My Watermark is Lake Openogo in Algonquin Park.

I went on a camping trip, it was a ten day camping trip. Food rations, portaging five kilometres, canoeing. By the end, we had two days left, we were completely exhausted, everybody was and we finally reached Lake Opeongo which was the last lake until our pickup point at the very end where we would be pulled out of the lake. It was the biggest lake in the park of course, so we had to paddle the entire lake all the way across to get picked up and everyone at this point was just exhausted. Totally tired, not feeling it and of course it was storming out, it was windy, the current was against us. There were about five canoes and we were all paddling and it took about 13 hours to paddle across the lake. It was exhausting but it was one of the best experiences of my life. We had bonded the entire trip but the whole strenuous, “we’re so close to the end, we’re going to get there any time now!” Everyone just got so close and made these friendship bonds that I still remember to this day.

I remember we finally go to the island which was probably a kilometre away from our pickup point the next day. We put up camp and there’s blueberry bushes everywhere and everyone is just exhausted but really really happy. It was a beautiful lake even though it was storming out, we had a great time even though was hard.

It’s just such a good memory of fighting through it to get to the end. So beautiful, amazing and I’m going to remember it forever.