Wilderness Pool

The path less traveled is always worth the pursuit.

Tucked away deep in the forest, I broke through a thick patch of alder bushes that brought me to my destination — a wilderness pool. The water within the pool was sitting smooth as glass, only to be interrupted by the resident beaver swimming elegantly along its surface. Well off the beaten path, I was not seeking out a particular destination in my venture through the woods, but rather when I saw the pool, I knew my destination had been reached.

The journey to the wilderness pool through the woods had been long and a newly fallen aspen tree courteous of the beaver made a good place to rest. Looking out over the pool, hemmed with cattails, sphagnum moss, and black spruce, I couldn’t help but wonder how many others, if any, have had the pleasure of looking out over its expanse.

The water looked like tea in color, as though the water had been steeped by the trees, duff, and muskeg that surrounds it for decades. Constantly replenished with natural spring water, the water waits its turn to be among the trickles of water that seep through any openings in the mud and sticks of the beaver dam and into a small, unnamed creek.

The recent clouds of rain had now passed by, while the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds for a brief time before setting. The fresh rain made the landscape come alive with fresh smells and the sounds of birds chirping high in the canopies. It was a perfect moment to take in the beauty of the small things around me. The water droplets on the leaves, the rainbow reaching far across the sky, and the sound of water rolling gently over the pebbles within the creek.

A swamp to some, but a seemingly perfect place to me, all to myself. Full of life and a place where the natural world can live free of disruption and remain untouched as it had been for thousands of years.

The setting sun was my sign that it was time to leave the wilderness pool — for now. I took in the last of the sights and smells before returning back into the dense forest I had come from until I could no longer hear the rush of water flowing from the creek.

I would return to the wilderness pool again someday. To visit this Eden per se, tucked deep within the forest well off the beaten path. A place to visit to be alone in solitude and to be an observer of nature. A place I can return to and know it will be there just as perfect as it had been the first time I saw it.

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