Lake of Bays, ON

My name is Carolyn Maze and I am from Toronto.

My waterbody is Lake of Bays, located in Muskoka, Ontario.

Lake of Bays represents everything I love about the great outdoors, from the vastness of the clear, fresh water to the meeting place for my family.

It is where we went as a family every summer since my birth. I learned how to swim, sail, canoe, water ski and find my inner happy place.

My passion for sailing was born on the lake. It is where I first learned to race lasers and eventually to venture into ocean sailing.

I knew that water would play an important role in my life. Enabling me to follow my passion and achieve an inner calmness. One of the greatest experiences in my life was sailing in the Norwegian Arctic. At the core, the serenity that water affords me, as it takes me back to those summers with my family on Lake of Bays.

The long boat rides and fishing with my father, where it was just the two of us, to sleeping in the boathouse with my sister and our cousins, listening to the waves below for hours, dreaming of future adventures. I can still hear my grandmother's laughter and the sound of rippling waves, and the feeling of the fresh water washing over my body is like a hug from father. Even today, visiting my sister at her home in Ahmic Lake is when I am truly at my happiest. I will forever be grateful for those years spent on Lake of Bays.