“Community” – the word can call forth many different meanings depending on who you ask. It can simply be a group of people who live amongst each other, and can extend to groups of people living apart, but who share a common passion, trust, or goal. Community can be as old as tradition, or as new as Spring buds. Community is all these things and more, but at its heart, Community is a feeling of fellowship shared with others.
On June 29, 2019, The Land Canadian Adventures teamed up with Canoe and Paddle, Stuff’d Lakefield, and Stuff Store to revitalize a Kawartha tradition: A Lakefield Paddling Regatta. Our shared passions for a paddle in hand and a boat (or board) on the water brought people from all corners of the Kawarthas region and beyond for a beautiful, sunny day of ice cream sandwiches, trust-building launches into the clear blue skies, and of course, traversing the iconic waterways surrounding the town of Lakefield in our various paddlecraft.
With hopeful smiles on their faces, our intrepid group of paddlers crossed land to join our team at Lakefield College School for an early morning boat launch into gorgeous Katchewanooka Lake with the shared goal of spending an awesome day doing what we love. From here we shared wonderfully calm waters with a few other polite boaters as we paddled ‘round islands, past Heron-claimed wetlands, and down the Otonabee River to our lunch site at Isabelle Morris. To my delight, everyone revelled at the chance to be tossed in the air via Inuit Throw Blanket, and after a couple hours of laughter and cheering we gladly got back on the water with a greater sense of trust in each other.
The final portion of the day saw us maneuver our way through curious power boaters as we all piled into Lock 26 for a historical ride into the Southern end of Lakefield. As we waited our turn through the Locks, our gathering moved past the smalltalk of the morning to greater discussions about the craft we love, joking about past mishaps on the water, and the kind of teasing shared amongst old friends. In a single day we had navigated the waters from strangers brought together by a love for paddling, to a unified group of people with a common experience: a community within a community.
And with that, the event had served its purpose with flying colours. Lakefield Paddle Day was a fresh look at a community event with the hopes of being even bigger an even better in the coming years, and so we kindly leave you with this: if you are a paddle enthusiast from the Kawarthas region, or anywhere beyond and want to find a greater paddling community or just want to explore a beautiful new place, join us in the coming years at Lakefield and help make this event a lasting experience for all :).
– Dee