The Waterwalker film festival is back in town, even though it might not be advisable to go walking on the lakes of the Cariboo right now.
The big thaw is on the way though and the Blackwater Paddlers want to get your mind in the right place to appreciate the loosening of the ice and the warming of the water.
"We do this at the beginning of the season to get everyone excited about the season," Ron Watteyne, President of the Blackwater Paddlers and an organizer of the event, said.
This year Paddle Canada's Waterwalker Film Festival is a tribute to the late Bill Mason, the great conservationist, canoeist and filmmaker.
Mason once stated, "The medium of film is for me a means of expressing my love and enjoyment of the natural world, and of sharing my concern for what's happening to it with anybody who looks and listens."
Mason's idea of success was to be able to communicate through his films, books and paintings the intense feelings he had for his surroundings, and to somehow inspire others into sharing and adopting these thoughts and concerns.
Passionate in his beliefs, always speaking from the heart, his films inspired many people to rededicate themselves to the enjoyment and conservation of Canada's wilderness and waterways.