For Timo, launching his canoe into the late November chop takes some of these same considerations. In both these scenarios, Timo considers the weather, the wind, and the surrounding topography—he thinks of the flora and fauna and what effect the conditions and season might have on them.

Most of us learn to forget about water—water as a wild thing, that is. Our water systems today are re-engineered in so many ways—by damming, diversion, channelizing, contamination, invasive species—that they barely resemble their natural state. We make do with what we can and recreate in ponds, streams and reservoirs. But the experience of water as a true wilderness is something so remote it has all but disappeared from our collective imagination.