I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.  As a child, I attended summer camp in Muskoka.  My first canoe trip was in Algonquin Park, with a youth group, at age 16.  The magic of the backcountry had a profound and lasting effect on me... it felt like home in a way that no other place ever had.  After the first year of studies toward my Bachelor's Degree, I was hired to do field work in the Yukon Territory with several of my professors and fellow students.  What a dream job... I was actually paid to go camping... twenty weeks in a tent, over three summers!  During and following graduate studies, I participated in several campground-camping trips.  In 1994, I had the privilege of returning to "my first love," the Algonquin Park backcountry, by canoe, with two friends.  Up until I moved to Cape Breton Island, in 2023, I organized and participated in one or more backcountry trips almost every summer.  My camping friends dubbed me Martha Stewart McGyver, in recognition of my creativity in the camp kitchen (backwoods pastries were my specialty) and in solving crises (I can repair almost any piece of equipment or sprained body part with a couple tent pegs and a roll of duct tape).

In 1999, I gained a new canoe-tripping companion... my fiance, Gordon. Gord and I rang in The Year 2000 by eloping on New Year's Eve. We exchanged our vows standing upon a carpet of fresh-fallen snow, between two stately old trees, by the shore of a tranquil lake, under a crisp and clear winter sky. In November 2000, we were delighted to welcome a baby girl into our family.  We took her on her first canoe trip (playpen and all!) when she was just ten months old.  Tragically, my love affair with my wilderness soul mate and the father of my little girl was cut short when Gord was killed in a motor vehicle accident in September 2002, just two and a half years after we married. In August 2012, we fulfilled Gord's last wishes by interring his ashes, alongside the ashes of his cat Buddy (who predeceased him) and his dogs Scratch and Casey (who outlived him by seven and eight years), on his favourite island in the Algonquin Park interior. Throughout my daughter's childhood, Em the dogs and I continued the outdoor tradition on our own and with friends. We visited over 40 Ontario Provincial Parks and two National Parks.  By the time my daughter was 14, she had spent a year of her life camping and sleeping in a tent!

I have a Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree in Geography (specializing in Environmental Studies and Tourism), a Bachelor of Education Degree that qualified me to teach Kindergarten through Grade 6, and two Master's Degrees in Theology.  I was employed in various aspects of the education field for over 30 years:  Christian Education Director and Youth Group Leader at a church,  Administrative and Editorial Assistant at an educational publishing firm, eight years as an Educational Assistant at an elementary school, and twenty years as an elementary school teacher.  For many years, I served as supervisor to student teachers, our school's new teacher mentor, and staff advisor to the school's Green Team.  Throughout my working years, I also enjoyed raising my daughter, caring for our dog and cats, communing with "our family" of Trumpeter Swans, spending time in the great outdoors, and supporting the work of several local wildlife centres and sanctuaries.