I am home…

You know that feeling you get when you first walk through your front door after a long road trip or vacation?  It’s a welcome that wraps its arms around you — everything looks and smells and feels familiar and cosy.  That’s exactly how I felt when I walked into Kopegaron Woods for the first time this year.  And oh, how I have missed this!

All Canadian forests are essential —  they produce the oxygen we breathe, they clean the water we drink by filtering and absorbing many impurities, and they trap the carbon that notoriously causes the greenhouse effect that warms our planet. Forests also shelter and nurture wildlife.

Our majestic Carolinian forest is the smallest forest region in Canada, yet one of the most important.  Due to the uncommonly warm climate here in south-west Ontario, the Carolinian forest is uniquely able to sustain unparalleled biodiversity, including a wide range of rare, at-risk, and endangered species, many of those at the northern limit of their range.

Despite its ecological value and splendour, I confess that, ’til moving to Kingsville, I’d never heard of the Carolinian.  Now (already) it is extremely dear to me. 

Kopegaron Woods

Living here at Mill Creek, where a small tract of the Carolinian is so close that it almost touches my home, one might be forgiven for thinking I get all the “forest” I need without leaving the house. But despite this bucolic setting, there is no path through our woods — it is, and is meant to remain, entirely natural.  Kopegaron Woods, however, has a beautiful, circuitous path that is part natural surface and part boardwalk, wending its way through one of the most spectacular tracts of the Carolinian you’ll ever see. I was there before eight o’clock on Thursday morning and I had it all to myself. I was able to unabashedly indulge in some long-overdue, undisturbed, forest bathing. Bliss!

Sitting quietly still in this Cathedral of towering old-growth Sassafras, Sycamore and Black Gum trees, savouring the sights, sounds, and scents of the forest was, as it always has been, transformative for me.  The stress and frustration of my health issues melted away and were replaced with tranquil composure.

‘Though I have walked this forest trail countless times, entering Kopegaron on Thursday morning, it all felt new and fresh and intoxicating — like returning to a beloved and enchanting world.    My senses were immediately engaged — inhaling the peaty, earthy, and resinous arboreal smells; and feeling the unyielding, textured and deeply furrowed bark of the huge old trees, and listening to the myriad bird calls happening high above my head.  As nature’s peace worked its magic, I felt reverence, contentment and immense gratitude.

Leaving Kopegaron, with the gentle sunlight just beginning to peek through the canopy, I spent the rest of my morning exploring all my usual haunts — Wheatley PP, Port of Wheatley, Hillman Marsh CA and Point Pelee NP.  I saw lots of wildlife and wildflowers, I shared some interesting chats with folks I met along the way, I got a bit of a sunburn, and I thoroughly enjoyed being out of the house, alone, at long last.  Truly, though, those pleasures were merely the bonus.  My real delight was experiencing anew, the Carolinian’s abundant sensory offerings and, with a fresh trove of these delightful memories, I returned home feeling euphoric serenity.

’Til next time, y’all…