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For those in the know, Quetico is a canoe-tripper’s paradise with its 1,500 kilometres of interconnected waterway routes. Exploring this vast network is a passion for Darryl Blazino who is definitely in the know. It shines through both his stories and photographs in A Brief Time in Heaven: Wilderness Adventurers in Canoe Country as he describes the tangible and intangible treasures discovered in over two decades of Quetico canoeing adventures.

In 1983, while paddling across Canada, we threaded the park’s southern boundary. We vowed we’d return with more time to explore the incredible landscape that lay to the north of us. The summer our daughter Sila turned six, we mapped out a circular, month-long route including lakes such as Pickerel, Sturgeon, Darkwater, Argo, Kahshahpiwi, and Chatterton. Even then it was only a fraction of the routes that First Nations people had been traversing for thousands of years, and, later, the European fur traders. Darryl describes an uplifting personal journey leading from frenetic-paced professional life to a time when he discovered wilderness canoeing as a way to slow down. His subsequent family adventures capture what is truly most important in life.

This is the kind of book you can open to any page and begin reading. His accounts of camping with his children remind us of an evening when Sila caught her first three fish, of the day she learned to swim, of the awe of seeing moose and eagles and otters up close. Quetico’s benevolent spirit rewards those who take the time to appreciate its beautiful campsites, towering pines, and rocky shores. But it is far more than an experience of what one can see.

Take the night for example. With darkness, we have a view to that great starry ocean. We marvel not just upwards, but outwards and inwards, too. The darkness blinds our eyes, allowing our other senses to gather the stories of our surroundings. The forest rains down health-giving perfume that fills our lungs in every breath we take. All around us, myriad creatures go about their nocturnal business rustling, chewing, tapping, hooting, and, if you are lucky, howling.

In Darryl’s stories, he makes the important family connection between elders and youth; his boys and their grandparents out fishing. Whether the canoe journey into Quetico is for a short time or a long time, he reminds us that these journeys are gifts — often the best that life has to offer.

Joanie and Gary McGuffin, authors of eight books including Where Rivers Run, An Exploration of Canada by Canoe and Quetico:Into the Wild

Goulais River, Ontario

May 2012