My Watermark is the Ottawa River, Ontario.

My second rafting trip on the Ottawa River will always be remembered. I was a young teen and my dad’s family, my siblings and my friend Gabrielle planned a whole day on the river. Once in the raft, while our quirky guide was making corny jokes about fish and dams, we approached a waterfall where we were told we would “surf” the raft. Going down the waterfall splashed some cold, cold water on us – waking us up early in the morning.

Then, paddling intensively upstream towards the same waterfall, our raft got sucked into the river. The powerful river sucked the raft underwater only to spit it back out with only our guide remaining, skillfully on the upside-down raft. That time spent underwater slowed time down as the strong current pushed us downstream.