the human cleared prairie almost completely converted to farmland.

The river, while it flows, it also in not much of a hurry. Paddle upstream and you won’t make much progress against the relentless flow, but its sluggish pace is enough to make it wander across the mud filled prairie. The river winds around in huge loops, meaning you can paddle several kilometers and have only covered a kilometer or two as the crow would have flown.

This made me think back to some previous trips of a similar nature. On the eastern Manitoba border we explored a little bit of Ontario, linking a couple lakes with a short portage. A recent forest fire had scarred the land with burnt remnants sticking out all over the place. But new growth was already flourishing, filling in the gaps of the forest left by charred trunks.

Another trip with a little more action, was a day trip down the Bird River. The water level was fairly low, but there was still enough water to run the usually runnable rapids. The Bird also has several cataracts that need to be portaged. I’ve done this river many times in the long ago past, and it was interesting to see portage trails growing in, the river doesn’t seem as used anymore has it had when I more frequently plied its channel. But my memory is fading, we came across one significant waterfall, that I couldn’t really remember. Therefore, I couldn’t remember where the portage trail was, and inspection didn’t seem to reveal any obvious candidates. Our resulting path seemed to be fairly unconventional as we had to lower the canoe by rope down a rock face. As with any Bird River trip, daylight was fading as we finished the river, always indicating that it wasn’t quite planned as well as could be, and that just a little too much was crammed into the day.