Love and War at Bon Echo

One of the smaller kids playing at the edge of the water, looking for minnows with a flashlight, was the first to see it. "Look she said." Pointing across Mazinaw Lake. "It's a UFO."

It was August 15, 2003, the night of the Big Black Out, and even the few lights in the campgrounds at Bon Echo Provincial Park were out. The sky was ink black and the stars crowded together, painfully bright.

Even skeptical adults gasped with surprise when they saw what hovered just above the 100 meter high cliff face of Bon Echo Rock. The enormous orange light was 20 times brighter than any star or any of the high flying jets that occasionally passed overhead.

Our own party had taken the Mugwump Ferry across the lake that morning, and walked up the 1.5 km long Cliff Top Trail. We'd stood at the lookout, just where the huge light glowed. It had been a sultry day, the climb a challenge for little ones, but once at the summit, the view out over the dark water and the expanse of trees beyond was spectacular. Perhaps, one of the kids suggested, aliens had come to enjoy the same view.

It's tough being the one to break a spell-a thankless job. Non-the-less one I'm frequently called upon to exercise as the resident expert on 'everything useless'. "It's Mars," I told my captivated audience, it's closer right now than it will be again for many, many years." Through my binoculars I showed them the God of War. I suggesting that if they tried really hard they might see dark patterns on the surface of the planet-which would have been easy to see, had I brought my telescope.

They accepted my explanation and went back to scanning the eastern sky for meteors from the Perseus shower, peaking that week. One bright shaft of light streaked across the black heavens passing close to a satellite orbiting the earth, through frigid space. The Northern Lights, still elusive, hid behind thin clouds smeared lightly across the northern horizon.

Then the kids noticed a bright glow along the tree line just below where Mars was inching it's way up into the sky. The white glow grew in intensity until the first small slice of the moon appeared through the branches of the trees along the ridge.

For the next few hours we watched as a brilliant yellow full moon, symbol of love, emerged fully, and joined Mars in a dazzling duet-both of them dancing, westward across the sky for the rest of the night.