Thoughts.com Blogs - Family Ritual: Assessment Task: Kankata Lake

View Blog

Family Ritual: Assessment Task: Kankata Lake

To set the scene: its 5 am, everyone’s at their wits end with trying to get out of here as quickly as possible. Dad: ordering everyone around at full blast making sure the van is packed, efficiently with the heaviest biggest boxes on the bottom to the lightest on the top. Mum: In a frenzy struggling to insure that nothing (or no one) is left behind. Daniel: Once again, enjoying his one last glimpse of civilisation: a flush toilet, reading his beloved Archie comics. Peter: already tuned out listening to Ace Of Base over his ’89 bright yellow cassette player. Finally me: crawled up in the back couch/seat of the Maroon Astro Chevy gleefully awaiting our arrival at my favourite place in the world. I never seem to remember that it takes a whole 14 hours to get there though.

Our first stop is Flanagran. Hope is a tiny little town about two hours east of New York. Flanagran marks the first (of many) legs on our gruelling journey this hot summer’s day. The big purple hunk of metal that has been oh so loyal to us over the years creaks to a halt in front of memorial park for us kids to jump out and burn up all that energy that’s been building up inside of us. Fifteen minutes later, we all pile back in to our seats to commence the annual expedition to Kankata Lake.

The next town we come to is called Handok, even more negligible than the last. The one good thing about Handok is the K Café. From the gaudy plastic kitchenware they serve your food on, to the old men and women that look as if they haven’t left the booth they sit at since they were teen, you really get the feeling that this place is legit. As always, we order as much as we think we can stretch ourselves to consume between the 5 of us.

Midway marks the middle point in our journey. We’re almost there and everyone is feeling the heat, exhaustion and irritability setting in. We only ever stop in the little park at the side of the highway just outside of Midway. There’s not actually anything in Midway other than a tractor and convenience store, complete with an old grouch named Belinda behind the counter. Still, it’s always nice to get there, for we know it won’t be long until we can rip off our sweaty car clothes and jump into the bitter cold Kootenay Lake and once again be at home. A home second to the one on West 31st of course, but home none the less.

As we get closer and closer, the ambiance within the constraints of the van becomes more and more tense. Everyone begins to prepare themselves for the arrival, knowing that we will be there very soon. The first good sign comes approximately and hour and a half before we get to Sampsons Landing. “100 km to Maulbury” it reads.

Maulbury is a community just outside of Sampsons’ Landing which marks the near end of our endeavour. After Maulbury the road becomes increasingly difficult to drive along smoothly. Every 10 second you are thrown to the other side of the car by speed mixed with a whipping turn in the road.

Upon our arrival at Sampsons Landing, we all pile out of the van and run to the back to start the dreaded trudge up and down the beach to unload all our bags, containers and plastic bins. My role, as the youngest and least strong, is to go to the little shed half hidden by shrubbery and fetch the fluorescent orange tarp which I then, tie down to the great big wooden structure. By putting this tarp up, it signifies to the people on the deserted peninsula that there is an eager family waiting to be picked up and taken to wilderness. Just as we are finishing unloading the van, the camp director pulls up in the motor boat, greets us warmly and helps us to once again load up the red boat with all our camping gear.

I’ve always felt a great connection to Kankata Lake, one that has not been able to be defined by words or pictures. The only real way to comprehend how I feel about this place is to be here. Every second I lay on the pebbly beach or watch the unhurried grizzly bear across the creek, I am thinking how amazing it is that a peaceful place like this still exists in the chaotic world that we live in today. Every year, I look forward to one thing. Going to Kankata Lake. It really is the highlight of my year, nothing could ever beat the feeling of knowing that I am about to arrive at a place that is only mine. And that it is completely free of all outside pollution and disruptions of life in the city. Kankata Lake is my home.