The Canoe Guide – Part 1: Portage
Gay Stories·EN·1 min read·Published 2026-11-07, updated 2026-11-07·Part 1 of 2
"Switch sides every twenty strokes," said Étienne.
"I know how to paddle."
"You know how to splash." Étienne's grin flashed under his sun hat. "It's fine. Everybody does at first."
The lake was long and still, ringed with black spruce and low blue hills, the water so clear that Marcus could see the stones on the bottom. It was ten in the morning on the first day of a four-day canoe trip. Marcus, thirty-two, a lawyer from Montreal with an inbox he had deliberately left behind, sat in the bow of a green canoe, and Étienne, thirty-five, the guide, sat behind him, steering with a long, lazy J-stroke. The only sound was the dip and drip of paddles.
"No phones?" Étienne asked.
"I turned it off an hour ago. I feel naked."
"You'll stop feeling that tomorrow."
By the second day Marcus did. The portages were hard work, carrying canoe and packs through muddy trails slick with fern and root, but at each end there was another lake, another sky. In the afternoons Étienne taught him to read the wind from the ripples. At night they sat by a small crackling fire while loons called across the water.
On the third evening they made camp on a spit of warm granite. Étienne cooked trout with butter and pepper in a blackened pan. Marcus sat across the fire with a tin mug and watched the flames light the edges of Étienne's face.
"You're staring," said Étienne.
"I know."
"Is it the trout?"
"It's not the trout."
Étienne put down the pan. "Marcus. I'm supposed to be professional. But I'd like to ask if I can kiss you."
Continue the story: Part 2 – Northern Sky.
Continue the story: Part 2 – Northern Sky.
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Part 2 of 2: Northern Sky · 2 min read
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