Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Year in review, and lack of bunnies??

The year is drawing to an end.  I haven't been posting as much this year, or at least nothing of substance.  Have I had an unsubstantial year? A friend browsed my scant blog post in November and inquired "Isn't there anything you want to remember?", and that has resounded with me since.  I had not considered this blog a way to jog my memory, I would instead invest the time to scroll through years of emails in my Sent folder directed at specific people, not an online global readership.  I use this blog to shine a light on undiscovered areas or endorse businesses or organizations etc.  I've used this blog as a way to chronicle my travels, and aside from the Sloquet and some of the Maritime trip most of where I've gone this year is a revisit of places I've been - beautiful delightful places I've enjoyed, but no need to repeat myself here.
Thus begins my usual restless stirrings for a new adventure.  Greener pastures, distant shores.  Maybe it's the typical grey weather of winter in Vancouver.  January will likely be a sluggish time begging for a break in the monotony (Robbie Burns Day!), but if I stay focused it will be a good time to plan and organize, gain money and information.

In the meantime here is the Christmas tree I decorated for my friends this year.  They received eight bright green bunny ornaments so of course I featured them along with brassy yellow gold and orange and lime and red, looking like a bright fruit salad.  I've kept an eye out for bunny-themed ornaments since fall and am quite surprised at the lack of them.  There will always be puppies and kittens for the pet lovers, and seem to be plenty of birds and squirrels and deer, and the _fashionable_ fad is owls and foxes.  No bunnies.  My mom suggested that they're too synonymous with Easter so people don't associate them with Christmas.
Christmas this year was steady and easy and sensible.  I suffered the mall downtown only once to hit one specific store, in fact all my shopping was very deliberate with no impulsive purchases.  Most of my gifts to others were homemade consumables.  My time was spread out with people throughout the month; the glitz of impersonal work parties earlier, then an elaborate yet intimate birthday party, then Christmas itself with my family and all the traditions of our childhood - crepes in the morning after opening gifts, and turkey in the evening with brussel sprouts, turnips, mashed potatoes, canned cranberry jelly.  I've had at least two weeks of wearing lazy slouchy pants with rum+egg nog.  My last year's new year's resolution of getting more exercise is, well, close enough.  I colored in my nephews' coloring books.  
We did a short afternoon search for a few geocaches and found all three we attempted, along the promenade along the river.  We lucked into a brief afternoon of sunshine on Christmas Day that was bookended by snow days before and after, made me more grateful that we got outside when we did.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

post for Nov

Yup, this is a post for Nov.  :D
[edit later] Why does this have more views that posts that contain actual thoughtful content?!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

October in Oliver

Well I didn't spend the entire October in Oliver, but had a nice long weekend there to visit my family for Thanksgiving.  Thanks to everyone's contributions to the meals!
The weather seemed threatening as the weekend approached but we had a beautiful Sunday of perfect hiking weather to hike to the top of MacIntyre Bluff - with 21 geocaches and a picnic, of course.  Great view of the town.  The subtle differences in natural color in the desert compared to Vancouver's temperate rainforest is refreshing, stirring yet satiating my travel bug (for now).  The bleached out grasses accentuate the red sumac and Oregon grape, green pines and bright blue sky.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Nova Scotia/New Brunswick

Despite keeping busy this year with plenty of interesting and enjoyable outings, I've been remiss to report on them in a timely manner. [self-scolding].  So let's try to stay on top of my two week trip of Nova Scotia.  Some of you might have already visited my past reviews from previous years here and here,  I hereby present the 2016 installment of Nova Scotia.

Family+friends first
We arrived in the evening and were picked up from the airport and driven to the house in Middle Sackville that would be our primary base of operations during our stay.  We had a late snack of bagels+cream cheese+candied salmon+capers+onion, and thus began my loose goal of eating seafood everyday while I'm here.  In past years I've doggedly pursued the scallops and lobster that we can't get for a reasonable price on the west coast, but for ease of everyone around me I've broadened my parameters to just seafood.  I do loooove salmon!
Aside from jet lag the bed creaked and the streetlight shone brightly through the window and the crickets chirped all night (the latter a welcome change from living in a city), Sleep was fitful, and the next day we drove down to the cottage in Chester.  Here had no internet but did have some television, and more importantly a swimming pool and a warm glassed-in sun deck overlooking the cove.  Nice comfy bed too.  I slept well and woke to the stereo sound of a dove in the yard to my right and a loon on the water to my left, both eventually silenced by the crow which I swear has a different east coast accent than the crows we have back home.  We always have such beautiful skies here too, this time featuring bright pink clouds at sunset.
We visited Lunenburg in the afternoon briefly, and had lunch on the waterfront.  I had a lobster roll, yay!
After we went to a cabin in the woods (not to be confused with our usual cabin in the woods we'll visit later, although it is close by), and met up with a full house of relatives visiting from Lloydminster in the prairies.  That was a nice evening with friendly people and conversation, with homemade seafood chowder and delicious chocolate chip coffee cake for dessert.
Then back to the cottage overnight, then back to the house for what I thought would be overnight till we got an invite to a nearby friends' place with a nice gazebo in the backyard and enough drink+talk that we stayed in his trailer overnight instead.  We head back to the house for a quiet grey day of tea and phone/emails to organize the rest of our trip.
We enjoyed geocaching in Point Pleasant park on a beautiful sunny afternoon and had some high-end sushi (including scallops+lobster) on the Halifax waterfront with ever-popular Nova 7 wine, I'd note to grab a few bottles to take back west before we leave since it's unavailable in BC.

Far-flung fun
The timing of our visit to be on the east coast gave us the chance to attend a geocaching event in Kouchibouguac National park in New Brunswick.  It wasn't really 'near' us and not even the same province, but Atlantic provinces can be crossed in a few hours and was deemed doable with friends that facilitated our camping with them.  We arrived separately that weekend braving the torrential downpour that made driving a challenge, amidst our friends' urging to turn back we ploughed through.  The rain cleared as we got to the park, and we saw a short rainbow briefly in the grey.  These friends had loaned us their tent+mattress and even set it up for us with a tarp over top that we would be very glad for as the skies threw more rain that night, the sound keeping me awake but the comforter keeping me warm.  Mentally I yelled at the tent roof "I dare you to rain harder!", and indeed it did.
Meals were in their camper, it was great to have access to a kitchen and good company for morning coffee and our friend's mom who made the best homemade fishcakes I've ever had.  The next afternoon we explored the park with great admiration - the trails were well maintained, the footpaths we felt would be bike-worthy by BC standards and their bike paths able to support vehicles.  This is a large park and I thought of plenty of spots I could sneak my tent onto a fluffy patch of lush moss.  We found the geocaches from previous year's events which took us to some highlights of the park, the beaches and salt marshes that were nesting sites for the piping plovers and old areas that used to have Acadian villages.  That night we had a campfire, I was the last one to go to retire as I watched the embers die.  Here is a dark sky preserve so I saw many stars I hadn't seen in months, and if that wasn't enough I saw a single shooting star and felt that was my cue to bed.  Somehow it felt like the land and every instance there was tailored to me somehow with some of my favorite things, and I felt very blessed.
The last day was finding that year's released geocaches, revisiting spots yesterday and a few new ones.  The boardwalk on the eastern shore and the lookout tower in the bog were featured on our commemorative wooden geocoins.
We left the event and drove down with friends in two cars in search of a place for dinner, which seemed oddly challenging given that this was a scenic drive by Acadian neighbourhoods showcased by New Brunswick tourism.  I could not explain this dearth of restaurants - in tourist season nonetheless - only to suggest that everyone eats at home all the time? There were a few pizza joints, but I did not cross the country for common pizza... Our third attempt led us to a diner with an expressive and openly overworked waitress, and generous portions of seafood dinner.  After this we parted with our friends and had a long drive back to Sackville in the dark along a plain highway, I think I fell asleep in the car.

That long weekend was followed by a leisurely Sunday drive around scenic Hants county back in Nova Scotia.  The roads wind gently over and around hills like a sea of green farms dotted with houses and rural towns, with fingers of red mud tidal rivers reaching in.  We visited a few spots on the coast; Burntcoat Head where we watched the highest tides in the world come in and cut off Flowerpot Island in a matter of minutes, a slight waterfall as Cobequid Bay closed in around it.  We scored some huge field cucumbers left at the end of a driveway with a sign saying "Free", so it's always nice to find unexpected treasure! Next was a little beach at Tennycook with fossilized sea/riverbed flaking off the cliffs.  No obvious dinosaur finds, but fossils are all over the Bay of Fundy shores once your eyes adjust to focus on the patterns and shapes of simple plants and animals of the Carboniferous Period.  We stopped at Walton which boasted a lighthouse and little else, then onward to Avondale Sky winery we'd visited before but thought we'd sample some since we're in the area.  From there we backtracked to promising dinner prospects only to be thwarted again, and just drove back to Sackville for whatever creative dinner we could compose from the fridge.

We rented a plane to take a flight around the Minas Basin to retrace from the air the places we'd visit by car.  My headphones didn't work so the pilot and I couldn't have a real conversation, so I sat there like a sack of potatos and looked out the window at the pretty land below.  Some areas were best viewed from the air, like Boot Island, and the sheer cliff of Cape Split which we could hike to the end of but not really view the sea stacks the same way from land.  On our way back we stopped off at Truro and I had delicious baja fish tacos at The Nook and Cranny on the patio.  Then was the drive across to visited our friend in Grand Pre again, it was great to see that family again and they had an energetic new young cat that the girls put on a leash to come geocaching with us.  The fantastic chef made moussaka and peach cobbler.
We stayed overnight and the next day drove out to Scots Bay and Blomedon, the former being the prettiest rock beach I've seen yet here with agates and jasper, and the latter being one of the most famous cliffs and sand all red.  An easy walk on beaches, I'd love to return there.  Later I would hear of Amethyst Cove where one can find amethyst straight on the beach, and I mentally filed that away on the To Do list next year.

Back with family
As our trip closed to an end was a few days of visiting more family; celebrating anniversaries and scattering ashes of the deceased (which culminated with dinner at the Blue Olive and my first saganaki).  We went for a drive+geocache around Lawrencetown beach and Musquodoboit Harbour, and some around Sackville.  We had one last overnight at the cottage with the half moon shining bright as a streetlight.  There was a hearty brunch in Maplewood that we've attended in past years put on by the community at the museum grounds and served by volunteers, featuring the German-immigrant delicacies of Lunenburg sausage and Tancook saurkraut, with blueberry grunt (a kind of bread pudding/dumpling) for dessert.  There was an overnight stay at the usual cabin in the woods; with no Internet or cell service or even running water it is a sort of imposed tranquility to immerse oneself.  We took the small kayaks for a gentle cruise along the dead calm lake.  We didn't bother with dinner at all and the children were fine with chips because it was a Saturday... We had a campfire with some novelty powder that turned the flames to greens and blues, and plenty of stars above, again I was the last one to sleep.
The next morning after the challenge of making kids eat their breakfast was a drive through the middle of the province south to a reunion with a friend from Yarmouth and one visiting from England, an easygoing afternoon in a backyard and I finally couldn't avoid eating the pizza they'd got for lunch, which was really good.  A few carried on to see a particular 'hidden gem' beach, with pale powder sand and generally quiet and overlooked, that on this day was foggy or misty and we could appreciate it without lingering long.  I don't mind the grey finding us here as we've been lucky with great weather for most of the trip and are just leaving now.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

A post for August

This is a post for August, I can go back to and edit later.  August has been busy, I'll write more when I'm on a more reliable computer.

[edit: later.  Much later].
August was spent shopping or making gifts to send to two faraway fellas for their birthdays, both not till September but with a looming postal service strike and me leaving for Nova Scotia in the later weeks of August I was adamant that these be complete, packaged and sent before I left.  I like giving gifts more than getting them, and gift-wrapping is an artful activity in itself.  Selecting the right wrapping paper, the color and theme to match the contents or the recipient,  The beauty is in the details.  I know they were pleased to get an unexpected treat in the post (we avoided the postal strike).

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Farm cycle tour in Agassiz.

Several agricultural districts of the Lower Mainland endorse farming businesses with a self-guided Circle Farm Tour, formerly recognized as Slow Food Tours, promoting where our food comes from and locavore alternatives to fast food.
I've been meaning to cycle the Circle Farm Tour of Agassiz for a few years now, but other conflicting events have always blocked that date on my schedule.  Now this weekend as a focus of my July I made it a point to attend! I was fortunate to have a partner with a car to get us out there - or else it's $50+ for a Greyhound bus (one way) for myself which would still drop me a fair distance away, yikes - and two small folding bikes.  We cross-referenced their provided map of participating farms and our planned map of geocaches in the area,  It would make for a long full day of varied activity, topped with an indulgent treat of soaking in therapeutic mineral water, dinner of nice German cuisine and a concert of one of my favorite bands that I just lucked into being on the same day in the neighbouring town of Harrison Hot Springs.  Onward!
Morning started with quickie-breakfast en route from Timmy Ho's, as per our usual convenience and incentive to get up early and not dawdle.  Then was a drive out to Agassiz, noting the layers of grey cloud.  Up the Fraser Valley the humped hills lost their tops in the cloud.  We saddled up our bikes and left the registration point ($10 per person) at roughly 10am, found a geocache close by, then cycled away from the highway following the steady stream of other cyclists - while these tours are for cars or bikes throughout the season, this was an especially designated day for cyclists, with directional signs taped to posts and flaggers helping us cross the highways.  As if cycling wasn't enough exercise we stopped for a geocache that had us huffing up a steep path of an old cemetery.
Then onto a dairy with a half-million dollar milking machine, with farmers on hand to answer all sorts of questions about their practices and the industry and the cows two at a time eager waiting to be milked so they can get their grain treat.  Both cows and farmers seemed healthy and happy.
Then onto a family's mostly-berry farm, with the local kids brightly calling out their wares at the mini-market, vegetables and even young chickens.  Though primarily retail they offered barbecued burgers and some light fare just for the day, we had a nice lemon+blueberry coffee cake and real raspberry juice that was quite kicky.  They had free u-pick raspberries and blueberries I would've taken advantage of had we had more time in the afternoon and not have had to balance everything on bikes.  After that was a small nursery selling plants we couldn't carry with us either, but we did pick up the largest zucchini I'd ever seen for just a dollar.
Then was a cheese making farm.  Plenty of goats to pet, and one had apparently just had a kid not six hours earlier.  A few young calves with long dry tongues that eagerly licked petting hands, perhaps searching for their mother's teat instead.  We got a small plate to eat atop a haybale with natural sourdough multigrain bread, farm-made chutney and three nice cheeses and their drinkable yogurt.  The sun emerged and we were getting hot from such a rich creamy diet.
Then we cycled onto a fish farm, growing Coho salmon in tanks.  The fish were raised in fresh water like populations in interior landlocked lakes, and they had large pumps and filters to filter and re-oxygenate the water to limit waste.  There was a friendly and generous fella there grilling barbecued salmon, and would keep handing us limitless samples for as long as we stood there.  I'm a great salmon-eater and that was delicious.
The last stop on tour as the day's events closed between 4-5pm was the UBC agricultural research center there.  We just managed to squeak in the last 15 minutes, greeted with a bowl of blueberries and "Moose Tracks" ice cream.  Too late for any lectures but admittedly I would've just spend all day there and not seen any other spots.  We saw a man carrying a  dwarf bunny in a basket, says it accompanies him everywhere or else people wouldn't recognize him without it.  Rupert the bunny was very well behaved in his basket and fine with strangers petting him.  We browsed through several research displays and ate more blueberries that someone had bred, and they closed up shop around us as we left.
We found a few more geocaches around town and left satisfied, heading north to Harrison Hot Springs.  Budgeting out time we only had about a half hour to soak in the public pool of piped-in hot spring water, but it was a relaxing reward to our cycling and geocaching among blackberry thorns.
We had dinner at the Black Forest Steak and Schnitzel House, an attractive building that does a fine job; the food was plenty and delicious, service was prompt and helpful.  I think they were especially polished given that the town was wrapping up their folk festival which drew a crowd to the otherwise dead-end road and small town.  We were there to catch one of the last headlining acts at the community hall, The Paperboys.  That was a fantastic time with the front ten feet of the floor filled with 40-somethings all dancing from start to finish.  The band gave a great performance, smooth and precise delivery but personable and casual atmosphere.  Great end to the day.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Jazz and blues in June.

June found me still reeling from a fantastic trip last month, where dawn to dusk was crammed with so much that it felt longer than it was, emotionally exhilarating and exhausting.  Despite being a busy summer month with plenty of social play dates, I've returned to what can best be described as 'normalcy'.  Work in the garden, chores around town, and visit friends when I can for a nice time.
We arranged a sailing trip to Gibsons that I've wrote about previously here, to coincide with their jazz festival.  We had a beautiful sail over and a sunny day worthy of ice cream, and a sunset with a rainbow telling of impending rain - here's a photo, but of course it was better in person.  The rain started sometime in the night, alternating between hard rain and huge downpour showers.  Note that here on the Wet Coast we have many names to denote the degree of rain.  Fortunately seasoned sailors are equipped with foulies and a Tilley hat that kept us dry enough for both geocaching and the jazz festival.  The first act we caught fully was some peculiar fusion of the usual jazz guitar+bass fronted by some Japanese stringed instrument that sounded very eclectic.  Honestly I'm pretty hit-or-miss with jazz, and later acts I favoured more; the closing band Sweetpea Swing Band I thoroughly enjoyed.  Old ladies in brightly colored leggings danced despite the rain.
Here in Vancouver we have the old Yale, advertising in classic neon lights the live blues nightly.  They were closed and renovated with mixed speculation on what would reopen, and is now the Yale Saloon with all the western charm befitting a 'saloon', made contemporary and with clean restrooms.  They feature more country music on the weekends but cater to blues still on Tues and Wed nights.  I visited last night to be quite impressed by Brandon Isaak (excellent showmanship as he chatted the audience during the intermission), and a impromptu song or two from Wes Mackey.  Unbeknownst to us as we'd already had dinner, they now serve food and featured a barbecue on that night.   I had a tasty Lynchberg Lemonade and a very nice evening.  Some young lady started dancing like a limp marionette - is this how one dances to blues? - one friendly fella among a pack of Asian students started dancing around her and then another fella ran interference to tell him to mind his distance from the oblivious woman.  Such drama! We get dinner and a show!

Friday, May 20, 2016

To Sloquet and back

I've heard of these hot springs "up the back roads past Harrison", and a friend's son from out of province was interested in seeing hot springs too, so the more we talked this evolved into a trip together.  Let's do this!
And so it began, two intrepid explorers ventured off to parts unknown, guided with what maps and hearsay/intel could be found online.

Day 1- There seems to be some discrepancy as to what day is really the "first" day of the trip since we set off on our adventure at 7pm after a dinner of beer+appies at the Sasquatch Inn in Harrison Mills.  We had a few leftovers which I pocketed of course, always important because you never know when you might need it.  Then we walked out of the parking lot on the correct road with spirits high, excited for the trip ahead.  The residences gradually spread out and soon just became a ribbon of highway following Harrison River.  We lost the daylight after only two hours and set up tent at a scenic pullout, by any accounts a lousy place to camp with the traffic mere meters away from our sleeping heads.  I put the thought out of mind of vehicles jumping the concrete barricades in the sort of freak accident you hear about in the news, and just held faith that we'd be fine.  And we were.
In the night we heard frogs, then some owls that were very close by, then coyotes that were thankfully quite distant, and then birds started with the dawn.

Day 2 - We'd been cautioned about bears and proper food storage, but lacking any high trees to string up our cache we'd opted to pile rocks on it far from camp.  In the morning there was evidence of rodent activity among the leftover tortilla chips, two buns were mostly fine.  No bears.
Slow start to the morning, breakfast was maple tea and bland porridge, I'll have to think of a way to kick it up a notch.
We walked and geocached, stumped by two and found two more, slowly progressing up the road.

Chehalis River
Found a beautiful river running low and clear, perfect to refill water bottles and wash up in.  No sooner had we cooled off when we found another geocache up a mossy rocky scramble, and were hot and tired again.  Then came the heat of the day we ploughed through as best we could, had lunch at an unused scout camp that was quiet but relentlessly buggy.  Juice boxes, trail mix, a non-mouse-chewed bun w/peanut butter and marmalade, and an orange (save orange peel for later).  This gave us a little energy enough to carry us maybe a kilometre or so uphill and we needed to fully stop for a real siesta in the shade.  A nap felt good.  Later when cooler but still light out, we returned to the road and weren't very far along until a car stopped to pick us up hitchiking.
Note that this is my companion's first foray into hitchiking, and this might qualify as a 'questionable' ride that one might decline if weighing options carefully  - there's always the option to respectfully decline the ride and just keep walking if one feels uncomfortable.  Then again, there's something to be said about looking a gift horse in the mouth.  The driver was a loud woman with a road pop, a Neufie betrayed by her use of "B'y" to refer to her very quiet "Irish-Scottish something" mate in the passenger seat, who smoked ceaselessly.  The car was a mess of undetermined purpose, we sat cramped with our packs on our laps.  She drove that car hard along the steep-sided logging roads, claiming the car didn't mind being driven hard, though I thought for sure it would rattle itself apart. We weren't even sure where we were, somewhere around the back of Hemlock Mountain..? Despite being loud she was rather difficult to understand.  She joked "I COULD DRIVE US ALL OFF THE EDGE!", to which we politely requested that she not.  My poor friend had a terrified smile the whole time.  They pulled over - is this where the hillbillies kill us now?? - to reorganize the clutter in the back and let us stretch out legs and tear off a hunk of french bread for us with nicotine-stained fingers.  For fear of miscommunication I waved my map at them and indicated our loose destination, as we were losing daylight again to set up camp.  Just past Wood Lake we lost direction and by fortuitous coincidence came across more people to confer with.
These people were mushroom pickers, showing us a beautiful morel they'd found.  One of them looked like Santa, albeit with a potty mouth and crude sense of humour.  Between those three and our car hosts there was a long exchange that seemed to take forever with many jokes about how tiny each others' penises were and some pouring over a map and eventual decision on the correct path to take. Thus we bid farewell to Santa and the Mushroom People and continued on.
The road wound its way steeply to the water, and we were dropped off smartly right at the 20 Mile Creek campsite.  I unhooked my friend from their fishing rod that was behind his head, with much thanks to that helpful couple, and we spoke with the camp hostess who let us have our pick of any campsite available.  We made a late dinner of spicy masala ramen noodles with diced carrot+celery sticks from the pub fare the night before, cooked by fire to conserve my little burner fuel. Then to bed.

Harrison Lake, view from St'epsum.
Day 3 - Another slow morning to get moving, roused by the ravens.  Seems a little early in the trip for a day of rest, but important nonetheless.  It was cooler and more overcast than the heat of walking before, and we explored and enjoyed the area.  Cranberry tea, and I added a dollop of peanut butter to our porridge and that greatly improved the taste.  Washed ourselves+clothes+dishes in the lake, it was warmer than the river and I desperately needed to purge the stench of cigarettes from yesterday's car trip.  Found a geocache with a beautiful view of the huge Harrison Lake, at the point it turns more east-west than north-south.  A day to recharge phone battery and refill potable water from the camp hostess.  This was pretty much our last opportunity for hit-or-miss internet capabilities for communications with civilization for the next few days.  Dinner was macaroni with cream cheese, the leftover spinach dip still from the pub, and some pepper.  It turned out tasty though we refined our cooking procedures to avoid pasta stuck to our boiling water vessel.  Made a tea out of the orange peel from yesterday's lunch + candied ginger, very nice.  We enjoyed a campfire and he'd brought his ukulele which made a great atmosphere.  I swaddled a hot rock to bring to bed with me.

Day 4 - At the sound of the ravens, time to get moving.  We had plenty of distance to cover with no clear destination for nightfall, so we didn't linger long and just shared a granola bar for breakfast as we left.  Got a geocache on the way out, and then... was walking.  For hours of the same landscape; established forest alternating with stump-strewn dirt. The logging road rose up from the water's edge, following power lines. At some point it started raining.  We had lunch alongside the road sitting on our packs in the rain, an apple and an orange pop and the last mangled bun w/peanut butter and pulverized saltine crackers that clearly did not travel well.  We then kept walking, into the clouds even.  
He mentioned that he'd really like some cookies, and too bad we didn't have any, and we'll try not to think about it.  We came across a turnoff for a possible camp indicated on our map, and followed that down to what turned out to be a work camp for erecting power lines to the area.  Some fellas in their staff room suggested we could tuck into a corner of the work yard by the water's edge, so we continued there and met up with another worker, then another, and a third who was a charismatic helicopter pilot with a thick Norwegian accent. One of them offered us part of his lunch - precisely, a rice crispy square and two oatmeal cookies!  What peculiar (and specific!) luck, which wouldn't be our first or last during this trip.  The helicopter pilot roped in another worker with a truck who was headed out that way to give us a lift to a spot he'd seen people partying at last Friday, and thus we were whisked away in a very clean work truck that could handle the ever-deteriorating road.
We were dropped at what was clearly an established campsite and would be the most serene and idyllic spot on our trip; the evidence of the party-people's camp was a heap of ready-cut firewood and a pile of chainsaw dust, which we swept into a great cushion for our tent.  The space was well treed for us to hang our food cache and sheltered from the wind, near a beautiful creek of clean water flowing into the lake, still and teal green, with a back wall of pristine mountains.  What voices we heard from the creek departed by dusk, and then we had the whole place to ourselves.  If it weren't so challenging to get to I'd return there in an instant.  Likely the challenge made the victory that much sweeter.
For dinner I tried some barley+rice I'd brought with chicken flavoured bouillon packets, which didn't turn out well without long constant cooking which would've boiled away our water.  Switched to ramen, and decided we will alternate ramen and pasta for the rest of the dinners.

Day 5 - Seems a shame to leave this place so soon, but we had our goal of hot springs in mind and relatively close at hand, and mindful of what time we needed to get home again.  So we walked, and the hills really hit me hard today.  I can go for miles on flat land but am not much of a hill climber, and my dear comrade was as helpful and patient as could be.  
Not for the faint of heart - or those without suitable vehicles.
At one point the road was cut by the creek to beyond knee deep, we balanced with our odd baggage on a log to cross it, a victory that lightened us both. At another point we came across an excavator blocking the entire road, and a kind worker who offered us a ride if we were still progressing along this road by the end of his work shift.  We mustered the strength to actually hurry to Coon Falls to find a geocache before he picked us up. Another victory!
Coon Falls
The waterfall was cool, misty and refreshing, and a landmark to break the monotony of an endless hilly road.  It also seemed to signal the beginning of slightly improved road conditions, I was glad to not have rocks skittering out from under me with every step.  It wasn't long after that the excavator operator returned in his truck and drove us the rest of the way to Tipella and the turnoff for Sloquet hot springs.  Tipella is a sort of outpost for logging/construction workers and basic services for the native reservation there.  As the last chance to spend money on purchasing supplies, we checked at the gas station/store there for any food that could bring variety and nutrition to our diet so far, and found only more ramen and trail mix.
 By late afternoon we started on the road into Sloquet hot springs; a well-pounded gravel road with pot holes but barely any incline, and a well-posted 9km to the campsite.  With our quantified and easily reachable goal even closer we had a quick snack and pressed on past our usual set-up-camp time.  The road cut west away from the lake and followed Sloquet River, with the gorgeous mountains again glowing golden in the late afternoon light.  I noticed on the roadside a patch of stinging nettles, much to my delight as I'd been looking for some since we started off days earlier.  Fresh veggies rich in vitamins! We harvested plenty that would be dinner tomorrow.
We arrived at the campsite after dark.  I was exhausted and he parked me on a picnic table he found an available spot and set up camp himself.  I found my little camp burner and made tea - after all, we have traditions to uphold! Coconut macadamia tea tonight, for something celebratory.  And orange chocolate for dessert!

Day 6 - Sometime during the night a tent village sprung up beside us, with all the dazzling annoyance of headlamps and slamming car doors, and in the daylight we could see that our chosen site might well be part of a group site.  Grrr.  We decided that we'd move if they were loud another night, but otherwise our camp was established enough to not bother.  Morning routine of boiling water for tea and porridge+berry vanilla mix, though I made portions too large and saved some for tomorrow.  Found a tiny stream to wash dishes in and refill water, then made our way down to the hot springs for a well-deserved soak.


Not many people down here, it was just nice to have the place to ourselves.  We were advised to come again in the evening. 

Dinner was the boiled nettles, drank as a tea though now I think I'd prefer as a soup.  Must chop/dice leaves or they boil into a solid wad of green.  Added macaroni and salt+pepper.  Meh, will improve tomorrow.  Ate our orange, again saving the peel.  Boiled water for citrus/hibiscus tea in water bottles that we'd keep cold in the river, very refreshing.
Candle wax on logs and stones.
Bunny @ Sloquet Hot Springs!

Returned to the hot springs, more people there but a mellow vibe and still plenty of room to either pick a private place or settle in with strangers and chat.  We picked a middle pool that was suitably hot and held a few construction workers with whom we spoke for a bit and gave us a swig of tequila for someone's 50th birthday, then they gradually moved to another pool. 
Hot springs by candlelight.
A hippie-sort of fella brought a bag of 100 tea light candles and lit them on every rock that could support them, which gave great ambiance.  Eventually the heat was too much to remain submerged and we sat on the rocks, until the bugs pestered us and we returned to the water, back and forth, we drank our tea and enjoyed the night and the narrow window of stars through the trees.We filled our spent bottles with hot spring water hoping they'd preheat our sleeping bags.  Our neighbours were quiet enough.




Day 7 - Breakfast of porridge from the day before+more porridge+peanut butter, and tea.  We borrowed a washbasin from a neighbour and brought all clothes and dishes to the river to wash.   We're used to the steep hike between the hot springs and the campsite by now.We went geocaching to find two and got them both, following my GPS arrow around a winding 'elders' trail that takes us back to the hot springs.  Hike took longer than it had to, but really we're here now and didn't need to rush anywhere.  On our way back to camp we came across a cheery woman we'd seen around and found she was a geocacher too, so got to talking, we'd see her later.

Siesta rolled into dinner of chopped nettles+ramen+multi spice seasoning, definitely an improvement.  He'd found a spruce to harvest the young tips for tea, as we'd decided that this is an evening tea, and brought peppermint tea down to the hot springs.
We picked a slightly cooler pool than last night and for the most part just kept to ourselves.  The hot springs were very much busier this evening as all the weekend warriors had arrived, and sadly made the place a bit more... glitzy? Despite the signs posted by the natives that this is a sacred site and please treat it like a church, people brought plenty of beer and smokes.  The place was busier so of course people were louder in conversation to compete with the roar of the river.  Fortunately I've cultivated my skills in simply ignoring people and minding my own business, which at this time was staring up at the sky.
I saw the Northern Lights! He'd pointed them out earlier and I dismissed it as an oddly lit cloud, we never get to see Northern Lights from here... I'd forgotten that we were significantly north of Vancouver and away from a city, that even the logging/construction camps couldn't light up the sky like that.  I watched them, a bluish green, and then noticed the band moved slightly, almost imperceptively over several minutes, then a light moved across it like a spotlight beam, It made not a sound and didn't change colors, but it was still a beautiful piece of heaven to witness, another item off my life list.  My friend said they're more spectacular back in Saskatchewan, and perhaps I'll see them again there someday.
As we stood to shift around the pool the woman we'd seen that afternoon but somehow had missed in the dark had found us, and she'd brought us bananas and orange chocolate.  At this I thought my friend would literally pee in the pool.  He'd been craving bananas for a day or two now at least, it seems they prevent muscle cramps and just overall he loves them, and clearly we wouldn't just happen along a banana tree along the road.  Yet we do have this incredible luck...
Eventually the Northern Lights oozed behind a tree and faded out of sight, and gave way to visitors stringing up bright white Christmas lights between trees, killing any subtle effort of the tea light candles and starlight.  Enough, I've had my fill.
He promptly devoured a banana as soon as we got back to camp.  We decided to move on in the morning and maybe we can catch a lift with these otherwise disruptive people as they leave on Sunday.

Day 8 - Morning routine; make fire, boil water, prepare porridge+tea (green tea today), fill all water bottles, wash dishes in little creek,  Now eat banana, dismantle camp and hike out of here.
We planned to stop at that patch of nettles and pick some more for the next day or two, but before we reached there we heard the angry buzz of motorcycles behind us.  Too bad motorcycles have no room for hitchers with big backpacks.
They stopped anyway, asking if we were going the whole 9km road (of course), where we've been and where we're going.  Through the helmet the rider's eyes grew large and he said "You're fucking insane.  Get on."  And this is how we sped away from Sloquet in style! Or, at least all the style I could muster clinging to a stranger with my big pack, with legs splayed out with nowhere to put them, trying to somewhat prop up a cloth grocery bag of food+water and my purse full of everything else,  My driver didn't seem to mind the awkwardness as long as I didn't fall off and die.  I too was glad I didn't fall off and die! We covered that 9km lickety-split, and at the main road intersection they drove us another 9km to the bridge where we follow the other side of the river, a nicer road with better chances of finding further hitching rides.
View north from the bridge.
 We were at the bridge with hearts racing for barely a few minutes when another ride came; a mom+daughter in a beige minivan with the back seat down and a folded over mattress in the back, who warned us "They drive slow"  Perfect.  A slow drive lets us take in the scenery, including the dramatic virga over the water that although beautiful and makes us not want to stop and camp, though we passed a few provincial campsites.  We'd heard from people at Sloquet that the Skookumchuck hot springs weren't as nice so we could give it a miss.  I was satisfied to have a comfy mattress to rest my bottom from being well rattled from the previous ride, and when we drove up an incline we slumped further back into almost lying down, watching the wilderness move along in safety and comfort.



We stopped at a tiny settlement as our driver wanted to get a photo of the old cemetery for her sister, and we could stretch our legs and explore the weathered church we could see from the road - luckily the door was open and the church empty, and we got to poke around inside.It was built in 1805 of all wood and had a wood-burning fireplace in the center, the floors were warped and the staircases even moreso. It still had stained glass windows that threw color around the place, and good ol' Mary was there with Jesus and Peter (probably, though they mostly all look the same to me). I'm sure my church-going readers would be glad I hit a church on a Sunday, either just a fluke - or my usual luck.
Our ride dropped us off in Pemberton in the late afternoon, near a McDonalds and a tourism office that didn't open till tomorrow.  We did not find a hostel that we had been assured was there, and inquired at the liquor store about cheap accommodations - tenting is fine, but we'd been looking forward to real beds and showers.  We found neither that night.
A fella at the liquor store offered to show us a nice place to camp by the river, he was headed there now (yes, we're following strangers into the woods, and we're not dead yet!), we checked out the spot he called the Seven Cedars which seemed fine but we didn't feel comfortable setting up fairly expensive camp gear in what was essentially a park, lest the thieves or otherwise seedy folk give us trouble, so as our guide settled down to weed and a beer we headed off to find food, thanking him for his time and that we'd return later.
We found the food store before it closed, browsed their vegetables as my partner now craved vegetables but having no camp yet I leaned towards a restaurant dinner as a sort of reward to our efforts over the week - eat off of dishes, recharge phone, get warm inside, let someone else do the cooking and washing up.  We found one that served both Canadian and Chinese cuisine, and I stupidly ordered a steak, because I've missed having steak.  Maybe I'm a spoiled snob when it comes to steak, but I had high expectations and almost laughed when it came, looking like low-grade stir fry meat.  I doused it with soy sauce anyway, what the hell.  His chef salad wasn't much better, looking like processed cheese slices and luncheon meat.  We charged the phone and called our mothers for Mother's Day, checked news and social media if the world had changed during our absence, and I drank enough hot water to steel myself against the evening and night.  I figured it would be a cold night of tent and no fire.
We left there and found five geocaches in the last bit of daylight, and parked ourselves in the McDonalds.  While some may scoff at that which falls short of haut cuisine it is important to note the many benefits of McDonalds for weary travelers; brightly lit and monitored by staff and security, open late to simply wait out a night of homelessness, hot cheap food if necessary, washrooms to clean up in, a seat to sit if you're sick of walking for miles and can finally put down your pack, and a place to plug in phones and computers for communications.  I also kept in my wallet their frequent coffee cards (collect 7 stickers and get a hot drink free) for 'emergencies', so I opted to use two tonight for cafe mochas.  I logged my geocaches on his phone while he wrote in his journal, while the staff quietly closed up shop around us.  We got four Jr McChickens before they closed, which had more flavour than the dinner we had that cost 6x the price. *sigh*.  The supervisor chat with us before closing at midnight and bought us each another mocha for the road.  We'd be back again in the morning to get warm and have breakfast.
We found our way back to Seven Cedars in the dark.  Scanned the area for unwanted visitors of any sort.  Opted to make a low fire in an area not designed for fire, and forget the tent altogether.  Now we were full of caffeine and sugar and somewhat junk food but calories nonetheless that would keep us warm in the night, till it wore off.  We watched the fire and kept warm, with the sounds of the river nearby and no interruptions or troubles.  Eventually I was too tired and needed to lie down, if not to sleep then to at least rest, so I laid out on my towel alongside the fire.
He watched over me and the fire all night.

Day 9 - I was vaguely aware of his movements when he put more small sticks on the fire, that burn brightly and make a honeyed glow through my closed eyelids.  Felt good.  Sometime around dawn I offered to take over watching the fire, he needed to sleep or rest but he refused.  The sky grew lighter and I made two Fire Bananas for us: put bananas in campfire coals, flip and cook evenly till peel is dark brown/black, fish out of the ashes with fork and slit down the middle with fork tines, insert chocolate along slit and hold shut for about a half minute, then eat straight out of the peel.  No dishes to wash except for fork, no garbage except for banana peel and chocolate wrapper.  Girl guides sometimes put marshmallows in this as well, sailors sometime drizzle rum or brandy.
We made our way back to town, which was enveloped by a low fog or mist with bright crisp mountains in the distance.  We hit McDonalds for two more mochas with my cards and two Sausage McMuffins, warm up, wake up.  
One Mile Lake, Pemberton.
Onto getting three more geocaches to finish most of Pemberton, leading us to a lake of lily pads and a circling/hovering osprey, a cardiac trail we scrambled up and found plenty of mosquitoes, and a thankfully big easy one near a grassy patch and picnic table where we had a lunch of hummus, crackers, granola bar, apple and trail mix.  We rested awhile on the grass where he was far more tolerant of ants crawling on him than I was.  At the last one we found again the guide who led us to Seven Cedars and thanked him for the tip, that we enjoyed the spot.  We stopped by the liquor store for a celebratory cider and the grocery store for some pre-cut veggies and tiny lemon pies and a Pemberton potato (they're very proud of their potatoes in Pemberton), then walked out on Pemberton hitching.  I came across another hitching woman we chat to briefly, but the heat weighed on us and we pressed on.
And then we stopped.  My poor fella's lack of sleep caught up to him and the caffeine wore off and it was still hot out and our load was still heavy and it seemed no one was picking up hitchikers despite seeing more traffic than we'd seen all week, which was rather disheartening.  We had a juice box each but that didn't help enough, so we made it another 400m to Nairn Falls picnic area and I plopped him out on a table under shady trees and we stopped.
Stopping is not failure.  Giving up before reaching our goal of Sloquet would be, or getting killed by bears perhaps, but being still is simply a pause to rest and think and rebuild yourself stronger.  And it's better to test your limits in a reasonably safe place with a trusted friend than being alone and dehydrated and lost in the Sahara desert.
And such is the strange luck that some cute hippie chick appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, saying that her friend saw us hitching and they were headed to Mount Currie but that her driver would be returning this way in ~30-40 min if we'd like a ride, he'll come pick us up here.  Yes please!!!
Thus we got a ride from Nairn Falls to Squamish, with a very hippie-looking dude who ran a medical marijuana dispensary in Victoria.  I chat with the driver along the way and wasn't sure if my friend was sleeping or just resting.  We had nice weather and passed beautiful scenery along the Sea to Sky Corridor but didn't take any photos, just rest and enjoy and be thankful.  I thought we could've got this ride perhaps down to Horseshoe Bay if we needed to really hurry home, but we were set on still camping and baking our Pemberton potato by the fire, so steeled ourselves for another night or two out. 
My familiarity with Squamish extends to the marina where my friends used to moor their sailboat, and the Howe Sound Brewing Co pub there, and the nearby estuary land where people walk their dogs and jog around trails but ideally wouldn't mind two campers there.  My friend scouted the area and figured even a low fire would be too visible.  I set up camp myself and he settled in, we tore into the veggies we'd bought and they tasted so good we devoured them immediately.  Pea pods! Red peppers! Broccoli! And little lemon pies for dessert! I made some tea on my little camp burner, because we are not animals and no matter how rough it gets or drained you feel we will still observe evening tea.  There is nothing that can't be either solved or improved over a cuppa tea.  The stars were bright and clear.

Day 10 - Dismantled camp with a thought to find a better spot further from town so we could light a fire, and that we didn't trust to leave our belongings near the town while we explored - they'd likely be fine and undiscovered altogether, but if not then it's an expensive loss.  We left the food cache since that was our most awkward yet expendable weight, and head into town for breakfast at Chef Big D's.  He had a traditional eggs+bacon+toast and hot chocolate, and I got a smoked salmon+havarti frittata with side salad and grapefruit juice.  'Twas a very satisfying meal.
Then we wandered through town noting what was there and finding nothing really we required.  At Sloquet along the elder's trail we were thinking of animal totems and spirit guides and he remarked he'd consider a lone wolf.  We were now again discussing this and lo and behold came across a cardboard box on a sidewalk bench labeled 'free'.  It held a few toys and figurines, among them a squirrel and an owl and... a floppy wolf pup, of course, what a coincidence.  The pup Fenrir now accompanies him, perched on his pack over his shoulder.
We found one geocache, then found a hollow to siesta out of the wind, and listened to an informative podcast on Antarctica just because.  When the heat of the day was done we headed back to find another geocache and our food cache, and on the way we found that salmonberries had ripened here.  We had seen endless salmonberry and thimbleberry bushes all along our trip but not yet in season, so this was a welcome treat for our diet.  We wandered more in the sun, found the geocache and fetched our hidden food cache and had a lunch of our last apple and trail mix, and he just ate peanut butter out of the jar with his spork.  He still didn't sleep much the night before.  It was still just afternoon, so we could forego camping in Squamish another night and try hitching on the road again, so we did.
We got back along the highway with again no rides, walked as far as the Stawamus Chief when the light started to fade and considered using the official campsite but balked at the price ("Nature should be free!"), so we filled up on water and ate more peanut butter then found a spot along trails quite unintended for camping but ideal for a night.  It was in the lee of the rock, on a bed of dead bracken.  I set up my camp burner and made ramen+spice mix+ a few leftover onion petals and pea pods from the veggie mix.  Broth is just a different sort of tea perhaps.

Day 11 - Tent was actually warm in the morning, I guess this has been our most geographically sheltered and residual-heat camping spot during the whole trip.  I could've lingered in bed longer but didn't know if we might be stumbled upon in daylight hours, and also would waste time in getting a ride in case there's a sort of morning commute.
Then again, commuters would be busy with themselves it seems, and not pick us up anyway.
Breakfast was granola bar, then refilled of water again, then start walking.  It clouded over and threatened rain at some points, rained a bit during a break at Murrin Provincial Park where we ate trail mix and more peanut butter by the sporkful.  His phone told us of a coffee place down the road, in Britannia Beach, I've passed by it a few times but never been in.  As we approached we decided to stop in, and got two teas for a little more than we liked to pay for such things, but a reason to stay and sit and be warm while it rained more.  I learned that a coffee cup sleeve is called a zarf.  Then we realized the perk coffee had self-refills and enough sugars+creams+spices to dress it up like a fancy coffee, so we took advantage of that and got much better warmed and energized.  Sweet, sweet drugs!
And we left there and kept walking.  Found more McDonalds cups along the road with little stickers that we'll collect and will benefit us someday.  Once when we were stopped, a guy with a large lightweight cardboard box in the back of his truck lost it, he stopped immediately and we helped him get it strapped down again so that was our good deed for the day.
View of Howe Sound from Porteau Cove.
We passed by Furry Creek and made it all the way to Porteau Cove Rd when someone stopped to give us a ride.  It was a tight fit but we were gratefully whisked away south and delivered to a highway exit in West Vancouver, close to Park Royal shopping mall.  My energy perked up like a horse who knows that the stables are near and she gets dinner: the mall is familiar now, from there it's simply an hour or two to and over the Lions Gate Bridge, through Stanley Park, and a few blocks of residential streets to the apartment in Vancouver.
View of West Vancouver looking back from the Lions Gate Bridge.
Home.  My friend entered that into his phone and could glance at our progress as it grew closer.  He's been looking forward to my home-cooked dinner, while I've been looking forward to cooking in a real kitchen with more ingredients at hand to make a decent meal.  We picked more salmonberries through Stanley Park.  Almost there.
We arrived back at around 4:30 in the afternoon.  Dropped packs on floor and ourselves on the couch, and sat for awhile.  Eventually we rose to hit the grocery store and get some veggies, and I made a lemon pepper chicken breast and garden salad.  The Pemberton potato refused to bake completely.
I got to shower with hot water for as long as I wanted.  I got to sleep in a bed in a warm apartment with a real pillow and without my backpack crowded at my feet.
With the data collected from my handheld GPS, Spot tracker, printed maps, and memory here's a map of where we went, including hiking, hitchiking and geocaching.  Enjoy!

                                                                             *     *     *     *     *
We need a vacation from our vacation.  No photos, just the city.

Day 12 - Despite all that porridge throughout our trip he still wanted more, so I made Porridge Deluxe with the ends of what we brought with us, one packet of flavoured brown sugar+spice porridge, frozen blueberries, blueberry syrup, shredded coconut and cinnamon.  Definitely an improvement! And we kept on hand many readily available bananas.
We browsed three used book stores in Vancouver, a candy shop and picked up samosas for our dinner of beef vindaloo.

Day 13 - He made us fantastic cinnamon french toast for breakfast.  Today a trek nowhere near as far as we've been, to check out Commercial Drive; along the way a bau from New Town Bakery in Chinatown, a walk through Sun Yat-Sen Garden, ice cream at the Casa del Gelato (peach plum jasmine, blood orange, nut kulfi and Sicillian cannoli), a stop at the Licorice Parlour for a great variety of licorice, JN&Z Deli for Serbian garlic sausage, and a few bookstores, pre-dinner drinks at St.Augustine and onto the Addis Cafe for Ethiopian food for dinner, then an easy walk home.  Whirlwind tour around the world, and where I like to take guests visiting Vancouver.

Day 14 - A day of nothing.  Yup, nothing.  Fussing with emails and social media and journal entries and optimizing his pack to move on.  He had all the ingredients to make homemade linguini alfredo and a simple caesar salad, and chocolate chili+Finnish licorice+port for dessert.

Safe travels. my friend.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Post for April

The last two hours of the last day of April.  I'm travelling at the moment and have had no time to post - and when I have had time I had no motivation or focus.  So here is my post for April, I will edit it later.

[edit: later. Much later] Now in the twilight days of 2016 coming to an end, I hide inside and catch up on posts.
I should've mentioned that I had a wonderfully relaxed birthday at the end of March.  I woke up feeling fine, and just overall happy.  I wore a long light skirt just for the sake of a special occasion! I walked to the nearby Denny's to get my FREE birthday Grand Slam breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes), which is more than I can eat in one sitting so I had leftovers for next day's breakfast.  From the West End I walked into a Blendz and got a FREE whatever-beverage-I-want, so I got what would normally be the most expensive matcha tea and proceeded down the street.  I couldn't stop smiling, it was like I was giddy with the giggles for no reason.  Passersby looked at me rather puzzled but reflexively smiled back.  Note that if you're smiling or laughing to yourself while hitchiking many drivers find this alarming like you're a psychopath.  Even the social conscience that thinks of the doom-and-gloom news couldn't sober me.  I'm just happy today.  And my matcha tea lasted me exactly till I got to another Blendz down the street so I got another FREE matcha.  Happy day! From there I took my well-trodden path to Shaktea on Main St where I would meet my friend for our usual tea+tarot birthday ritual later, and on my way I found a few more geocaches including one that had eluded me before.  Yay! Onto tea and a good chat, then I returned back downtown and got dressed up fancy for a steak dinner at Hy's steakhouse, which I'd noticed before and been curious to visit for a special occasion that would justify the price.  Cocktails and steak+lobster and red wine and a little sliver of dessert.  Happy birthday to me!
 
What do I remember of April? I spent a few weeks out with my friends in White Rock and made a new friend there, we spent most days walking and geocaching around White Rock together and he would later accompany me on my trip to Sloquet hot springs, in essentially the wilderness.  I consider a new friend a belated birthday gift from the universe!
I also had a nice Easter with my parents back in Oliver, a brief visit for the holiday long weekend.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Warm in Snug Cove

March has steadily slogged on through the rain, with the occasional appearance of sun we Vancouverites crave all winter.  We lucked into a sunny weekend for most of our time in Snug Cove (apart from a rainy sail back), and did some hiking along winding hilly residential roads, forests, and a staircase down to the beach.  Exercise was steady enough to wake up muscles from a season's stupor, combined with fresh woodsy air made me feel bright and positive.  There are plenty of networking trails for hikers, but an easy walk in any weather along well maintained paths is in Crippen Regional Park.  Hemlock trees growing out of nurse logs and stumps look like they're on stilts as the old wood crumbles away.
We had our biannual potluck in the rented cabin and had breakfast at The Snug, a cozy and popular place that floods with people every time the ferry unloads.  I'd been there a few times and always remember the friendly older fella who ran the place, Piers.  So far his was the only split pea soup that I've liked.  I learned that he passed away just recently, and though I didn't know him well he was an important fixture in this small community and there was an outpouring of condolences at the restaurant.  Makes me wish I'd brought a spotlight to The Snug sooner.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Valentine's Volunteering

Even with an extra Leap Day for Leap Year I've found little time to write.

The end of February came and went quickly, with a return to volunteering with the Vancouver International Wine Festival I've posted on in the past here and here.  This year I was a team leader and had four days of helping pour for all the seminars, working with my excellent crew.  This year's focus was Italy, and I enjoyed some prosecco but frankly feel a bit ambivalent towards the reds, even the orange-tinged ones from 1997 that the others ooh and ahh over - for lack of a better term, they just taste like wine.  I prefer the juicy purple roundness of the New World wines.  To each their own.
 
This year through a friend's relatives I had an opportunity to volunteer for the Variety's Show of Hearts Telethon, answering phones and taking pledges for donations to Variety that enriches the lives of children with special needs.  I'm not a big fan on talking on phones as my strength is writing more than speaking, but was eager for a new experience and glad that I could be of service to someone.  Our shift fell right on Valentine's Day morning this year, but we were compensated fairly with both breakfast and lunch catered by White Spot.  The 'work' was a pleasure, brief conversations with donors who were happy to give us their money, it's like the happier side of working in retail.  Between taking calls we watched the interviews and flashback clips from past years, and were subjected to the Rubber Ducky song from Sesame Street, becoming an earworm in my head for the rest of the day.