BY TARA HENLEY
RACHEL IDZERDA
WHEN BERNADETTE MCDONALD was a young university student, she took a job as a camp attendant at Lake O’Hara in B.C.’s Yoho National Park. Her days consisted of patrolling trails and talking to campers. At dusk, McDonald would trek back to her cabin, fire up a wood stove, make dinner, a nd watch the sunset. She experienced a sense of wonder traversing remote valleys, ridges, and peaks, and felt as though something important was falling into place for her. “To be able to walk and hike and paddle, and see new places, and experience new things – and scare myself quite frequently – it all clicked,” she says. “It was what was missing in my life.”