Two months, $4,000 dollars, and 42, 905 trees. In May and June of 2004 I slept in a tent, bathed in a lake, met a tone of cool people, got in the best shape of my life, and saw some amazing wildlife and scenery. On my quest for some tangible help to the environment and enough money to go to school I wound up just outside of Armstrong, Ontario about 4 hours north of Thunder Bay. I planned on getting a lot of trees in the ground and making a lot of money but what I didn’t expect was to have a good time doing it.

I’m not saying it was easy I had to get up around 5:00 every day be on my piece by 7:00 and planted approximately 2, 000 trees a day in rough territory. It was all worth it. On a typical day the sun would wake me up on my lakeside camping area and I would trudge the nature trail up to the food trailer and demolish a delicious breakfast (thank God for the awesome cooks). Then we would all pack into vans and head out to our pieces of land for the day. The drive was always a little disheartening for me as we passed mile after mile of clear-cut forest but at least I had the satisfaction that I was the one putting them in the ground not taking them out. From then on it was all about listening to my walkman and planting trees, I rarely took breaks. About 70% of my time was spent in a constant rhythm of 1 – 2 – dig – plant – repeat and a little voice in my head telling me to go faster. At the end of the working day we would pile back into the vans and make our way back to camp. Waiting for us when we got back was always a good well rounded meal and most times a delicious dessert. Almost routinely after that we would smoke a joint, play some hackey sack and have a fire and retire early to do it all over again.

I’ll be honest when I left on my tree planting adventure I figured the other planters would all be slow burnout hippies trying to cling to their 1970’s lifestyle. I was pleasantly surprised, I met more people interested in politics, reading, music and psychology, then I have at college. Whether it was a campfire jam session or an enlightening conversation about environmentalism or psychology I was constantly surprised by the intelligence and talent of my tree planting partners.

I’ll never forget sitting on a rock near the lake playing my guitar when about 100 ft to my right a large black bear came out of the woods to get a drink. It was in the evening and the sun was setting on the lake, you don’t get that in a factory. Or how I didn’t see darkness for 8 days straight (It didn’t get dark till about 12:00 when I was asleep and the sun rose around 5:00 the next day). How about seeing a black bear everyday for 6 days in a row and coming a little to close on more then one occasion. I left my adventure a lot better then I entered with 43, 000 trees under my belt, better guitar skills, tremendous physical shape, and a wad of cash in my pocket. I recommend anyone to try their hand at tree planting if not for the money then for the experience.