Initially in my journey to find myself, who I am, or why I even exist, I often went up north to Algonquin Park, or the Frost Centre area (Haliburton, Dorset, Minden in Ontario) and did many solo trips. I consciously did this to meet my great fear of being ALONE.
On my very first trip, I was so bold, naive and rash that I didn’t even know how to carry the canoe all by myself. I found myself at the first portage and suddenly realized how I forgot to figure this out and learn it before I left. After my initial panic & despair, I relaxed a little, slowed down, took some deep breaths and looked carefully at the canoe. I then lifted it up at one end, jimmied myself up to the middle underneath it, put it on top of my head, turned around until I was facing out and then lifted it up onto my shoulders. I did it! Then I started walking on the portage. Except that I forgot to check the map and somehow there was a fork in the road – AND I TOOK THE WRONG FORK!