Yorkton, we need to talk about water.
Not drinking water, of course. There’s plenty of it here and it does a fine job of quenching your thirst.
No, I’m talking about swimming water. I’m talking about oceans and lakes. I’m talking about Water.
Being from the East Coast, I was raised in water. My parents’ house was positioned in front of a massive lake and I wasted most of my summer days there. I’d spend hours dog-paddling and back-stroking until my hands resembled day-old prunes.
I’ve swam in, sailed on, and water-tubed over anything that makes me float. I’ve dived headlong into the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve even dipped my toe into the Halifax Harbour (the second-largest natural harbour in the world, thank you very much), which, considering its high volume of ships and toxic chemicals, probably wasn’t the wisest move.
I have unhealthy obsession with water. Obviously.
Which is why I was nervous about moving to Saskatchewan. Everybody told me I’d be trading water for prairies. Every episode of “Corner Gas” I watched hammered home the point that the province is one endlessly stretch of land.
Looking at Saskatchewan on a map, you mostly see green. It’s in the middle of our country, so there clearly isn’t much coastal water. I was going to be boxed-in. As someone who’s spent his entire life at least 20 minutes away from open water, this was a big change.
If you’ll pardon the overused cliche, I was going to be a fish out of water.
When I arrived in Yorkton, I saw seas of grain and grass, but nothing blue. Everywhere I looked, I was greeted by earth. I felt dry.
Recently, I covered a story about York Lake Regional Park. Lake? Surely, I thought, it must be a misnomer. But it wasn’t. It was an honest-to-goodness, not-at-all-a-mirage, completely swimmable lake. It was littered with swimmers and boats. I nearly cried before I dove in.
This past weekend, I stumbled across Good Spirit Lake, which is even bigger than York Lake. These two lakes have been the most pleasant surprises of my relocation. It looks like I won’t lose my sea legs, although the water is slightly different to what I’m familiar with.
In Nova Scotia, I’m used to an immediate drop-off when I enter the ocean. But at Good Spirit, I had to walk on even ground for a while before the water got deep. The beach was a distant blur by the time the water was up to my neck.
Even in the water, Saskatchewan stays flat.
