The longest night....

In lieu of the Solstice, I thought I'd add a few updates on various developing fronts...

No word yet from Labor Relations about the Mt Washington fiasco, but my job at Save-On is going fairly well. I'm able to shut my mind off and just float through the day most of the time. Although since I've been getting so many hours, I don't have much time for jogging or karate training, nor have I had much drive to meditate or do any yoga. My dreams have been very vivid though.

I watched that new documentary, March of the Penguins, and would very highly reccommend it.

I've been following the election campaign quite closely and thus far, I'm undecided (between the Green Party and NDP, of course). Frankly, I'm pretty disgusted with politics altogether, and almost everything I see is such a turnoff. If ever there was the perfect situation emobied by the saying "Same shit, different pile", it's politics. Too many red herrings, mindless robots, and petty bitchfights. Hopefully I'll have something more optimisitic to share at a later date.

In a interesting chain of events, I ended up deciding to check out a local event called The (13th annual) Bethlehem Walk. It's put on by a church and basically a ton of volunteers take this huge barn-style building, and turn it into a recreation of Bethlehem circa the Birth of Christ. Surprisingly litle Christian overtones, they'd set up a mock market place, mimicking what it would've been like around the year 0. They did an awesome job with set and costume decoration, and at each little shop, there would be someone actually making what they would've been making 200 years ago. Like the Blacksmith was actually pounding out metal with a fire, straw brooms were being made, copperware was being formed, lotions and food were sampled, tales were told, etc, etc. I found it very enjoyable and entertaining, and so did everyone else. This was the fourth and final night that it was set up, but there was at least 400 people there when I went, so it's definitely a huge attraction each year, and deservedly so. After you exit Bethlehem, you enter the church, and listen to a choir, eat cookies and drink hot chocolate as long as you want. The most noteworthy thing though was that at the very beginning of the 'walk', it's made out to feel like you're on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and you walk by the manger where Jesus is born, and there's an actual couple with a real baby there. Well for about 20 minutes leading up to that point, on at least 4 occasions, I had to fight the urge to start crying for no reason at all. Very peculiar. Last night, I woke up with a gasp from a nightmare, and was really creeped out. It didn't help that doors in the house wsere creking and that my mom was gone for the night. I rarely have nightmares, and I almost never have problems getting back to sleep, but I was unable to sleep for 2 hours, so in that time, I went on the internet and checked out the church website out of curiosity, and found myself at a site promoting the Apha Course. You've probably seen advertisements for this course, they're all over Canada, I imagine. "Discover the Meaning of Life", and so forth. It's a 10 week course, once a week, free dinner, and it's all free, although donations are welcome. I thought about it, and realised how long the chain of events were that led me to The Bethlehem Walk and eventually to looking up this course, and I decided it must be a sign or whatever, so I'm highly considering enrolling in the course for January, out of sheer curiosity. There's no obligation, and you don't have to be a member of any church to join, so if nothing else, I'll learn the basics of Christianity (the course is non-denominational) firsthand. Also, I was thinking about it, and I think that if I'm not too turned off by the course, maybe I'd be interesting in Volunteering with a Christian organization. My problem with volunteering overseas has been that it is so expensive, but I imagine the best volunteering deals around are through the church, so if I could find one that doesn't require me to be evangelical, I would definitely consider it.

So yeah, that's where I'm at right now. And yes, I'm extremely aware of the irony....

the cliffhanger

Well I think I'm gonna take some time off from the blogging. Quality, not quantity right? And I haven't felt too compelled to post lately. Not to say I don't have anything to say. I'm sure I'll post something within a few weeks, but I thought I'd let you know. Another factor is that I'm getting very few visitors and the intrinsic value of blogging isn't enough to get me posting. Here's some stuff I've been thining about though.

I'm really debating my stance on the whole issue regarding Mount Washington and Labour Relations. The ball is already rolling, so it's not stressing me out too much, but I would like to know exactly where I stand. They're nto a big company, it's owner operated, and they aren't exactly doing great right now financially. But they did break the law and are surviving partially by illegally ripping-off their employees. I'll probably here from someone within a few weeks and I'll get to talk about the case again. I did get my cheque yesterday from them though.

Elections are afoot. Are people gonna vote for the Liberals to keep the Conservatives out? Or vote NDP to keep them both out? I've got some thinking to do. It's gonna be either Green or NDP for me, but it's too soon to tell. I don't think I've ever not voted Green, but nothing's set in stone.

I've been doing lots of research and digging regarding Christianity, in order to find out exactly how I feel about the various aspects/denominations of it. There's some things I embrace and other things I reject. Then there's THESE guys. Right on. I'm also becoming interesting in Jainism and Bon, ancient religions that may have been the parents of Buddhism. I think I'm being pretty open minded about the whole thing. Wikipedia is such an awesome tool for research. I don't know if I'll end up sharing my findings, because I think it's way too sensitive and diverse of a topic for me to feel comfortable and confident expressing my opinion as if it's actually worth something.

I'd been thinking about temporarily relocation to Vancouver for a job offer, but I'd deicded I'd try the local grocery stores first. I didn't even really want a grocery job, but I figured I outta try. So I wasn't sure how I felt yesterday after I walked out of Save-On with a job. Plus I don't know what they pay is, what deparatment, what my hours will be, short term vs long-term, full-time vs part-time, union or not, etc. I start today though.

Oh I watched I (Heart) Huckabees the other day after having it reccomended to me. I'd definitely suggest checking it out. I really liked the themes and I thought it was pretty funny. There were two dumb scenes though, but that's better than average, for sure.

So yeah, catch ya later.....

http://www.4q.cc/chuck/index.php?topthirty

Yer outta here, punk!

Well there's been new developments in my conflict with Mount Washington, that I think are best summed up in this complaint I just filed with Labour Relations:

At orientation on Dec 2, we were told we wouldn't be paid for that day because it was considered a 'final interview', even though we'd already been hired, were filling out payroll sheets, and neither of my supervisors were present. Also every single person that was there is still there, there were no more cuts that needed to be made, so calling it an interview (a 6hr interview) is really stretching it. I started asking management why we weren't getting paid. I talked to a payroll ladie about whether we should be paid, then I asked the president of the company who i could talk to and he pointed me to my supervisors' supervisor. My supervisor's supervisor told me I'd have to talk to my actual supervisors, but neither of them were around (not much of an interview without any supervisors present). I went to another payroll lady and tried to reason with her that since we weren't being paid, attendence couldn't be mandatory, but she patronized me and made it sound like it was all perfectly legal. I got impatient with her, but I don't think I crossed the line, and I certainly didn't make a scene. She asked me my name, but assured me she wouldn't get me in trouble (bald-faced lie). Today, Dec 5, I was supposed to go to a training session where I had planned to talk to my supervisor about the issue and serve them a Request for Payment Form. Before I left for the training, my supervisor called, telling me he was firing me (or 'withdrawing the employment offer' as he put it). His reasons were twofold. First, he claimed that I'd showed up late, and that he looked for me and couln't find me. The truth is that I was on the staff bus and showed up at the exact same time as anyone else, and I myself had looked for both supervisors to introduce myself and neither of them were there all day. Later on he dropped his claim that I was late and also no longer claimed to have been looking for me. The second reason I was fired is because of the way I acted the day of orientation. He said I'd been told by all 4 people I'd talked to, that I had to talk to him (my supervisor). This isn't true, the only person that told me that, was his supervisor. He said I obviously couldn't follow instructions and that he didn't want me as an employee. He also maintained that they've been conducting final interviews like this for years, thus admitting they've been illegally not paying their employees (hundreds of them) for orientations for a long time. I told him I would be sending a Request for Payment Form and filing a complaint. I talked to him later in the day to get some information and he said that the payroll department had decided that they 'wanted' to pay me afterall (after realizing I wasn't going to back down). However, he wasn't prepared to offer me my job back. It is my opinion that I was fired for voicing concerns over the non-payment issue, as I don't believe I handled the issue in such a manner that warranted being fired. I do realize that this is a case of my story versus their's, and there will undoubtably be discrepancies. Something that I think is worth considering is the fact that this was all started because they broke the law. In an assault case, it matters who threw the first punch. Now this is different I know, but they did throw the first punch by breaking the law, which led to me talking to staff, which led to me getting fired. They didn't seem like they were going to pay me, until they realized I was sending them the paperwork that could have gotten them in trouble. I have yet to send the actual Request for Payment form, but I talked to my supervisor about it and notified them that I would be sending it, and I plan on faxing it in the morning as a formality and for the purpose of due process. I have not filled out the boxes above regarding wages owed, because my employer claims that a cheque is now in the mail.
I thank you for your consideration in this manner.


So I'm pretty choked that my ski season is now non-existent, that I'm still 26hrs short of qualifying for EI, and just that I didn't keep a cool composure. I don't think I was that rude to the one lady. Anyways, I have no idea how this will play out, but I guess the only thing I can do is start looking for another job. I knew what the consequences were and I'm prepared to pay the price.

Part IV: Rebel Inc.

This is the belated final episode of a little miniseries I started weeks ago. I was gonna have a 5th episode after giving ppl time to come to their own conclusions, but I don't think I can expect anyone to have that big of an attention span. It was hard enough for ME to remember what I'd been ranting about before. So part V is pre-packaged with the part IV.

Part I was about fascism. Is it a thing of the past, or is it just more disguised these days?
Part II was about racism (but could easily be substituted for sexism). Did the Civil Rights movement win equal rights or has racism become so engrained into society that we can barely spot it nowadays?
Part III was about business and it's environmental responsibilities. Has big business turned over a new leaf (pun) or just swept the dirt (hey, another pun, this is fun!) under the proverbial carpet?
My opinion is the latter of all these questions.

And now for our Feature Presentation

This is gonna be a tough one. It's much harder too articulate my thoughts on this subject because this one takes us so far down the rabbit hole, that sometimes even I don't know which way to go to get out. I'm just gonna dive in and hope it all turns out coherent. I'll try to provide some examples and go from there.

-I grew up seeing the skateboarding scene as rejection of the mainstream. Those skaters didn't care about what's 'hot' and what's 'not, they'll buy their plaid shirts at a thrift store, while the upper echelon of the social scene paid 10 times more just to have a Polo logo on them. The skaters could care less what the rest of us think. I thought that was pretty cool. Then either the times changed, or I just took a closer look. Wait a second, some of these kids aren't wearing used clothes, they're wearing clothes made by skate companies, that are charging just as much as Polo for the same shirt, just with a different logo. So what I thought was counterculture, was really just a subculture. Ever since, I've been appalled by skate companies. There's nothing fundamentally different about skate companies. Maybe it used to be a sacred scene, but not anymore. Same shit, different fashion.Oh and some of the biggest skate companies out there (Hurley, DC, and others that I couldn't confirm) are owned by Nike. Think about that for a moment.
-Adbusters now has their own line of shoes.
-Emerica has a shirts with "Enarchy" on the front.
-there's no words these days that haven't been co-opted by the advertising world. Didn't the words hardcore, radical and extreme used to mean something?
-Rage Against the Machine was on Sony's Label. Rise Against is on the same label as 50 Cent. Anti-Flag is putting out a record for a subsidiary of Columbia Records
-I've seen commercials where a lady describes something as a "shopping Nirvana"
-Starbucks advertises an atmosphere that invites beatniks and the like
-Warped Tour is sponsored by Vans
-Tony Hawk made a video game
-Save-On sells organic food

I'm trying to illustrate to things. One is how often legitimate entities seemingly sell out (and I don't use that word that phrase to often). Two is how big brands have succeeded in usurping meaning from their opponents. What's the point in telling people I'm an Anarchist when the first thing to pop in their head is that shirt that Emerica put out. Why go see anti-capitalist punk bands that are sponsored by a fashion company? Why support underground bands if they're just planning their move to a big label? Is nothing sacred anymore. Or was anything ever sacred to being with? There's a book out there that Drew has that puts my cynicism to shame. It's called The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't be Jammed. This book puts forward the theory that underground and mainstream are just different markets, that's all. There's nothing to sell out too, because there was nothing to sell out from. They aren't arguing that counterculture has sold out, they're arguing that counterculture doesn't exist. Just like I was saying about skate culture, but in a broader sense. Counterculture is subculture, nothing more, nothing less. Whether you're definition of cool is Prada or mountain biking, you're still supporting the capitlist system. Even if you reject capitalism, you're still supporting it by buying from the companies that claim they're 'different'.

Now this book takes it a step further than I do. In fact, I don't agree. I'm not that jaded yet. The authors seem to be saying, "don't try to rebel, there's no point". Kinda like in the 1984 with the Brotherhood. It's all part of The System. But I don't buy that. In fact, I think it's shallow. Granted, I haven't read the book, but I'd been giving it some serious thought, and have read all about the book. So maybe I should be sharing my opinion until I read it. So this should be taken as my opinion against the concept, not the book itself. This concept seems to completely ignore that part of society that practices simple living. Reducing spending, growing your own food, are these efforts in vain? Hell no. But I do believe that we need to take everything with a very large grain of salt. In my opinion, there's no excuse for buying ethically made clothes, instead of buying second hand. Consumerism is the problem.

I knew that was gonna be a sticky topic. I hope you took somethign from it. I know I still have a lot more pondering to do.

Now for the conclusion. The things we assume are dead and gone, are still with us today. Fascism is a very serious threat, even within North America. Racism is a very serious problem, even within Canada. This new wave of corporate responisibility is as shallow as a dried up reservoir, and if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that real meaning can't be branded. The things that our parents fought against have come back from the dead, only now their new and improved. We have to be aware of all the repercussion of our lifestyles. What am I supporting by spending this dollar? Who made this, where did it come from, and what message is the advertising for this product trying to convey. Why are natives reserves so avoided, underfunded, and ignored? Why does it smell like fascism everytime I see a certain President on TV? Does Shell really give a damn about the environment, or is it just smoke and mirrors? We live in a world composed of many layers. Which level are you operating on?

Get Up, Stand Up

Well I had my orientation today at Mount Washington. Lots of people. First half was ok. I was pretty impressed by their environmental plan. Sounds like they're aiming to run the mountain vehicles (groomers, trucks, etc) on bio-diesel within a few years, and they recycle water that is used to spray the bikes down in the summer, and dirt that is dug up for new buildings is reused on mountain bike trails. Another cool thing is that since they were only able to open for 2 weekends last year (worst year in 27 year history), they're honoring last year's season's passes for this year. I thought that was really cool, even though it puts them in considerable financial risk. So I was feeling good, but then while we're filling out our paperwork, they announce that we're not getting paid for today. I look around and no one seems shocked. I start whispering to ppl and they just make excuses for the company. Nuh uh. Not on my time. I start asking people in charge and they say that techincally, today is our 'final interview'. Apparently we're not actually 'hired' yet. FUCKING BULLSHIT I SAY. Not only had I already confirmed that I was hired, but everyone in charge was referring to it as an orientation, not a 'final interview'. So I find the president of the mountain and ask who I should speak to about an important issue (no point burning bridges with him I thought). My supervisors hadn't even shown up! Final interview? Who do they think we are? During lunch, I start talking to people, and some ppl seemed upset too, but nobody made it sound like they were gonna give it any further thought. So I go up to the payroll lady and ask if it's mandatory that we attend the whole orientation and she says yes. So then I tell her that we should be getting paid. She says no. I says, 'look, not mandatory OR paid, pick one'. But she doesn't buy it, she just asks for my full name. Fat chance, lady. So I stuck around for the scavenger hunt and some lame speeches before we were sent home. The first half had been decent, but the second half was pure cheese, made more agro by the fact that this was somehow voluntary and mandatory at the same time. Everyone was cheering during the 'get stoked about working for us' video and oh god, I almost thrusted vomit from my gut over teh entire room. As soon as I got home, I called Labour Relations and verified that I'm entitled to be paid for today, so I've printed out a form and I'm gonna fill it out and serve it to my supervisor who I've only seen once (yay, great start to a season). The form basically says they have 15 days to pay me or else I'm filing a complaint with the Labour Board.

People, we've got to start fighting for our rights. Even when I win this thing (when, not if), only I'll get reimbursed, not the other 200 people that were there. Don't expect someone else to have a spine for you, it's your life, your time. I got up at 6:15 today and drove an hour and spent 20 bucks of my own money in gas to deal with this shit. And that's nothing. There are people all over the country and world facing far worse working conditions. We can afford the luxury of fighting back. Most people around the world can't (or can, but are too scared). We're lucky enough to live in a country that has regulations in place protecting us in situations like this. If we don't fight for ourselves, no one will. End transmission....

BC by Thumb Pt 3

This was the cabin I stayed at on Haida Gwaii the night I got there. It was called the 'Mushroom Pad'. hmmmm...




The view




Sleeping quarters





Queen Charlotte City





At dusk










I was calling this mountain Rush of the Bull, but apparently it's Roch de Boule. This is right near Hazelton


This is zoomed in





This is the view off the highway, on the way up to the Mt Chames ski area






This is a view of Roch de Boule I found on the internet, notice how different it is from this angle. Both stunning aspects though.









Humble Mt Chames. There's one more lift going up the ridge in the top corner, but it's probably out of view.






Looking across the Skeena River








This is the Fraser Canyon just before Lillooet





This is heading up towards Cayoosh pass on the other side of Lillooet. Notice the dramatic scenery change, only about a 30 minute drive away from the above picture.


This is Duffy Lakes Park at the summit





And thus concludes the visual part of my now month and a half old journey.

week recap

I left Golden on thursday, after 4 monotonous days in Golden, as was evident by the weather. I made record time by getting to Kamloops in 4.5hrs in two rides. When I got to Craig's, I called all sorts of martial arts trying to find a class to drop-in on. The only thing class that worked out was White Crane Gung Fu, which is a Tibetan martial art. Even though it was described as a 'hard' martial art (as opposed to 'soft'), I still found it completely different from karate. lots of swinging motions, as opposed to linear (shortest distance A to B). the kicks were fairly similar though. i guess this particular club has produced world champions, but i didn't see any real reason why. they had good (though small) facilities, but facilities aren't everything. they played music during the workout part of the class, i thought that was weird. and the sensei's helpers didn't seem very disciplined. but of course, a single dojo (or however you say it in Tibetan) isn't much indication of a martial arts validity, so I'm not gonna judge the style too much, except that I know it wouldn't work for me, because my shoulders are way too fucekd up for some of those motions.

the next morning I got a ride from a family in an old school motorhome. parents plus 3 kids. the dad was from teh Seychelles, an island off the east coast of africa. they were pretty nice. sounds like they just move around and aren't too tied down. must have money saved up. they'd sailed down to panama from squamish. crazy. well we got to Merritt and it was pretty bad road conditions. traffic was at a standstill and the ambulances couldn't even get thru. the family decided they were gonna wait it out in Merrit, so I walked down the line of cars and found a guy to give me a ride, but then when traffic started moving, he decided his tires couldn't handle it, so he went into Merrit too, so I found some lady ina big dodge to gimme a ride. made it to van from kamloops in about 6 hours, which ain't too bad, considering the chaos on the coquihala.

I made some calls and arranged to drop-in on a karate class. They were preparing for a tournament, so the kids and adult classes were combined, so there was like 50 people in this room. I got to practice with two guys, a brown and a black belt, the brown belt turned out to be the guy that had beaten me by a tenth of a point at provincials to get the gold medal. so it really cool training with them, they were both really into details. the sensei seemed pretty good. 4th degree, i guess his dojo produces a lot of gold medalists. one of the girls that was there was just in the world championships and got 4th place. she was REALLY good. he had a great attention to detail too, especially considering that he was watching 50 people at once. i really enjoyed the class. Ben picked me up after and then I met up with ashley and sharyce. We tried to go dance to drum n bass, but i'd forgotten my ID, so we ended up at sharyce's, where i stayed the night.

by the next day, i was pretty burnt out and ready to go home, but i decided to help ashley move. it was a really nice day too. we drove her dad's truck onto the ferry, then stopped by my place in Qualicum to drop off my stuff, then boogied down to victoria in time to go out dancing to some fun breaks by some DJ from the UK. i got a good 4 hours of sleep, then in the morning we jam-packed the truck full of shit, but coudn't fit this one futon, so we tossed it on the roof of the truck canopy and drove it down to a thrift store. but when i got out to take if off the roof, it wasn't there anymore. that was quite the laugh. it was another nice day and the ferry route from victoria to vancouver, is really nice, going by lots of the gulf islands. unpacking was fairly painless, i made dinner and we (me, ben, sarah, and ashley) just chilled for the night.

today me and sarah scoped out UBC and the beaches and area areound her house. Kitsilano is really a nice part of a the city. I'd actualy consider living there if the opportunity arose. not for too long of course, just like a month or so to get a feel for the city. the sky was obscured by clouds, but you could actually see quite far and the views from the ferry were possibly the best I've seen, with clear views (unlike the previous hazy view) of mt baker and the direction towards squamish, as well as vancouver islands mountains.

anyways i'm back on the island now, glad to finally rest for a bit. my mom, sis, and me are going to Ashcroft on friday for a few days of cookie cooking with some of my mom's friends and their families. should be cool, plus hopefully we'll ge to drive the Sea to Sky Highway again. my grandpa on my dad's side died a few days ago. he was 87. I haven't seen him in about 4 years and I wasn't particularly attached to that side of the family. Feels weird that I'm not feeling much. Maybe it needs to sink in a bit. I've only seen my dad for a few minutes since we heard (he flew down for the funeral today), so maybe when i see him again I'll feel different.

My job starts on monday, pretty exceited about that. And that basically wraps it up. It was a good trip for sure, I got to see lots of people in 5 different towns/cities and the hitchhiking was easier than I'd anticipated, plus I got to check out two new karate dojos. I finished my book on quantum physics, The Dancing Wu Li Masters. It was definitely a challenging read (all the experiments technical talk, even though it was pretty layman). Very rewarding and trppy stuff though. So if anyone thinks they can handle the scientific lingo, I highly recommend it.

I'm back in Golden now, leaving town again on wednesday. Calgary went really well. Got a ride both ways, super warm, never paid for the c-train, belvedere was a really great show, and I got to visit with Ravi, Sang, Sam, Anthony, Sabih, and Mitch (Sime). Karate was really a lot of fun and got me really stoked and I passed my test for my green belt. When I leave to start the return trip, I'll try to stop in Revelstoke, to see Charles and check out a karate class, but that's a big maybe. Either way though, I'll also be staying a night in Kamloops and probably Vancouver too.

Well I in Kamloops. Despite second-guessing myself, I made it without too much trouble. Had a good ride with an ambulance paramedic. Got stoned with him, had some decent talks. Very glad I wore my winter boots. Felt kinda silly on the ferry, but here in snowy kamloops, I fit right in. Went to the philosopher's cafe tonight. The topic was civil disobedience, so it was pretty cool. Not as interesting as I'd hoped, but it was cool to go again after 2 years. As well, one of the the only guys I ever really met in Kamloops that I liked, was there, and he remembered me, so that was really cool. Should make it to Golden by tomorrow afternoon. good so far....

Well it looks like I've got some unfinished work as I head out on tomorrow's venture. I guess my mini-series is going on hiatus, and the visual version of my hitchhiking tale will be put on hold as well. Well here's my itinerary, for those following along at home.
Monday - Ferry to vancouver, stay with sarah, ben, and maybe ashlee.
Tuesday - Skytrain to Burnaby, hitchhike from on-ramp, hopefully make it to Craig and Drew's in Kamloops
Wednesday - Hopefully make it to Golden
Thursday - Extra day in case things go bad. If I'm in Golden though, hang out, go to a karate class
Friday - Catch right with fellow karate student to Calgary, arrive in afternoon. Visit Sabih and Mitch, possibly Melissa if I get hold of her. Karate seminar in evening, staying at my cousin's house
Saturday - Test in afternoon, Belvedere concert at night. hang out with Ravi at some point. Might head back that night if I have a ride
Sunday - Either head back from Calgary, or already be in Golden, etc etc, eventually making it back to Golden by Thursday, give or take

If anyone wants to surprise me at the Belvedere show, I'd be double-stoked. It's downtown at the Warehouse (731 10th Ave SW, back alley). Doors open at 6. Tickets advertised as $12, could be more at door. 19+

Anyways, if you see me on a milk carton, you'll know things didn't go as planned. Have a great week, people....

potent combination

so i was reading my book (Dancing Wu Li Masters, about quantum mechanics) and it was blowing my mind. too fuckin trippy. and real. So I was already kinda wowed, so I'm walking into the living room to tell me mom how trippy this book is, and she mentions something about the reception on the tv. WHAM, DEJA VU. and not just something fleeting, it was on many levels. a deja vu that I know I've had before (at Craig's old appartment), possibly twice. took me a minute to fully grasp it. then I realized that I haven't had a deja vu that I can remember in at least 8 months. that's a long time by my standards. weirdness....

BC by Thumb Pt 2

Prince Rupert, rainiest place in Canada, but it was kind enough to me, considering. Pretty windy though






Sunset as I waited for the ferry. Red sky at night, you know what that means....








Dawn at Skidegate on Haida Gwaii
















This one's for Kelly - look at all the jibnarrin tech lines!!



Actually a lake, it looks more like a swamp from all the debris. Spirit Lake.












This beach was north on the south east coast of Graham Island






This was a beach on the inlet up in Masset, someone's backyard. North coast.

Episode 3: Greenwashing and other Corporate Shenanigans

In Part III of this irregular series, I'm putting corporations under the spotlight. Business, unlike the two abstractions of racism and fascism, is a fairly widely accepted phenomenon. It's a beast with many limbs, if you ask me, which makes it tough to narrow the attack here. My main focus is on corporations and their reaction to the environmental movement, but the reaction to labor ethics and other controverses aren't so different. Just a different pile, if you'll spot the implied metaphor. Whether or not ecolological concerns are more prevalent or trendy these days, corporations have started to clean up their acts. Or have they? In many cases, millions of bucks are spent on a greenwashing campaign, which is basically just advertising that convinces the public that they're eco-friendly now (or always were). This all comes down to the fact that it's cheaper to convince the public that a certain company is envoronmentally-friendly than it is to actually implement ecologically-sound practices. Also, many companies have determined that it's cheaper for them to break environmental laws and face the occasional fine, than simply fix the problem. Take car companies for example. Many have jumped on the bandwagon for hybrid cars and are now 'proud' to be waving the green banner, but the fact remains that their SUVs are still increasing in size every year (and decreasing in mpg). Myt favorite example is BP. British Petroleum, or 'Beyond Petroleum' (conjuring images of new energy sources) seems to think that by changing their logo to a flower that we're all gonna suddenly forgive their horrendous environmental record (not that any other oil company is any better). Yet as they change their logo and call it even, they're pushing for new oil-drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge, one ot the last remaining pristine wilderness areas in North America. All it takes is a litle digging to realize that we're constantly being bombarded with extremely superficial claims here, when the truth is very much to the contrary.

Now if we step back and look at these 3 parts of the series, we see how fascism and racism are still very much alive well, but have become so much a part of this system, that they're almost transparent, and with corporate crimes, it's a very similar veil. You really don't need to possess very much initiative or imagination to realize that we're still living with the exact same problems as our parents were, but these problems have evolved on their own, much like a virus becomes resistant to a drug. In part 4, we'll look at an issue where both the drug and the virus have evolved together so that one cannot easily be separated from the other.

mcprogramming

I borrowed Fast Food Nation on audio CD from the library and started listening to it today. According to sources, our diets have changed more in the past 40 years than in the past 40,000. scary. Talks a lot about homogenization, about uniformity, confomity and the like. Chain-owners want customers to be able to ge the exact same meal at any outlet across the country, etc. I can testify to this, when I worked at WhiteSpot prepping, we had to weigh out every portion we made up. So for one dish, say regular pasta, each bag had to have, within a tenth of a gram, 1g of 4 diff veggies. You get pretty quick at it, but still, you have to weigh up about 30 bags of it. That's 120 weighings for that menu item alone. It's very ridiculous. As if there's a mathemtaical formule to determine the exact and only recipe of making an acceptable dish. I don't even measure stuff when I cook at home, and I've had no complaints yet. The fast food (and most chain restaurants) are a sterile, decrepit, and very bland aspect of a growing trend of homogenization in our world.....

genre shopping

Well one thing I have yet to do since restarting the site is to recommend music. I'd like to think that I'm into enough different genres that there's something for everyone, but that's for you to decide I guess. My first two weeks that I was back on my trusty p2p Soulseek (never could get into the whole torrent scene), I dived into screamo punk. For those unaware, screamo is basically (forgive me, purists) emo with screaming. Not that the old emo didn't have screaming. I was calling it screamcore for a while, but apparently it's the trend now and the trend's name is screamo. If you're not into emo or any music that involves screaming (or screeching in some cases), then you probably won't find much you like here. But I decided a while ago to stop being ashamed of liking emo. Some of it anyways. I can't seem to get into some of the big names like Thursday and Early November. I usually only like a few songs from each band too. Anyways, the line between emo and screamo is blurry, but these are the top 3 screamo bands I'd recommend. What I like is that they have a healthy dose of singing and screaming, not just the latter, and they also have some decent rhythm and riffs. These bands are Senses Fail, Silverstein, and Underoath. Underoath is the heaviest music (although violence is a very common theme with SF) and also happens to be a Christian band. I point this out, not out of discrimination that the whole band happens to be Christian, but that they are actually a 'Christian Band', in that they present certain themes. Not always though, I think it's mostly their older stuff, some of which was definitely trippy. But Thrice has a lot of religious undertones in their music too, and you'd never know it. Here's the best songs, in my humble opinion:
Senses Fail - The Irony of Dying on Your Birthday, Buried a Lie, One Eight Seven
Silverstein - Already Dead, Your Sword vs My Dagger, The Ides of March
Underoath - A Boy Brushed in Red...., It's Dangerous Business...., Reinventing Your Exit, Down Set Go

Now screamo is an extension of emo which is an extension of punk, so it wasn't too far out of my normal bounds to start a screamo collection, plus I also had Greg and Matt's help in exposing me to some of the bands I checked out (I must've downloaded 40 different bands). My next desired collection though will be harder to find my way into though. I know VERY little about the indie scene and it looks big. REALLY big. Plus I don't know many people to help me out. I'm getting some help though. Very diverse scene obviously, since the term 'indie' can refer to a whole thwack of different styles. So far, I'd like to recommend The Postal Service, Bloc Party, The Bravery, and strangely enough (you'll know what I mean if you check em out) Rilo Kiley.

This is easily one of my favorite pcitures of the summer. Two absolutely cloudless days at Floe Lake in Kootenay National Park with Colton. If you click on the pic and look closely, you'll see two different colored lakes, but it's actually the same lake, strangely enough. That Rockwall (which extends 30km along the continental divide) towers 1000m over Floe Lake. We went the first week of August to see the wildflowers and they were GORGEOUS. Such an awesome place

When we got up there, we just laid in the sun for a few hours and soaked in all in. A flawless day....




It was so neat cuz the color of the lake would totally change depending on where you were. From green to almost purple. I have a panorama shot of the Rockwall being reflected by the water and when I show people, they don't even understand what they're looking at, because the water is so unbleviably pristine and undisturbed.






That first picture was taken from Numa Pass which is just to the right of this mountain, Mt Foster. It's the highest in the range. If you look close, you'll see me being a goof.


Sunrise turns the entire Rockwall golden, it's amazing to see.

sweet lines

So I decided to go for a much needed mini-trek today. I wanted to find a passage down to this part of the oceanfront where there aren't any houses and you can't really see it from anywhere else cuz it's through a forest and down a bank. So I took my dog and we made it pretty easily through the ravine, and after the last house, we descended to the beach. Very nice and there were some good waves too. Probably the first time he's played fetch in the ocean, it was pretty funny to see him get rocked by the waves. We start heading back and I see a path so we follow it up and lo and behold..... there's a fucking zip line. A ZIP LINE. I was pretty stoked, but it looked sketchy. I tested it out by riding it a few meters and where it stops, you come right up next to a huge tree. And that was only a few meter run, the whole line was probably about 80-100m long. NUTS! I followed the path up to the top, but there was someone's house right there, so I had to sneak through the woods. Probably enver get to use it, but I thought it was still pretty cool.

I've been engrossed with ski hill stats lately. Search for Chamonix in France. HUGE fucking ski hill. Unreal. Tons of advanced runs too. Anyways, I found out that Kicking Horse is the highest ski resort (summit) in BC, and depending on how you look at it, shares the 2nd biggest vertical drop in North America with Jackson Hole (KH is actually 8ft less), with Whistler taking the top spot. It was a lot harder to find stats on terrain (acres) though, but Kicking Horse isn't as competetive when it comes to acreage.

BC by thumb Pt 1

ok, here's the first bath of pics from my journey through space and time. I bundled some together just to cut down on the amount of scanning. Some of these pics wouldn't normally make the cut, but since I'm sure many of you haven't been north of Kamloops (like me before the trip), I included some landscape shots
just so you could visualize.
Tete-Jaune (Yellowhead), Junction of highways 5 & 16, just north of Valemount. This pic is zoomed in on the Caribou Mountains, with the Rockies behind me.




This is just outside Vanderhoos, an hour west of Prince George. Flat, but at least you can see the weather coming before it hits ya.



Gettin back to the mountains at Hazelton. That's the Skeena river. Nice color





This was the best view of UNBC, but don't get too excited, the green spots you see are sort've decorative and out of the way.















I included this one because of the mountain way in the distance that just towers above everything else. I never saw it after that and can't find it on maps, but it's obviously enormous. Click to zoom.








This was the road I walked down in Kitimat to ge to the Giant Spruce. There were only two of them though and the pics are pretty dark. This was the best one, but there's no giant trees here.














This is the most flattering view of Kitimat, as I'm walking up the road separating the upper and lower parts of town. Most of the town is either behind me or down to the right. That's an inlet of the ocean in the top middle.



This was my most luxurious camping locale, along the Skeena under a hgue bridge in Terrace.









More to come.....

It's all in the cap locks

The subject of tonight's episode (the 2nd in the series) will be fascism. Unlike the previous topic of racism, fascism is a lot trickier to define. Just like with Anarchy and anarchy, whether Fascism is capitilzed or not makes a big difference. Technically, capitilized Fascism is nearly synonomous with Italian Fascism and Mussolini, whereas uncapitilized fascism is a more generic term, that isn't as strictly defined. People often assume that that the word nazi and fascist are nearly synomous, but many scholards don't even consider Nazism to actually be Fascism, while others see it as mearly an offshoot of generic fascism. It seems as though nazis are about as poor an example of true Fascism as the USSR's communism was of true Socialism. That's why when it's not really realistic when people seem so offended when someone is called fascist. Sure, it's often implied that calling someone fascist is comparing them to Hitler, but I think we need to learned to detach the two in our minds. My purpose here is to demonstrate that American fascism isn't as far-fetched as it seems. While comparing it to Fascism might be a litle tough, there's certainly simliarities to be pointed out with regards to generic fascism. A political scientist studied the fascist regimes of 5 major countries, and found them all to share these same 14 characteristics. This is taken directly from his findings (unedited)...

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.


2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.


3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.


4. Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.


5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.


6. Controlled Mass Media

Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.


7. Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.


8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.


9. Corporate Power is Protected

The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.


10. Labor Power is Suppressed

Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .


11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.


12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.


13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.


14. Fraudulent Elections

Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Now if we use this as our I reference point, I personally think that the USA easily qualifies for 12 of those and I suspect that any layman can easily agree with at least 10 of the 14, which is a pretty high number. Sexism is a tough one. I think it's just like racism, alive and healthy, but so ingrained in society that's it's hard to bring into the light. So while I'm certainly not denying that we live in a patriarchal society, I don't think the USA is an more sexist than any other country. As far as Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts, I think that one is present, but even more subtle than the others, so I won't argue for that one. But I think the other 10 or 12 are easy to spot. The Bush Administration has been caught paying journalists to praise the government, and embedded-jounralists in the war are a pretty obvious conundrum too. If you were a general, would you allow any journalist near your soldiers if you thought he might print any dissent? Self-censorship is rampant these days, and that's really typical of the whole situation. There's no need to have a dictator if the elections are rigged, if you catch my drift. You can cry "DEMOCRACY" all you want, but at the end of the day, the way the system is set up down south, it's all very legal and suppposedly representative to pass something like the Patriot Acts (see Characteristics 2,7, & 12), even if it does bring about a police state. It's becoming clear that we can no longer rely on common sense and the media to help lead us through the storm. Things are not as they appear on the surface, and until we learn to see through the veil, the current prevailing themes of the day are going to keep spreading until 1984 (the book, not the year) stops seeming so distant afterall.

This is the view from Dewar Hot Springs northwest of Kimberly, inside the southern edge of the Purcell WIlderness Conservancy. Me, Greg, and Greg's friend Adam, from Ontario. Super secluded wicked area. On other pair of guys showed up later and there were some hunters in the area, but that's not bad, considering how awesome this place was. This is part of the view from the hotsprings.




This is a shot of the udnerside of a small cliff, there were some neat rock formations as well as algae and tufa growing rampant. This is one wall here. Crazy color combinations. The stuff that looks like ice is tufa, which is some sort of deposit.







This is the camping area, about 5 minutes up from the springs. Super rad view. This is two pics of a panorama. It'd be too ahrd to scan the middle one, but you can kinda figure out what would be in the gap. The panorama is actually like 6 pictures all together. pretty rad with the contrast from brown to white. That valley back to the left intrigues me. Looked to be very narrow and steep and superneato.

I think I may have digressed from my purpose last night. I wasn't trying to show that racism is still around, because I don't think anyone denies that. My point was just that it has become disguised and less visible to the untrained eye. To anyone who doubts that racism is still alive and well, maybe you should find out why there have been riots in France for the past 11 days.

On a different note, I just got called from the rental shop at Mt Washington. Sounds like I have a job there if I want it. Still waiting to see if the Lift Ops call me back too. Although I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get some retail experience.

I scanned a bunch more pictures from the summer and as well, my hitchhiking pictures should be arriving today. So expect to see a lot more pictures online.

These 3 pics are all from the Quartz Lake trips.












The meadows here were really nice. Unlimited flowers in some spots. I took the honor of naming that mountain in the background, Friendship Peak.














This might have been the coldest water I've ever jumped in. Upper Quartz

Regardless of whether or not you know who Howard Zinn is, you should check out this short, yet very efficiently written article by him. What he talks about is a very important issue to me: the illusion of choice. Of course, as is uaully the cse, it centers on the USA, but that doesn't make it irrelevant at all. It's called Wake Up, America!

low-budget production

I had a bit of an epiphany last night and decided to make it into a 4 or 5 part mini-series. Each night I'll present a different topic, then if it's not obvious by the end of the series, I'll illustrate the parallels I see from each one, that seem to form a pattern. Tonight's topic will be racism.

Racism is supposed to be dead right? Well let's take a look. Legally imposed racial segregation is long gone, but in many places it's been replaced with self-segregation and more subtle boundaries. The natives have their reserves, the blacks have their inner-cities, and don't forget Chinatown. Now in some cases, it's the individuals choice to stick with their own nationality, but in one way or another, I think there's subtle messages being sent by society saying 'We don't want you here'. You hear it all the time. Take a neutral statement like "There's a lot of natives in that town". Carries quite the connotation doesn't it? It's a very complex situation, but there's racism afoot all over the palce, it's just better disguised. The native reserve I saw up close near Burns Lake was one of the most depressing settlements I've ever seen. Does that mean it's because the natives are lazy slobs? No, it's more likely the case that they see very little money from the government to make flowerbeds, plant trees, build benches, etc. But then take a look at Whistler and it's got funding coming out it's asshole. Now of course, natives don't have to pay tax on gas and other benefits if they have their status card, but I really don't think that makes things even by anyone's standards. And I'm pretty sure blacks aren't inherntly criminal, yet 1 out of 3 black men are in jail.

I don't think I've dealt with this issue as well as I'd hoped, but I do have one final interesting example. The punk rock scene is supposed to be filled with chants of equal rights, ending war, etc etc. You'd think it'd be a pretty accepting scene. But I think I can count the number of non-caucasians I've seen at punk shows, on one hand. I think racism is like a fire that's been extinguished above surface. The smokes gone, but the roots are still on fire. Racism is built into the system now. Sure things are better than they used to be, but at least back then, you knew who exactly what you were fighting against. The next step at fighting racism is going to be a lot less visible then it was in the 50's.

Thus ends episode one. Hopefully, I can be a little more articulate as this series goes on, or I'll never in that juno I as hoping for.

After a day of despair following my discover that I don't have a job at Kicking Horse, I applied at a bunch of other places, and today I went up to Mt Washington for a job fair and I think I've got a good shot at scoring a job there, which would be stellar cuz I'd get to have a ski season. The hill has less than half the vert, terrain, and difficulty as Kicking Horse, but it's got like 6 lifts and gets mroe snow, and I haven't heard any bad reviews, so I'd be stoked. Transportation could be tricky since it's 1.25hr drive from here, but either way, it'd be worth it. It was weird being up there where there's snow covering the ground completely then coming down here to rain again. I guess it'd be like that everyday. And it rains a lot here, so no wonder they get so much snow. I'm still going to pursue working at Mt Assiniboine Lodge in February, but I won't find out about that until next month.

Also, for those of you who like to download, you should REALLY check out Tipper's new mix CD called Tip Hop. It's breaky, hip hop, downtempo, all in one and I love it. Get it. NOW.

So I'm making a Thai pumpkin stir fry, and I'm seeding these jalapenos and I gotta scratch my eye. Having learned my lesson in the past, I washed my hands first. But the second I touched my eye, it was hell all over again, but this time way worse. I was yelling and grimacing like I'd been shot, crouching on the floor. Wow. Holy fucking SHIT! We had to call poison control cuz the burning was really really bad. So I spent the next 20 minutes dunking my head into bowls of cold water. Very intense. I felt an eery calmness after it was all done though. Anyways, for those who don't know and don't wanna learn the hard way, heed my advice. Wash your hands very well after touching hot peppers. Like get a brush and scrub the shit outta your hands, or better yet, use disposable gloves if you've got any. In case you were wondering though, when it was all said and done, the meal was delicious.

Shamb

This was the village this year, after they totally renovated it. I like this pic











There's over 30 people from Golden in this pic, see how many you can identify.












This is the forest. First time I was able to capture the laser/disco ball effect.

Well, my apologies for having been so boring lately. Didn't have much motivation to type, and my thoughts weren't something I wanted to share, so this attempt may be too litle, too late. Anyways, I'll relate the last 2 days to you and then try to pry into my thoughts. I started my pilgrimage yesterday morning after finding out that I'd missed the hiring period at the ski hill in Golden. That's got some big implications regarding my short-termn future. Anyways, I forgot my map, schedules, and contact info when I left home as well, so I was in a quite the funk on my way to Nanaimo. Really weird thoughts. Anyways, I just immersed myself in my headphones and made it to the ferry and over to Vancouver without too many problems. By the time I got to Van, I was feeling better, and I actually saw a side of Vancouver that I hadn't seen yet. Can't really describe it except that it was during rush hour, and I was on foot. I was kinda in awe, and didn't feel so agro against the big city scene. It's just so different, I can't get over that. Everything is completely different than it is in a small town. 24hr gyms and all that jazz. Anyways, I met up with Trina, ate, then went to the Commodore (by myself). Great venure, in my opinion. Maybe not suited for everything, but definately a cool place. It was relaxing, sitting on the upper level, waiting for the show to start. I'd say there was about 500-600 ppl. Anti-Flag was pretty decent, but I didn't like their set list at all. Seems to be a common thing, now that I've seen them 3 times. They played all their slower songs off teh new album. Not slow songs, just slower than their other stuff. Still full-blown punk, but I dunno, I just can't get into those tracks. They didn't play my fave songs: Tearing Everyone Down, Tearing Down the Borders, 911 For Peace, and others. They even had twice as long as the sets they usually have at Warped tour. Oh well. I'm still wondering how I feel about them making teh move to the big labels. I had been thinking about it before they came on, and I'd decided maybe it was a good thing, to reach more people, but with that comes the glam that is already visible (the 'look'). I thought Bad Religiong (being the headlining act), put on a better show, but they dind't play my fave songs either. Anti-Flag played Die for Your Government which is their signature track, and Bad R played American Jesus, but they didn't play Kyoto Now, Conquer the World, and all my other faves. And it's really tough for me to get into a set if I don't know all the words. Anyways, so it was a decent show, but I was disappointed, especially since I paid 45 bucks for teh ticket and took all the trouble to get there, when I'm extremely broke (as you'll find out really soon). So I caught a bus this morning at 7:30 and made my way back to the ferry. After I crossed to Nanamio, I found out that I didn't even have enough money for the bus fare and for some reason my account was -$5. sweet. Anyways, I bummed some money and made it home. It seems almost everything that could go wrong financially has happened. I gotta call the ski hill, CIBC, and my student loan and bitch at them tomorrow.

Something that really I found myself thinking a lot about this trip was weird people. It started in Parksville with these two weird guys, that didn't look like they'd spent much time out of their bedrooms in a few years. Then at every other bus stop, it seemed like there was somebody mentally ill, or otherwise eccentric. Now I'm from a small town, so if I'm supposed to be apathetic, it's not working. But at the same time, it's not like it's purely a bleeding heart response that's happening. Slight discomfot, some anger at our society for not providing proper support for the mentally ill, partial curiosity at what their lives must be like and what exactly makes them different, and also just feeling uncomfortable, partially with the person in question, or maybe wholy at the people around me, sensing their weird vibes towards these other people, even when they're smiling, clean, and aren't trying to talk to anyone. I could go on, but like many things, it's complex and I don't thin I could accurately convey the feeling. I do feel it's something I need to come to terms with though, just so I'm not obsessively thinking about it everytime I'm in the presence of someone like that.

Want some Murder with that candy, kids?

Well I didn't have anything planned for All Hallow's Eve, so I just put on a makeshift costume, grabbed a butcher knife and I've been freaking out trick-or-treaters. WAY too much fun. Too bad there's only been like 6 groups so far. I've been blasting all my darkest, evilest, and most glitch-tech music (read: Tech Itch) out the windows, and I pretend to be seriously mentally ill and talk really loud. Scares the kids and the parents love it. I wish I could hand out dental floss instead of candy though. Definitely gonna do this every year since trick-or-treating ends early and parties start later. Right, me party. ha...

Motion Notion

In July, after flying back into Calgary from my family reunion in North Carolina, I met up with Ashley and Dani and we drove to the Motion Notion festival. It's situated about an hour west of Edmonton, and off the highway about 25 minutes. In other words, the middle of nowhere. But considering the rest of the prairies, this was a pretty sweet spot, cuz there was trees all around, and everything was in a slight valley beside a nice river. It's basically Alberta's attempt at a Shambhala, but I give em mad props for it. It was only 2 nights and there was a quite time from like 8am till 1pm, but I had a great time. From our Golden crew, there was the 3 of us, Jordan, Leonard, Smue, Jimmy, Steve, Megan, Andrew and his g/f from Victoria, Nicole. I think most of us had been attracted to Tech Itch being the headliner. Other than a handful of dnb though, it was mostly psytrance, so it was hard to find a good stage, but the decorations were awesome. Main stage at night time was unreal, better than any decorating job I've seen at Shamb. The black light artwork was UNREAL. Below are two of the many murals. You could get lost looking at them for a long ass time. Took me hours to figure out what the first one even was. It started pouring rain just before Tech Itch, which probably harshed it for some people, but by the time Tech Itch came out, the only thing dropping was beats, and very heavy ones. I'd taken about a hit of acid, and from the moment he started, I just lost myself and there probably wasn't a single recorded thought in my brain for at least an hour. The darkest, most evil, glitch-tech drum n bass I've ever heard. I don't think you could even call my motions dancing. It was just a very fast paced flail. But I loved it. I couldn't even tell if I was high or not, because I had no thoughts as reference points. I swear, it felt like Tech Itch was up there for 3 and a half hours, but after two, he was done and the Psy Trance started, so I left that stage. It was shitty to have to go to a smaller stage to hear dnb, cuz this stage had no decorations at all, and you could see the main stage from there, with it's huge sound, and plethora of glowing colors. The second day was nice, and the river wasn't too cold, so you could just walk out into the middle of it and sit on a rock. Nothing too spectacular happened the second night. But I would still go back next year in a heart beat if they've got some good dnb again. Good vibes, good venue. I think these pics zoom in a lot if you click on them, so you'll be able to analyze the details better

BOB

This was the picture I was looking for all winter. Finally got it back from the other guy in the pic. This is the Big Orange Bridge in Nelson, the day before Shambhala last year. Me and Danny Bertrand. Hard to estimate the height. I'd say 80 feet. Biggest jump I've done, also the funnest and least painful. Go figure. I tried to do it again this year with Kelly, but he wasn't cool enough. I'm the one in the blue shorts....

Not having good luck with bureaucracies today. Apparently I'm one week short of work to qualify for E.I., and there's no way around that, so I'm screwed there. I've had to call my 2 student loan offices to get them to stop taking payments out of my account since I can't afford it, and I won't get into the details there, but one of them has some brutal policies. And I've called Telus twice and been told they'd call me back, but I'm still waiting, but at least with Telus, they owe ME money. 70 bucks somehow. Anyways, let's focus on some fun things....

This is me huckin off the roof of Matt's truck into the Blaeberry River. Super fun river to jump into, but I dislocated my shoulder once and that was some sketchy as shit, cuz there's bad sections a little further downstream. Anyways, Matt wasn't driving very fast, but it's really one of those things that, once you decide to do it, you just don't think about it. It's really a philosophical thing as much as a physical thing. I learned something that day. Rational thinking has it's place, but there's many times where quick thinking is required and you have to just act/react without thinking, or it's too late.





















Oh what a glorious day this was. Me and Kelly drove up the Valennciennes River, ate some mushrooms and
bushwhacked up the box canyon at Icefall Brook. Quite possibly the coolest place I've ever been in my life. Surreal to the extreme, with or without psilocybin in your veins. THere's another waterfall just to my left, and the ones at the back are at least 150m tall. They're draining from the Lyell Icefield that you can actually see the tiny tip of if you zoom in (but don't do that cuz you'll see the expression on my face). I can't even put into words how cool this place was, but I would love to cross-country ski into the area in the winter, to see the frozen waterfalls, or come in the spring when the water level is higher. I'd love to take people back there too.

Tactics and Demographics

Just thought I'd go a little moe in-depth about the art of hitchhiking. There's tons of factors adding up and subtracting, that determine how long you'll wait by the side of the road.

Using a sign is probably the one technique that hitchhiker's will disagree on. On the one hand, you like like you've got your shit together when you use a sign, and it attracts some gazes that wouldn't otherwise look at you. But I think the most important factor is what's on the sign. Destination names are obviously the most common, but this all depends on where you're heading and how far you are from there. Even if someone's heading from Calgary to Vancouver and your sign says 'VANCOUVER', they might drive right by just because they don't want to take a chance that you smell or are weird and that they'll get stuck with you. I think the best bet is to have a sign, but put something somewhat original on it. 'further', 'please', 'concert', or even 'i support bc teachers.

Whenever I wasn't holding a sign, I'd be reading my book. Mostly just because I enjoy reading, but also because I was toying with the idea that I'd appear a little more trustworthy. I didn't just crawl out of the ditch, hell I might even be a university student. But I'm undecided on whether that helped or not.

To protect yourself and also attract more people, I think looking confident is a huge deal. Back straight, head held high, arm held out, smiling, and EYE CONTACT. Eye contact is so important. I'm absolutely certain that I activated people's brakes with only my eyes. And maintaining eye contact till the last possible second. And I never put my arm down until the person was past me.

Location is also huge, if people are zooming by, don't see you till the last second, and there's nowhere to pull over, there's barriers, and hitchiking is illegal, then good luck scoring a lift. Obviously the edge of town is the best place. No one is gonna pick you up in town, it's just too busy, plus most people aren't leaving town, so you're just gonna get discouraged. I'd usually wait at the edge of town beside a good pull-out, but if that wasn't working, and it looked like it wasn't too narrow of a road, I'd just start walking down the highway. I must've covered at least 20km all together doing that. Helps the time pass, you get a workout, and you look determined, but willing to take a ride, regardless of how far the person is going.

Aside from being a female, which is some sketchy ass shit, I think being a young guy is gonna get you picked up the quickest. But you have to look like you've got your shit together. Look somewhat clean and organized and approachable. I had lots of people tell me they don't pick up hitchhikers, but that I looked like a nice guy. I think staying clean-shaven is helpful too, but I just kept my neck shaved. Being my age, as long as you look confident, no perverts are gonna pull you over. Of course, if you do get picked up by a psycho, theres a whole new realm of strategy involved, but I'm not gonna go there, mainly because I didn't experience that. I'll never be sure, but I think that 2-3 females subtly came onto me, but I didn't reciprocate. I think that on average, I probably waited between half to two-thirds as long as the average hitchiker. It was a lot easier than I thought. I've heard of peple waiting 2 days to get a ride, but I only had to wait more than an hour 3 times, and never more than 2 hours.

Common sense would say that you don't want to thumb it on less-travelled roads, because there's less traffic, but I think it's inversely proportional. The more traffic, less chance of getting picked up per 100 vehicles, because no one feels responsible for you. The less traffic, better chances per 100 vehicles. I got picked up relatively easily on Queen Charlottes. Of course, there's a limit. If you're on the edge of town and there's less than 1-2 vehicles every 10 minutes that are leaving town, then it's probably not worth it. That's why I abandoned going to Stewart and Alaska this trip (from Stewart, you walk 3km to Hyder, Alaska).

You'd think you'd be more likely to get a ride in the rain, due to pity, but I don't think this is necessarily true, possibly because people don't want to get their interiors wet.

Truckers can be your best friends, because they're usually going the distance, but lots of trucks aren't allowed to pick-up hitchhkers (although some will anyways) or don't have room (like dump trucks and logging trucks). If the truck looks like it's privately owned, then he's your best bet, but of course, that's tough to tell from a distance.

I've been stoked to count up all the rides I got, in order to figure out the demographics of people that gave me rides. Generall speaking, you're gonna get picked up by people that have hitchhiked before, and you're chances of getting picked up by people over the age of about 60 are very slim. No couples either. Ok, I'm gonna count it up here. Keep in mind these stats could be completely different on the Trans-Canada. I got picked up by a lot of old work/farm trucks, but you wouldn't see that as much on a major highway, me thinks.
I separated ages, younger as looking below about 35 (but usually older than 25, not many young people), older being above 35.

I got 32 rides altogether.
23 were from males, 15 older, 8 younger
9 were from females, 2 older, 7 younger. Notice the reversal in ages from males to females.
1 colored male, 1 native female, 4 native guys.
I was picked up once by two young guys, once by two young girls, once with a young girl with three young kids, once from an older lady with a kid. But generally, my rides came from single occupants.
11 trucks, 11 cars, 4 SUV's (big/small), 3 vans, and 3 semis. Not one ride was from a newer luxury car (think Buick).

My most common rides were from guys older (than 35) males driving big old trucks, but my wildcard was older subarus, lots of them too. But both of these oculd jsut be due to the fact that smaller vehicles couldn't pick me up with my big pack. For every hour I'd get driven, I'd usually spend an hour on the side of the road. I travelled 2700km and thus my average distance gained by each ride was about 85km.

-I finshed my trip by adding Days 13 and 14

No, it's not a bigfoot sighting. This was out at the Giant Cedars on the way to Kinbasket Lake.
















This was up Bluewater Creek with Dani. Cool area back there, the roads have fallen apart, so it'd be cool to see how far back you could get with a bike.

Just the facts please

I just spent a few hours researching the different denominations of Christianity. I'm not nearly ambitious or presumptuous enough to share what I've learned and I'm sure I'll forget it within a few days anyways. Wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, but when you're dealing with the world's largest religion, I guess it's just not gonna be that simple. Just wanted to direct anyone interested towards Religion Facts, it has info on all major faiths of the world and I intend to dive in another time when I have more energy.

Quartz Lake

This was the Quartz Lake trip. Me, Kelly, Devon, Andrew, 2 Wills, Regan, Jesse, Adam, Leanna, Langus. This pic was when I summited a ridge on the first day, solo. Wicked views, of Roger's Pass from here. That little lake in the background is Second/Upper Quartz. There were awesome rock-rolling opportunites up here and I'd stand up top rolling rocks down and the guys back at camp would see them ripping shit up. I try not to roll too many rocks, cuz of the damage done, but I oculdn't resist this time.


This is Lower Quartz. Lots of bouldering opportunites for the climbing enthusiast. This was the second day on the way to Second Quartz. That cliff in the distance is where I am in the next picture. You can click on any of these pics and they zoom in quite a bit if you click again.















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That's Second Quartz down below. It was much clearer (not that Lower Quartz was bad either) and even colder. This was the second day, me and Will Doyle summited the ridge across from that first photo. That's Roger's Pass in the background. Mt Macdonald is the one way back there on the far right, and that may or may not be Mt Sir Donald on the left.












This is magnificent Upper Quartz. After this shot was taken, everyone else left and I went skinny dipping. Rejuvenation is mine!

-Added a link to my rant about the Chrisitan minister. I was referring to what party he probably voted for. If you already read it, here's the link
-I also moved the whole Haida Gwaii post up, so that it stays on the front page. I changed the posting date to the 24th, so that it won't be hard to find, since it's taking me so long to finish it

-Added Day 10 which includes my the weirdest ride I got on the trip

I was able to unpack a bunch of stuff today, so I'm gonna start going through my pictures and figure out which ones to scan from the summer. I'll try to post some tonight.

Met a girl named Tara (my sister had done some work for her mom) today. She's spent a month in India this year, so I wanted to pick her brain a bit. She said Dharamsala was the coolest place she went and she had great things to say about it, so that got me pretty stoked. Told me there's lots of trails going up into the mountains and how it's not burdened to heavily by the tourist scene. She didn't think it'd be covered in snow in the winter and that it's super easy to eat vegetarian there. She seemed like a pretty cool chick. smart. Fuck, I wish I could just go to India right now. I feel like I'm missing my chance or something. Don't get me wrong, I had a great summer in Golden and I certainly haven't been wasting my time lately, it's just that I wanna travel before too long, while I'm still not tied down to anything. Here's a pic of Dharmsala.

Haida Gwaii and Pecan Pie

Well I'm back, rolled into Qualicum Beach last night. Feels good to be back. For those unaware, after I was laid-off from the ski hill, me and Kelly moved out of our suite and planned to go hitchhiking together to the Queen Charlotte Islands (or Haidia Gwaii - Islands of the People - as the locals call it). He didn't end up coming and I departed Golden with most of my belonging and two new tires on Tuesday, October the fourth. What follows is the uncensored (my apologies) reconstructiuon, thanks to the log I kept, of everything that happened between Golden and Qualicum Beach. I am going to develop the 4 rolls of film, but don't expect to see the pics online for at least 10 days. I've organized the account into different days so that you don't have to read it all at once. Click on the maps to enlarge.

Day One:
I made it to Kamloops to late to start hitchiking, so I stayed with Drew, Craig, and Jolene for the night and had some excellent discussions.

My Pack:
Due to the length of the trip, I packed only the bare minimum. Including what I was wearing, I took a t-shirt, a long-sleeve shirt, a hoodie, a shell of a jacket (thanks Michelle), MEC pants (thin, dry fast, second-hand $3), Burton snowpants (second-hand $4), two tuques, 3 pairs of socks, two pairs of boxers, thin shorts, long underwear, and two pairs of those super thin gloves. For camping, I took a sleeping bag (nothing special), tent, inflatable thin mat (thanks Craig), a groundcloth (or makeshift tarp), and a small pillow. You could prolly care less, but I also pack a 1.5L Nalgene bottle, camera, binoculars that I never used, lots of ziploc/grocery/garbage bags, 2 books (Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior and Tom Robbins - Another Roadside Attraction) a towel and cloth, flashlight, a gram of hallucinogenic mushrooms that I never ingested, TP, a marker (for signs), candles, earplugs, and a bunch of small not-worth-mentiong stuff. For food, I took two bags of oatmeal that I'd made up (large oats, dried raisins, currants, cranberries, dates, and blueberries, flax seeds, 12-grain mix, cinnamon, cardomon, dried coconut, granola, and hempseed), big bag of trail mix (nuts, granola, and dried fruit), and a bunch of random dried fruits (like apples, thanks Martina). I took one small pot and a spoon, that's it. I didn't take a stove, so I'd leave the oatmeal to soak over night and by morning it would be delicious muesli. Better than any oatmeal I've ever had. All in all, my pack weighed about 50-55 pounds, not bad for 2 weeks.


Day Two:
Knowing that I would make a circle tour, I had to decide which direction to start. I settled on going through Valemount and coming back through Quesnel. Craig dropped me off heading out of town north towards Barriere and Clearwater on Highway 5 (Yellowhead). This was basically my first hitchiking experience, so at first it felt awkward, but I caught on really fast I think. Waited about twenty minutes with a sign that said "FURTHER" and an old guy in a small older single-cab picked me up. This was one of the most interesting people of the entire trip. We got into deep conversations right away. I told him about the warrior book I was reading and he started probing me, asking me if I considered myself a warrior and so forth, then he basically got me to tell him my entire life story, and then he told me his. He studies lichen (a type of fungi) and lives by himself on 10 acres with no neighbours on the edge of Wells Gray Provincial Park. He described Wells Gray, which sounds awesome and a backpack trip into there is on my To Do list. He told me how he was a loner (you'd have to be to be wearing braces at that age buddy) and an outsider. We talked about his depression and about the medication and meditation that helps him get by. He told me he was a mentor (figure that out) and brings young guys out to his place for a few months at a time (this was the only moment I felt uncomfortable). He told me how he'd flown over Gwaii Haanas (an isolated park on Haida Gwaii, but more on that later). He was a really interesting guy for sure and we got into all sorts of small discussions on everything from drugs to logging to self-development. He told me about a fascinating study that had been done (wish I had more details). Apparently, there were these two tall healthy Douglas Fir trees in the wild with a young Birch that wasn't doing to well growing beside them. They put something in the water to trace what was happening and it was observed that the Douglas Firs were sending the Birch nutrients through subterranean fungal roots, apparently in order to help the Birch tree survive. Crazy! It really was quite enthralling, but of course, all interesting rides must come to an end. He dropped me off in Clearwater, gave me his contact info and left.
I waited in slight rain for a while, with no luck, so I started walking. Altogether I waited about 2 hours for the next ride. A trucker hauling for Superstore picked me up. I had been wary of getting rides from truckers, but then again, they can be a hitchhiker's best friend, cuz they go such long distances. This guy was nice though. I learned about trucking and he told me about how this young girl from a Wal-Mart in Grand Prairie, AB (where he was headed) fucks him sometimes. At one point, he pissed into his piss-bottle after warning me. It may shock some, but I knew that that went on from my days cleaning rest areas, so i didn't care. Apparently, some guys cut holes in there trucks so they can takes shits while their buddy drives, to cut down on stops (and it was supposedly characteristic to a certain ethnicity, but I'm not gonna play that game). The scenery got much better at Blue River with the Monashee Mountains on my right to the east and the Cariboo Mountains on my left to the west. Then at Valemount, the Monashees end, and across the Rocky Mountains trench and and the northern end of Kinbasket Lake rises the... you guessed it. Rocky Mountains. The valley is even wider than the Columbia valley there, it's pretty rad. It's also cool, cuz within a 10km area, you got waters feeding the 3 major rivers in BC, the Thompson, Fraser, and Columbia. The Columbia waters flow into the north end of Kinbasket Lake and make there way down towards Mica Dam. We had been driving up the North Thompson river valley and when I got to Tete-Jaune, I started following the Fraser, as far as I know. The trucker dropped me of at Tete-Jaune, which is the junction of Highway 5 and Highway 16, although both are the Yellowhead Highway. 'Tete-Jaune' means 'Yellowhead' in French. Apparently the legend is that there was a famous half-indian half-caucasian who had blond hair.
Unfortunately I was just around the corner and going the wrong direction to see Mount Robson for the first time. Another trip perhaps. Still the scenery was pretty rad. I started walking down the highway reading my book. Not much traffic, and it took me about an hour and a half to get picked up by two guys returning home from work. After the one guy got dropped off, I talked to the other guy about the area. He dropped me off in McBride at dusk. Quite windy there, which apparently is characteristic of the Fraser Valley there. I waited on the highway udner the lights for about 2 hours, reading, trying to shelter mytself from the wind. It was looking pretty hopeless and I finally decided to give up, so I went to the payphone, checked in with my fam and went to look for a spot to set up camp, as I was about to cross the highway though, another truck pulled into view. I decided I'd focus all my human powers on manifesting a ride. He pulled into the gas station though, so while he fueled up, I focused wholly on him picking me up. Sure enough, as he pulled out of the gas station, he offered me a ride, fancy that. The dude was pretty quiet and we were listnening to his daughters music cuz that's all he had, but there was some mad fiddle/banjo combination that sounded pretty cool. He offered me some beer, so I drank 2 on the long completely void two hour drive to Prince George. Seriously, nothin on the highway at all till just before PG. He kindly drove me to the UNBC campus and dropped me off at 11:30. I found Adam Doyle's dorm and proceeded to relax. Met his multi-natinoal roomates, flipped thru his book collection, then watched Question Period (that legislature show where all the MPs argue that nobody ever watches). Then Adam showed me his pics frmo his year in China. I guess when he was there on exchange, he got the best grades of anyone in the 10 year history of the exchange program. he's in his 4th year of Politcal Science, and next year he's going to UBC for Law. So I'd made it about 6 hours down the road from Kamloops in 12 hours of hitchhiking. That tended to be the general rule. For ever hour of driving, I'd wait an hour for a ride. Sometimes better, usually not worse than that ratio.

Going with the Flow:
Resistance is basically futile when it comes to hitchhiking. I mean sure, you can refuse rides and all that. But I think going with the flow is essential. Being that hitchhiking isn't exactly a locus of control, there's no point being a control freak. I don't drink alcohol or coffee and I seldom smoke weed these days, but I didn't want to offend whoever was offering. So I'd drink beer and coffee, or smoke weed if it was offered. Might as well bond with someone while I had the chance, since I'd never see them again, in all likelihood. It didn't make to too comfy when the drivers were drinking, but nobody I got in with was visibly drunk, if that's any consolation. But riding the wave doesn't stop at heeding offers. In order to be effective and efficient and safe, I had to constantly be aware of my surroundings and follow up on all coincidences. For example, trusting my gut and waiting for that last truck out of McBride paid off big time. Instincts are honed on the road, no doubt about it. I think it's best to view everything as happening for a reason when you travelling in these circumstances. Lingering or second-guessing gets you left behind, and I mean that on many levels.

Day 3:
I chose to stay a full day on the UNBC campus to explore. Dorms there are pretty pricey, you share a quad, yet you pay 500 bucks, utilities included. That seems outrageous to me. But if you have a meal plan card, food is relatively reasonable, although the caf is closed on weekends (or maybe just sundays) and the grocery store is probably an hour walk. Buses don't run past 9:30 and not on Sundays. I didn't like the lack of freedom in that respect. There was the pub too, but yeah. All non-teaching employees at the university are paid pretty weak wages, in my opinion. Fully trained ex-military Level 3 security guards make $12/hr and they have no work in the summer. But they have it the best. Weak shit. Also, there was significant corporate sponsorhip that was higly visible (Pepsi, CanFor, etc). Otherwise though, UNBC gets respect from me. My year at UCC in Kamloops left me jaded and disillusioned with the post-secondary education establishment, as you'll probably notice if you look in the archives of this blog. And while my tour and experience at UNBC is obviously rushed and shallow, I was still impressed. Beautiful campus, away from the black hole of doom that is the rest of Prince George. Composting, public info clubs, organic food delivery, 3 floor library. Talked to the guy at the public info room. Basically a social justice club similar to the one I'd be a part of in Kamloops, I had a good talk with the guy and they even had their own mini-library that was worthy of respect and covered all the major topics du jour. He invited me to their movie night and I graciously accepted.
I attended an International Studies third year course with Adam and had fun. It was so weird being back in a classroom observing all the dynamics. The guy that won't shut up, people that never have the answers, etc. The prof was good though and I enjoyed the lecture. At one point, we were discussing where in the world a new Renaissance might be taking place. The internet, China, and California were all suggested, and although I may have been out of line (since I was passing thru), I decided to add my own suggestion to the pot. I suggested that in third-world intercity slums and shantytowns, and new socieaty was emerging, exiled from the outside world. Contrary to globalization, these cities, being so paradoxally isolated, thrived on local economic systems and such. Everything was on a face-to-face basis and creativity has been shown to be thriving in places like Rio and such. There was some expected resistance to my suggestion, but I backed it up and the prof showed genuine approval. I had been so nervous during my mini-presentation that my hands were almost numb. I don't get to speak in public enough these days. Apparently the next time the prof saw Adam, he asked about me and expressed disappointment that I was just passing through. honestly, it felt pretty cool and stimulating to be back on a campus, and I'd like to do it again sometime. Maybe stay with Kean and attend some UVic classes, for example.
Adam, being student president of the Political Sciences faculty, had to go to some meetings, so I ducked out to attend movie night. They were showing two movies about the proposed (thanks Dubya, you virile cunt) oil-drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. The first movie ("Oil on Ice") was a typical documentary about the controversy expressing the concerns about the native people in the area who were dependant upon Cariboo migrations that would allegedly be gravely disturbed if they started drilling for oil. The second movie ("Being Caribou") was about this couple from Canmore, who followed the Caribou herds for half a year from Yukon to their calfing (birth) gorunds along the northern Alaska coast where the drilling is proposed. A beautiful movie, showing at one point, a view of thousands and thousands of caribou migrating. Very down-to-earth movie that spoke for itself, and I'd highly reccommend it. After the movie, I talked to a guy from the Queen Charlottes that imparted some local knowledge and expressed bewilderment that I was travelling there during the fall (foreshadowing). Me and Adam watched Question Period again and discussed politics.

Groceries:
Since I didn't want to have to get a driver to pull over for me to shit or piss, I kept food and liquid intake to a minimum. I found that if I ate small meals, I would get hungry, but it would pass and I could get by on about a third of my normal intake, wheras, if I ate a big meal early in the morning, I'd have to sustain normal intake throughout the rest of the day. Since fresh food was too heavy, I'd usually buy some fruit whenever I got to a grocery store, although the organic selection was less than desireable so I often went days without fresh fruit and veggies. However, I'd steal copiously from the bulk bins and chug those Boathouse or Pom drinks then ditch the bottle, and other such tacts. Thus, I was able to keep my average expenses to below 10 dollars a day, including my ferry tickets. Like I said before, restistance was often futile, so i had to break the vegan trend and take what I was given (or stolen, heh heh). I think my lowest moment was consuming 6 consecutive donuts from Tim Hortons.














Day 4 (first day of the teacher strike I think):
It took me 5 rides to make it 2 hours from PG to Burns Lake. The 4th ride was cool though. My first ride from the fairer gender, an early 30's decent-lookin girl in a big Ford picked me up and took me to Vanderhoof (halway from PG to Burns Lake). She was hungover and tired from the previous nights Collective Soul concert, but I felt really comfortable with her. We talked about the logging indsutry, which was a very popular topic the whole trip.
She worked at a mill, so she had some interesting things to say. Logging roads can go for over 600km. Jinkies! But it's funny, cuz since it's relatively flat out there, once you're far enough from the highway so that you can't hear it, there's no point going any further, cuz it's all the same. Contrasting sharply with Golden, where the farth you go on logging roads, the higher you get, and the crazier shit you see. Plus unlike the Interior Plateau region, logging roads in valleys like the Columbia valley rarely connect to another road, they always go up side valleys and such, whereas you could drive for a week around PG without hitting the same ground twice. It's funny, everyone from the bottom of BC calls it Northern BC, and that's what the NBC of UNBC stands for. Yet until you get to around Smithers and Hazelton, you're still in the Southern half of BC. I covered a lot of ground in the past two weeks, but I barely scratched the surface of the truly northern half of the province. Of course, like I said, a lot of it seems to be identical to the next part, until you get to the Coast Mountains.
I'm sure by now, everyone's aware of the pine beetle problem plaguing the province, thanks to global warming (we need cold-ass winters to kill the buggers). Personall, I expected to see more widespread devastation, but ike I said, it's pretty flat up there (not prairies mind you, just small rolling hills), so I'm sure if I'd be in a helicopter, I'd be telling a different tale. Anyways, this girl, Victoria, tells me that sometimes, when a swarm of these beetles takes off, it shows up on the airport radar. HOLY FUCK! We smoked a doob on the ride, and she dropped me off on the other side of Vanderhoof, where I met the first other hitchhiker of my journey. A friendly young Swiss fellow who I later realized, was going in the wrong direction. He was going for Ft St John. Poor guy. I'd been lucky with the weather so far, and the luck continued. I watched three separate (you can see a lot when there's no mountains, which makes for better amateur weather-interpreatations on teh sides of the road) showers pass me by on all sides and a rainbow, while I was in the sun. Hitchin in the sun is so nice and chill. No hurry at all. Gloomy days can be iffy, but not till you get rained on or darkness falls, does it add a sense of urgency.
My next ride (the one that got me to Burns Lake) was from a rancher who lived ona 1200acre piece of land. That's unheard of in the southernmost part of the province, as far as I know. That's huge! It turns out his son had been mauled by a grizzly in September and we were talking about it, when I realised that I had read about it, front page, in a newspaper weeks prior. That was trippy. I remembered it wuite well too. And later on my trip, I came across another paper with this guy on the the front page, this time with his son in a hospital, as he recovered from the attack. So we talked about all the details of the fateful and other wildlife stuff. Sounds like there's way higher numbers of everything up there (except for exclusively mountain animals, like goats and sheep). More wolves, caribou, wolverines, grizllies, black bears, and cougars, oh my! This guy had worked on Haida Gwaii logging what is now Gwaii Haanas, during the highly televised, but before our time, controversy. He was a really nice, chill guy. I was starting to gain respect for what we'd call rednecks and hicks. We had an interesting talk about perspectives. Being a rancher, he likes flat open land, so he can watch his cattle and doesn't care much for mountains, whereas I'm the exact opposite.
After having played leep-frog somehow (thanks to my multiple rides), a girl, after passing me for the third time, finally picked me up, when I was in Burns Lake. She was going to UNBC for hairdressing. WE talked a lot,a nd she gave me a good tour of the sites, as we passed by Smithers (nice looking town, best surroundings up till that point coming from PG) and their ski hill which is apparently being bought and expanded by Whistler (it's called Hudson Bay Mountain and I hear good things about it). She showed me this sweet little canyon and falls just off the highway and smoked a joint with me. Like Victoria, she came onto me very subtly, but even mroe subtly, I evaded (ok, maybe I don't ALWAYS go with the flow, not to self). The area around Houston and Smithers and onwards to Terrace has a very high proportion of deciduous trees and unlike the windy Fraser Valley, where the leaves had all fallen, this area was peaking in color and even where there weren't mountains to gaze at, it was still spectacular. Autumn is such an underappreciated season. Then we got to her hometown of Hazelton, where the tri-city twns (Old Hazelton, New Hazelton, and Southtown) aren't that nice looking, but the area is very nice. Decent mountains all around, but the one mountian, Rush of the Bull, is AWESOME. Apparently, the legend is that the mountain will collapse one day and destroy the town. And in addition to all the lovely fall colors, they also have the Hagwilget Bridge crossing 200 feet above the Bulkley River and canyon, that is really cool to see. I'd love to have gotten a pic of the mountain looking up the canyon. By the time she dropped me of (and gave me 10 bucks for no reason), it was dark. Right away, some locals that were driving by, informed me that they'd jsut seen a cougar cross the road and they didn't seem to be joking. So instead of trying my luck on the higway, or setting up camp in an old barn across the road, I decided to camp in civilization for the night, so I walked into town and a lady let me stay for free in her campground for the night. This was the first night that I actually had to camp, but it wasn't too cold out at all. Started raining though right after I got set up. In the middle of the night, though, I woke up from a growling. No, it wasn't the cougar. It was my stomach. And it needed to ditch some passengers. The lady had told me that the bathrooms were shut down. They were people camping besides me, it was raining, and I really had no choice. sigh. So I stayed in my tent and shit in ziploc bags (plural). Heh heh. I'll never forget that. Anyways, moving on....

Logging:
Although their are differences such as visibility, the central BC logging industry is fairly similar to here in the south, except they don't have tourism to rely on as a backup. Livelihoods rely on the indsutry and it's been past it's prime for a while now. The pine beetle issue has changed that, however short-term or temporary, though. Most people think we should log all the pine beetle instead of new forests, which is a fair position, I suppose. I'm undecided yet on what course of action, regarding the dead pine, that should be taken. There's many small considerations, like this neat fact: When a tree is being attacked by a bug, it releases scents in the air that are somehow sensed (smelled?) by the other trees notifying them to start producing chemicals to help ward of the bugs. Usually it's a futile effort, but it's still pretty cool. However, a consequence of this action leaves the wood of dead pine tinted blue, which affects who is willing to buy it (the Japanese won't, for whatever reason). I'm gonna talk to my mom about the whole issue (being that she's a proffesional forester) before I come to an opinion. I didn't talk to many people who expressed overwhelming sympathy for the logging industry (except that first driver that took me to Clearwater, he's actually writing a book against logging). Most people place the economy on higher priority. Usually, they don't actually use the E word, they simply talk in terms of 'jobs'. I grew more sympathetic to their position as time went on. There's really not much keeping this area going except logging on fishing (more on the coast than the interior though). Of course, I'm not suggesting they halt logging, but at the same time, we can't continue on our present pace forever. People speak of logging being sustainable, but we're a long way from that, in my opinion. A tree farm is not a forest, I can't stress that enough.

Day 5:
I got a ride pretty quick from a local native lady and her young son. She was quite put off when I told her I didn't eat fish. My next ride was from a Mark Jackson, who used to live south of Golden. Apparently he's related to Brandon Ryter. he took me to the edge of his town so I could head north. I'd decided that since I had a few days to make the ferry (there's only 3 sailings per week), that I would make some side trips, to Stewart and then Kitimat. Stewart is supposed to be gorgeous, isolated and rugged, right on the border with Alaska, and a few km from Hyder, a tiny Alaskan town. Hyder isn't connected to the rest of the state though, just a bunch of logging roads, which would be pretty cool to explore if you could get high up. I waite3d for a while, but it was pretty dead heading north, so I aborted that plan when mark came back to check on me, and I continued west to Terrace, which at about 20,000 is the biggest settlement west of PG. Mark has the same truck as my dad, with the same dents and problems with the speedometer, so I felt right at home. The drive was ripe with autumn colors and we passed Seven Sisters, probably the coolest mountain I saw on my hitchiking trip. Literally, seven jagged peaks. I hope the pics turn out. Mark told me about the mushroom picking that goes on. On Haida Gwaii and the coast, mushroom pickers flock to the areas from sept-oct to make some bucks, some people even make their whole years earnings doing this. Pine mushrooms are the big prize near the coast, but they're tough to find, cuz they're usually hiding under moss. The big mushroom on QCI is Chanterelles. I considered trying my luck, but I decided against it, sicne I dind't even know at the time what these mushrooms looked like, nor did I know the area. Another time perhaps. Mark also pointed out Balsam, Cottonwood (HUGE!), and Hemlocks so that I'd know what I was looking at. Coast trees are so much bushier than their inland brethren. The transition to coastal forests from Hazelton to Terrace was awesome. Needless to say, it was much more humid. Much more cedar and other evergreens, but still lots of deciduous.He dropped me off heading south to Kitimat. I'd been thinking about the demographics of drivers I'd been picked up by so far. I figured the least likely ride I'd get would be a mother with kids in a new van. Guess who picked me up next? Trippy. She was from Campbell River, so we talked about Vancouver Island and I picked her brain about Kitimat. Kitimat reminds me a lot of Port Alberni, but it smells like pulp and for some reason, isn't right on the inlet, so it doesn't seem like you're on the ocean at all. I went to the public library after eating, and checked out maps, used the internet to send out emails and read about QCI. I was contemplating staying in Kitimat for the night, but I kept getting warned about how many bears there were. I walked quite a ways through town to check out the giant Sitka Spruce trees they had, but when I got there, there was only two trees, haha. I was hoping to score some shelter under them. but more likely, a branch the size of may body would've crushed me during the night. What a romantic way to die. So walked through town and up their hill (think Golden hill) and scored a ride from a guy that worked at the infamous AlCan smelter plant there. He had the the most shallow and naive perspective on logging. He didn't see any negative effects to it, in fact, he thought logging was great. He made no distinctions between real forests and tree fams, "they're all trees to me!". Fool. I got to Terrace and pitched my tent under the bridge (the Skeena River is BIG). This kept me dry despite a rainy night, but

Day 6:
The next morning I had to walk for about 2 hours in the rain through town and made it quite a ways down the highway, before a female dietician picked me up. So naturally, being a vegan gave us lots to talk about. But the best part of that ride was the views. WOW. Seriously, it was unreal. Very steep hills with rock faces collected all the rain and it would practically flash flood and cascade down the faces. Gorgeous pumping waterfalls too numerous too count. I could see the tops of the hills, so i didn't know whether they were mountains or not, so I decided to take pictures on the return trip (bad call, as you'll find out later). The other cool thing was that the Skeena river widened right out way before it made it to the ocean, so it looked like we were driving down the inlet of sea-water, but it was green (cuz it was just the Skeena). Very wide, musta been several km across, and not all one channel, not a bunch of small ones (like I said, BIG river). It was definately one of the higlights of the trip, seeing all the falls made me think I was back in the Sullivan River valley (RIP) back near Golden. When she dropped me off in Prince River, the rain had stopped, which is amazing, consdering that Prince Rupert is the cloudiest place in Canada, and rain is almost always present. PR is a neat little town, the houses are pretty neat and the view of the ocean (well, of the bay) was really cool. Lots of small islands, which is my favorite ocean scenery. I walked into Safeway and right away, a young guy (older than me, though) approached me like he knew me and asked about my pack (remember I have a big pack with my tent, sleeping bag, and mat warpped in garbage bags, tied to the outside). I told him I was hitchin to QCI and he told me all the thigns to check out there. Really friendly guy, got me stoked. The ferry didn't leave until 11pm so I had lots of time to kill. I went down by the water and took shelter from the scattered showers (the weather was improving though), admired the view and read for a while. I walked all he way to the ferry at about 6:30 and waited there for the rest of the evening. As I was chilling out and waiting, a young guy walks in and goes to the phone, I notice he's got a booklet under his arm that has some familiar letters on it and I decide to follow a hunch (always a good idea). Turns out I was right, the book he was holding was actually a WWOOF directory.

Educational Interruption:
Willing Workers on Organic Farms is an organization that helps connect volunteers and farms. Basicaly you work a predetermined number of horus a week and in return, you get room in board. In other words, no expenses, no payment, just work and you'll be taken care of. This is a worldwide organization, which I know about because I'm highly considering volunteering on a WWOOF farm in India when I go. It's the cheapest way to extend a trip when cash runs low, or a great place to start, in order to learn the language and customs of a country without the risks.

I start talking to the guy and he tells me that he's going to work/volunteer on a farm in Port Clements. Very quickly, I realise that this would be an excellent opportunity for me and I start getting really stoked. SHELTER!! SO he lends me his directory (normally you have to pay about 30 bucks to be a member) and of the 6 or so farms on QCI, one of them was looking for help. SCORE! So I arrange to show up on Tuesday (the overnight sailing would deposit me on the islands at dawn on monday). This was insurance for me, so I was able to really relax, knowing that I wouldn't have to battle the elements the whole time I was there. We boarded the ferry, which is considerably smaller than the Vancouver Island ferries, but not tiny by any means. Since it's a night sailing (6-7 hours across, about 130km), the lights are down low and everyone just rolls out their sleeping bags and mats and sleep. At one point during the night, I walked out onto the decks. it was pretty cool to look around in total darkness and not be able to see anything. The sailing was rougher than the Vancouver Island sailings, but apparently it can be MUCH MUCH worse.

Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii:


































Haida Gwaii is an archipelago of hundreds, but the main two islands are Graham, which is the larger northern island, and Moresby, to the South. The vast majority of inhabitants live on Graham Island. Aside from Sandspit, all the major communites are on Graham Island.

Populations:
Masset - 1900 (600 of which are from the enarby Old Masset, a Haida community)
Port Clements - 600
Tlell (pronounced Tuh-Lell)- 400
Skidegate (that middle 'e' pronouced like the 'i' in 'spit', Skid-i-git), - 700
Sandspit (Moresby) - 600

The ferry Arrives at Skidegate, and to the west is Queen Charlotte City and from there, via logging roads you can access, thru the mountains, Rennel Sound, the only road-accesible west coast beach on Haida Gwaii. Being that it's on the west coast, it gets way more rain than the east coast, so it is home to some of the largest trees. One tree reportedly takes 22 people linking arms to make it around!! North of Skidegate along the east coast about 30 min is Tlell, then the highway leaves the coast and goes to Port Clements, along the boundary of Naikoon Provincial Park. Port Clements is on the Masset inlet, and another 30 minutes will land you in Masset, on the north coast. From there, you can go to Tow Hill (the best viewpoint in the area) and onwards to Rose Spit, which according to the Haida, is the center of the universe.
The islands are the former home of two extremely rare anomalies, that are both dead now. An albino raven and the Golden Spruce (the only one in the world). I find it a crazy coincidence that there were two such rarities on the same island, especially when the raven is so central to Haida culture.
Voted the best park in North America(!), Gwaii Haanas, is the massive park that covers the southern half of Moresby Island. Accesible only by boat or plane, it's probably one of the least visited too. Hot Springs Island is the most obvious attraction, but the ruggedness of the coast must make for one hell of a kayaking trip. My ambition one day is to hike up Mount Moresby (about 1200m, highest point on the islands) to gain a view of the park.

Day 7:
The ferry arrived at 5:30 in the morning and I still hadn't made up my mind where to go, so I just started walking down the highway to nearby Skidegate (the ferry lands about 1.5km away). I sat on a bench and admired some smaller islands as dawn arrived. That was pretty awesome. I walked into town and it was dead. Nothing and no one was out. Probably because it was Thanksgiving Day. After taking shelter from a small burst of rain, I started walking around again and some native lady on her balcony called out to me asking me if I wanted some coffee. Of course, I didn't, but who am I to refuse? We had a nice chat about the islands, and I decided that while it may be tough getting a ride, I should try to make it out to Rennell Sound. I started walking back down the road, and decided first, to do a short hike. Took me about an hour and a half to do the Spirit Lakes circuit. It was a lovely introduction to the forests and I was the only one around, so it was cool. I caught a ride pretty quickly to Queen Charlotte City and got a view of Sleeping Beauty, which is a mountain that resembles a chick laying down. It'd be a cool hike someday. But it was obvious there was no traffic heading out to Rennell, so I turned around again and caught a ride just north of Skidegate. I walked along the beach a bit, then hit the highway. Took me a while to get a ride, but I finally did. Hestops to let me fill up my water at St Mary Springs. There's hardly any drinkable water on the islands and the well water is a little funky (iron manganese and orange tannins), so this was by far the best water. Also, legend has it that once you drink from the springs, you're destined to return to Haida Gwaii. After, we stopped off at his place and he showed me how to identify Liberty Caps (psilocybe seminlaceata), a notoriously potent hallucenogenic mushroom. He dropped me off at a cafe in Tlell, which is basically the only building that isn't a house, besides the post office and firehall, which are in the same building, haha, and a new small grocery store (very small). I had some overpriced chili. Everything costs twice as much on QCI, gas was about $1.25/L. While I was eating, a journalist showed up and started talking to the owner. He mentioned that he was writing numerous articles on Haida Gwaii, so I interjected and jokingly asked if he was doing anything on hitchhikers. We chatted a bit and he offered me a ride up to Masset, so I took him up on it. Sounds like he's a decent writer. He takes a lot of time for each project, he'll research and read all sorts of books on a subject (like QCI) before going there to write the articles. He's written on the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, and his next article is gonna be on the separatist movement in Quebec. Personally, I found him to be harbouring a bit thick of an ego for my liking, but I got all sorts of info from him and we had some good talks. We drove to a bunch of places that he wanted to write about in his article, then went to Masset where he interviewed some bigtime Haida artist. I stayed outside and finished my first book, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. I watched the weather for a while, but couldn't figure out what it was gonna do, so instead of trying my luck and heading for Tow Hill, I caught a ride back to Tlell with the writer. He told me to write my name on a piece of paper and a summary of why i'm hitchhiking and this is what I wrote for him:
"Hitchhiking has honed my instincts. I've had to follow my hunches, chase coincidences, take chances, and be mindful of my surroundings. It's been a beautifully paradoxal hybrid of rolling the dice and manifesting destiny. To put it mildly, it makes for a nice break in routine."
He told me he'd put in in all of his articles if his editor let him, but these the magazines Gam on Yachting, Crusing World, and Wavelength Paddling, so I'll probably never even get to see if he put me in or not. We talked about the conflict between the Haida, loggers, environmentaliosts, and the Ministry of Forests, and it's a lot more complex than you'd think. Many of the Haida believe they should be in charge of the logging so that they see the profits, the loggers just want jobs, the Ministry thinks it's best experienced at managing the forests (which in all fairness is probably true, unfortunately), and the greens want what greens always want. Anyways, it was interesting stuff to think about. Oh by the way, here's the writer's website.
He dropped me off at this campground where I thought I might stay. I walked down the road to it, expecting it to be on the ocean, but it wasn't. It was very pretty, but it was empty, and I just didn't quite feel comfortable camping alone, cuz I didn't know enough about the local bears yet. They're the largest species of black bears in the world, from what I'm told. But I probably had nothign to worry about, cuz they've managed to be lucky enough not to become garbage bears, so they stay away from humans, unless you reak like fish guts, plus being the season it is, they have all they could eat from the salmon anyways. But I didn't know thus at the time, and when I heard something large rustling in the bushes, I didn't stick around to stay 'hi'. I walked back to the highway and down to the Warden Office, which i assumed would be empty due to the season and holidays, but there was a guy staying in the back, so I knocked and asked him if I could set up my tent under the covered balcony to give me some shelter and he said 'no'. Happy Thanksgiving, dick. so I hitched a ride to the organic farm and decided that I might as well try my luck, even though I was a day early. Local girls picked me up and told me that the family that ran the farm has a cabin that they'd probably let me stay in. So I got to the farm, and they had just finished thanksgiving dinner, so i felt like I was intruding, but I asked anyways and they let me and also offered me some leftovers. So I stocked up and proceeded to the cabin. A lone building on the edge of the property, the highway being the only thing between the cabin and the ocean, affording me an awesome, unobstructed view of the water from upstairs. No electricity, no running water. At first, it was kinda creepy, cuz I ahd to light candles just to see, but I got used to it and it was actually pretty fuckin cool. Whereas it was dark at about 6:45, it was dark here at about 8. It was awesome to hear the waves crashing on the shore, and I think that was one of the main factors, aside from the sheer novelty of it all, that helped send me into a very deep meditation in the blink of an eye. I haven't gone that deep in a while, and it was almost nostlagic. Plus the fact that it came about so quickly. Very cool. Then the storm started....

Day 8:
I was awakened early in the morning before daylight by the unstoppable duo of wind and rain. I could actually feel the cabin move from the wind, and the rain was blowing sideways so hard that it managed to be coming down the chimnney. I didn't get much sleep after that, but it was pretty cool. All I could think about was how lucky I was to have asked the guy at the ferry to borrow his WWOOF directory, or I'd be one miserable son of a bitch. And I'd wanted to camp on the beach. I was so naive coming this time of year and expecting to camp. Praise Allah for four walls and a ceiling. It stormed all day as I got a tour around the ranch. Winds got up to around 80km/hr and my so-called rainjacket that I'd waterproofed (thanks Michelle) was drenched just walking from one building to another. I helped a guy organize a shed, then we worked on his bus that he was turning into a restaurant. I did some carpentry, which apprently, I'm embarassingly bad at. I caught on though. We had some great talks all day about the forestry industry and other aspects of island life. We compared karate to Aikido (think Tai Chi meets self-defense). I wanted to check out an Aikido and Tai Chi class, but it never worked out. Evening came, the storm died, and I moved all my stuff into the house and into a private room. I waslked to the beach at twilight to watch the waves, which are huge after storms. It was nuts. Felt really authentic, that was my word of the week for the Charlottes. Eerily authentic. Waves as tall as me, it was so powerful tranquil. The man of the household is retired and on disability, so he doesn't do much, but he plays lots of video games, and at night, I could hear him playing Zelda 64 below me. That put me in the strangest mindstate. While I looked through their library of books, I saw that second newspaper with that guy on it whose kid was attacked by the Grizzly. Trippy. The lady of the house is a principal, so we discussed the teacher's strike for quite a while.

Racism:
Heading north from Kamloops, I expected to encounter racism, due to the fact that the native population is much higher as you head north. I didn't encounter anything too blatant, but it was clear that racism was in the air. There's many different tribes/bands though and racism is occasionally confined to certain bands. It bothered me, but then again, I guess it's really nothing new, it's a fact of life, which isn't an excuse of course, but it probablly isn't going away any time soon. I didn't hear anything too derogatory though, thankfully. Lots of reserves. Most of the ones I saw weren't as depressing as I'd envisioned, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Maybe this isn't the best spot to state this, but fuck it. I found it very hard to distinguish the Haida from the Caucasians on Haida Gwaii. The Haida have much lighter skin than you'd expedct, and they seem more Oriental too. Nothign too distinctive, in fact, most Haida looked like there were only half-Haida, which they probably weren't. Took me a few days on the island to realize that many people I saw were Haida. The lady I was staying with said about 60% of the kids at school in Queen Charlotte City are Haida, which I would never have guessed.

Day 8:
Not much happened this day. Wish I could've worked in the garden, but the dice didn't roll that way. I did more carpentry. Only highlight was taking a break and riding a scooter (max 60km/hr) to the springs to fill up my water bottle. I was doing a lot of thinking about how long to stay on the island and where I wanted to go. I still wanted to make it to Stewart, and I would've loved to have made a detour at William's Lake on the way back, and going all the way out to Bella Coola and seeing Tweedsmuir (largest provincial park in BC). But I knew it'd be getting colder on the mainland and rainier, so it'd probably be best to just head straight for Kamloops. After reviewing the ferry schedule, I realized I'd made a wrong assumption, so that I had the choice of either leaving the next day or a week and a day. I could've left other times, but I wanted to take the night sailing in order to be bale to hitchhike with a full day ahead of me, instead of one hour of daylight.

Day 9:
Apparently on the west coast of Haida Gwaii, garbage and other matter often washes ashore from Japan. The people I was staying with had found a Japanese hardhat, funny little thing. Makes you realize how small of a world it is. Pristine coast, edge of the western world, beautiful rainforests, tons of cultural history, and oriental soda bottles. weird.
I started packing then went for a hike that was just down the road from where I was staying. The trail is a loop that goes by a huge jam (like MASSIVE), but I imagine that the main attraction is just the forest you walk through (no elevation gain). You pass through numerous types of forest and vegetation before you get to the old growth forest. Such a cool place, this is why I'd come 1000km and taken a 6hr ferry ride. Nothing but trees, moss, and mushrooms, on the ground level, because not much else can grow when the canopy is blocking so much light. Such an awesome area. I could just sit in there all day, high on life (or other things), but I had to make it back to the farm, so i tried to keep a decent pace. I started spotting what I thought were Liberty Caps, so I picked a bunch, as well of one of every other kind of mushroom. Mushroom picking is fun stuff. I had a ton of fun walking through the forest, but eventually the trail disappears into the river, so I started following these ribbons, and eventually I'm stuck in Slall (big leafy bush with berries) that's as tall as me, and there's no trail anywhere. Suddenly I realize how much easier it is to lose any sense of direction when you're not on the side of a hill (like around Golden). I bushwhack for a while, kinda worried, kidna having a blast, then it starts raining.Thankfully, and I cannot stress how lucky I was, there was no thornbushes or anything prickly, or I'd have been bloody miserable, literally. It took me about 20 minutes to find a trail again, and I'd totally lost all sense of direction by then, so I had no idea how much further I had to go. I past the log jam, which helped me orient myself, then I decided to take this branch of the trail, labelled 'CMT', out of curiosity. I later found out that CMT stands for Culturally Modified Tree. The trail was leading to a tree that the Haida had started to carve while it was still growing, with the goal of it becoming a canoe. I might be wrong, maybe it wasn't alive and maybe it was for a canoe, but either way, it was unfinished. Regardless, I never made it, cuz I got lost again. Must be this time of the year, when the bushes grow so rampant that it covers the trail. It took me another 15 minutes to figure my shit out again, and I was soaked by now. After I found the trail again, I stuck to it and found my way out to the highway . Very awesome place though, I can't imagine what the west coast forests are like. So that was the only noteworthy thing I got to do while I was on the islands. I didn't make it to Tow Hill, into Naikoon Park, out to Rennell Sound, or to Moresby Island. But that's ok, cuz I definately plan on coming back and doing a bike trip. The sialnds would be so cool on a bike with a buddy, and I could take the ferry from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island too.
When I got back to the farm, I sorted my mushrooms and tossed out most of them because they were too mushy (HA, get it?). I finished packing and started hitchiking, trying to make to Queen Charlotte City in time to meet the guy I was working with and check out an Aikido class, but it took me too long to get picked up. I got picked up by a nice, but very fat, guy from Vancouver who came up and done some kayaking down the west coast of Moresby, so he was cool too talk to. He was a loner too, so he'd done the kayaking by himself, which I found to be quite impressive, and not just cuz he was such a big guy. After realizing I'd missed Aikido and seeing that the library was closed (libraries have the weirdest hours and the one there has the exact opposite days as Golden's branch). As trivial as it sounds, i found it interesting that the QC Library is part of the Vancouver Island Library system, which is a long long ways away (15hr ferry ride to Prince Rupert, then the 6hrs from Rupert to Skidegate). I caught a ride from a lady to the ferry, where I ran into these three young people from the Czech Republic that I'd seen at the Prince Rupert Sailing, so I talked to them a bit about theuy're travels. Then I might these two nice mushroom pickers from Quebec. They'd been out at camp for about 6 weeks picking mushrooms, so they weren't exactly models of human hygiene. I shoed them the mushrooms I'd picked, but tehy told me they weren't the right ones, so I tossed them out. They had their packs full of dried mushrooms, legal and other. We talked all ab out hitchhiking, and they shared they're horror stories with me. We talked about always having a knife easily accesible for protection (I could have my blade open in my hand in about half a second), but the one guy told me how he doesn't do that (keep a knife for defense) anymore because he believes that it attracts negative energy. Of course, that depends very much on your own beliefs, but I dug what he was saying, so I put my knife in my pack. They told me about catching rides on coal trains. They said never to go from Prince George to Dawson Creek (or was it Fort Dawson or Fort Nelson, whatever) because there's sucha long tunnel that you'll die of suffocation. He said the conductors wear gas masks when they go through it. I walked around looking for someone to ask for a ride heading east towards Prince George from Prince Rupert after we got off the ferry on the other side, and the first and only guy i asked was another Quebecois, but he'd been living in Golden. Name was Francoise and he'd been working up Chatter Creek, probably doing some sort of logging. He said he'd try to give me a ride, so I was stoked. The ride back on the ferry was uneventful and wasn't a rough ride at all.

Day 10:
Francois gave me a ride from the ferry. I had my camera ready to capture the waterfalls this time, but they were nearly non-existent since it wasn't raining. There were perhaps one or two trickles, but nothing close to what was there before.. The drive was so much different this time. Still nice though. We stopped to see Mt Shames, Terrace's ski hill. I don't know if I believe it, but I was told it gets the most snow in the world for a ski hill. Looked pretty small though, so maybe there was a backside to it. Nice location, very scenic.

Francois dropped me off in Terrace because he had lots of stuff to do there. A teacher gave me a ride to the edge of town, and I expressed my solidarity with the strike and got the latest news from him. After he dropped me off, I decided that I'd make a new sign that said "I SUPPORT BC TEACHERS" as soon as I could get some new cardboard. My next ride was probably the weirdest of the whole trip. A Christian Minister picked me up and right away we started talking about religion. I wanted to pick his brain, not so much to try to poke holes, just as reconnaissance, so to speak. He wouldn't answer me when I asked what denomination he was part of. He did tell me that he had organized a church youth rally that evening in Smithers and that there's were youth coming from as far as Kamloops. He said it was sort've an anti-terrorism thing (oh boy, I start to think). He didn't really explain how it was anti-terrorism, but that they were gonna go around town performing radical acts of kindness, such as, and this is the example he gave: handing out cans of coke. Maybe some of you won't catch the irony there and I don't feeling like expanding, but lets just say I started to wonder how daft this guy really was. He invited me to take part and that all the youth were staying out at his ranch at night, so I told him if I couldn't catch a ride out of Smithers by dusk, I'd call him. When asked about my faith, I told him I was interested in learning about all faiths, but that currently, I was quite interested in Zen and Buddhism. Then he starts a mini-rant on so-called 'mysticism' and how it's so vague and doesn't offer any concrete answers. ok, let's hit the 'pause' button here (apologies to Tara if you're reading for the blatant plagiarism)

First of all, mysticism is an umbrella-term that basically means putting faith over reason/logic. so basically, buddy here is just bashing himself. all religions put faith over reason. that's not a judgment, it's a fact. and it's not a bad thing either, faith and reason can't come hand in hand.

Second, I never said I'm into mysticism, I said I'm into Zen and Buddhism, I don't see what's so vague about that. And if you don't see the concrete answers, that's because you haven't even attempted to educate yourself on either of those systems. Dickhead.

'unpause'

He continues to subtly bash eastern religion throughout the rest of the ride. Mentions how he likes things that are black and white, yet when I ask him about Jesus stance on non-violence, he says, 'well it depends on the situation'. And I'm not even TRYING to test this guy. Brutal. He talks about how the life of Jesus is the most documented event in history and how the bible is really a history book and that it's very consistent. So if it's the most documented event... fuck it, not even gonna start.

It was pretty obvious from the start, that this guy was very out-of-touch with the world, very conservative and all sorts of things that made him not come across very well. If I had been more sensitive, or a stronger believer in any particular religion, I would've been deeply offended by his ignorance and choice words. He'd babble on about something Jesus said without really getting the message across and he'd take various other opportunities to preach. Clearly, he was pretty Evangelical, if not in name, than at least in style.

Twice he said stuff very controversial (and preceded the statements with "and this might not sound politically correct). One of the statements was basically saying that Israel should destroy Palestine, that Palestinians are being punished by god, etc. Sure buddy, and next we should finish off those Commie pigs too. Nazi fuck. His other statement had to do with how the most powerful and prosperous nations have been Christian (I'd love to see his fact-book, cuz I'm pretty sure they forgot to check out a little-known fellow called GENGHIS FUCKING KHAN). He also went off about how all the laws that we know evolved from the bible and how we the church and state need to be reunited. Gee, I wonder you he VOTED for (click it, come on, do it).

Despite this guy's nastier side, we did agree on a few things. We're both disgusted with politics today (although I guess our solutions differ slightly, heh heh). We also talked a lot about how pervasive and subtle subliminal messaging has become. But if he thinks the church has clean hands in when it comes to that topic, he's surely mistaken. VERY surely mistaken, but that's a topic for another day, if I'm feeling particularly brash.

The last thing he told me about were a series of exorcisms he'd had to perform. The most in-depth one he told me was basically about a guy who was checking out the church during gospel hour, and he fell into a trance and just started rocking and wasn't responding to anything. a bunch of people got freaked out and left and this guy felt god speaking to him, telling him a word. So after unsuccessful tries, he was like, "in the name of Christ, I summon _____(whatever the word was) out of you!"

Then the guy came to and after calming down, he admitted that he'd had a guru who was teaching him transcendental meditation and he'd given him a mantra to use and that mantra was the word that the minister had summoned out of him, so presumably, it was the name of an evil spirit. Now I'm gonna sure what I do and don't believe, but it freaked me out, that's for sure. holy moly! He also told me about supposed connections between Buddhist spirits and nazi Germany. Obviously, he was choosing these topics of discussion to scare me into asking him for protection or something. anyways, he dropped me off after that, cuz he lived just west of smithers and he had to turn off the highway.

So I stood on the highway, super-spooked. one of the creepiest mindsets. I got a ride into smithers, then got a ride real quickly outta smithers. as soon as i saw the guy pull over for me, I was so relieved, cuz I knew that if i'd gotten stuck in smithers, I'd have called the guy, cuz i'd take a dry warm house over camping under a bridge anyday, in those circumstances. i vented to the guy who picked me up and he seemed pretty cool, so i relaxed right away and put the other stuff behind me. Really nice guy too. Dropped me off and Houston at dark and stayed under a bridge. We'd driven through snow between smithers and houston, so I knew what awaited me in the morning.

Day 11:
The coldest night of my trip revealed snow on the ground in the morning. I was up bright and early. I'd lost my spoon somehow, so eating my muesli was quite the challenge. I ended up putting my hand in a zip loc bag, and just scoop it into my mouth. Packing up was very cold on my hands, so once I got up to the highway, I start walking down the road to generate some warmth. I must've walked 7km before getting picked up. Dropped off between Bumfuck Nowhere and a hole in the ground at a place called Topley. Didn't take me too long to get my next ride. An older native fellow took me to Fort Fraser. On the way, we talked about drugs, ones that are tolerable (weed and mushrooms), and others that shouldn't be taken by anyone (crack, meth). He didn't support the teacher's strike. Most people that didn't support the strike used the reasoning that the teachers were setting a bad example for the kids, by breaking the law. Personally I think these were the people that, in general, didn't know the facts. And besides, personally, I think they set a good example, it's all a matter of perspective. I don't have respect for unjust laws, simple as that. Martin Luther King said it's your responsibility to break these sorts of laws. Anyways, this guy told me about an elder from Kitiwanga that gone hunting but had been missing for 2-3 weeks. We stopped in Burns Lake to find his cousin that would sell him a joint. Took him about 15 minutes to find the place. Then we started driving again, and we were smoking it, but he wanted to put the rest of the doob in a doobie toker, kinda like what Johnny Depp smokes out of in Fear and Loathing. We had to search the car for a while to find it, and then about a minute down the road, I went to ash the doobie out the window and the wind sucked it right out the window. SHIT! So we pull over and search the 150m of highway to no luck. I felt like such a fuckbag after all the time he'd taken to find the doobie and the roach holder. He didn't talk after that until I broke the silence by asking them if there was such a thing as native martial arts. He said no and I figured out that it's cuz, unlike karate, which means 'empty hand' because it's perfect for poor people who can't afford weapons, ancient natives would always have weapons, because they were hunters. So they'd have spears, bo and arrows, and hatchets. And they wouldn't have to practice much because that's what hunting was for and since their weapons were long range, hand to hand combat didn't really exist. But for fun, there were things like indian leg-wrestling. You've probably done this as a kid. Two people lay down, face up, head to toe, then raise the leg closest to eachother, wrap their legs around the other, and try to flip eachother. Stuff like that. And I guess archery and other accuracy stuff would've occurred.
After he dropped me off, I scored some cardboard and made that sign that said "I SUPPORT BC TEACHERS". I got a ride within ten minutes with a hunting guide that was returning home for the season to Enderby. He was working up north, west of Highway 37 on the way to Dease Lake. He said there were no trails in the wildlife refuge (irony) he guided in, and it took a few days on horse to get there. Sounds really fuckin remote and teeming with all sorts of animals. He was a really nice guy. He'd been in karate too, so we talked about that, and he shared some sketchy-ass hitchhiking tales with me. He got me to Prince George, where I took a series of buses that deposited me back at the UNBC campus, where I met Adam again, and shared my trip with him. We went out after and played pictionary at some chick's house. We were waiting for Jari and Bryce from Golden to show up form Golden, and we got into qutie a heated debate (about 8 of us) about the teacher strike. It was pretty interesting and kinda fun, but a little too chaotic with so many voices. Pictionary was fun, I had a few drinks that surprisingly weren't really affecting me. After, I got into a conversation with the girl that had been adamantly against the teacher strike, but still very informed (and conservative). We talked about her political views and she basically described herself as a progressive conservative, and thus, supported gay marriage, right-to-choose (abortion), and stuff like that, but was all about the 'laissez-faire' government when it came to the economy (no regulation). There wasn't much to reconcile between us politically, but we didn't rub eachother the wrong way either. In the same way that she was a progressive conservative, she was a progressive christian. This was a VERY welcome relief, and I was very thankful to hear her side of things to balance the whacko form the day before. She was part of the United Chruch, which I belive is the only chruch hat will perform gay marriages, and doesn't focus so much on sins, but on love and acceptance. I can't emphasize how much better it made me feel talking to a Christian on a one-on-one level where it actually feels one-on-one, not preachy and daft. She represented the exact opposite of the minister from Smithers. I found the biggest difference between them not in their beliefs, but in their people skills. Even though this girl was drunk by now, we could still have an exchange, and she was down-to-earth about things. Whereas buddy had been so out of touch that it seemed like he had travelled through time to present day and had no idea what present day life was like. So after that, me and Adam returned to his dorm, where I had to sneak in, because security was checking for student cards. That was the first night that I started having weird dreams and I've been having them ever since. I don't even bother writing them down, cuz there's so fragmented, but for example, last night's dream was about me going to live in the woods, and somehow i get stuck with these kids and i try to teach them to swim, but they all almost drown and when i pull them out of the water, they're all these litle kerosene lamps. WTF.

Day 12:
I decided to stay a full day in PG, before making the last leg of the journey. This was Sunday, so there wasn't much going on and the only place to eat was the pub. We talked to a security guard about her wages. Adam's great at starting conversation like that. I went to the library to browse. Being a private, not public, library, they lacked literature on subjects unrelated to academia, like matiral arts. But, thanks to biology, they did have all sorts of books to help me identify magic mushrooms. Me and Adam made the long walk down into town, talked about forestry, economics, and the pros and cons of university. I went to the computer lab for a while to read about martial arts, specifically Aikido, and the 5 animals (tiger, leopard, crane, dragon, snake) that make up the Shaolin animal style. I had brought my karate uniform along, hoping to train in 100 mile house on the way back at any cost, even though I wouldn't finish till it was dark and i'd prbably have to take a bus if i wanted to make it to kamloops in one day. But, when I called the sensei, I found out that karate was cancelled due to the strikes, since the schools were closed down (no janitors or heating, etc). I decided I'd get up as early as posible to try to make the 5-6hr trek to Kamloops in one final effort. I'd been able to make it 6-7hrs from kamloops to PG the first day, but since they, my max distance had been the 5 hours from PG to Hazelton. And I'd have to figure out a way of catching the buses to get me closest to the highway at the edge of town.

Day 13:
I had left the blinds open in Adam's living room so I had full view of a nice sunrise to drag me outta my sleeping bag nice and early. I took two buses to get to the highway and there was another hitchhiker returning to town, cuz he'd been trying for 3 hours without success. Whatever, he was old and dirty. Two other hitchhikers showed up after me and started walking down the road, out of respect for me being there first. I held up my sign and I know tons of people read it, but I didn't notice too many reactions. A few smiles and thumbs up, only one thumbs down and a few negative nods. It took me about an hour and 45 to get picked up by an older native trucker. He was nice, but I couldn't understand anything he said. Might've been cuz he was missing his two front teeth, but I'll never know. He talked a lot, crazy old fool, and I probably caught about 1 in every 4 things he said, but I kept nodded and smiling. Talked about his ex wife, blow-jobs, hating cops and the government. He drove me all the way to 100 Mile House. The drive wasn't that nice cuz all the leaves had fallen off the trees and there wasn't any other scenery. Quesnel was fucking disgusting. There was so much smoke, it was like driving through the fog. Trucker told me that Quesnel has 13 mills. UGH! He dropped me off just after 100 Mile House at the junction with Highway 24. I'd been trying to decide for days if I'd risk taking the less traveled road. It connects Highways 97 and 5, between Little Fort and 100 Mile House. Drew had told me it was a scenic drive, but I knew it'd be less traveled. On the other hand, I'd heard Cache Creek wasn't easy to hitch out of either, it'd be the same ugly shit I'd already seen that day, and I'd probably get dropped off on the wrong side of Kamloops. So I took my chances with the road less traveled. It paid off and a new trucker actually turned around to come back and pick me up and I'd only been waiting 10 minutes. It really was a scenic drive, much prettier, undisturbed forests, and nice little lakes, lots of elevation gain. The trucker was an ex-Hell's Angel and told me all sorts of stories, from dead hitchhiker’s to hash. He told me about some unknown trucker that's been running over native hitchhiker’s on the highway to Bella Coola. After we stopped for him to eat near the summit, he put on one of those 'books on CD', but it was REALLY bad. like trashy and shit. He deposited me at the Husky in Kamloops at 6:15. I was feeling good, so I speed-walked the 5km to Craig's and Drew's. I'd made it!

Day 14:
I decided that I might as well continue exploring new territory, so I took Highway 1 to Cache Creek, then Highway 99 over to Lillooet, and then through Pemberton, Whistler, and Squamish. It was probably the scenic highlight of my whole trip. I picked up a hitchhiker and his bike, poor starving, dirty bastard, and dropped him off in Cache Creek. Once you get closer to Lillooet, the Fraser River canyon appears and the desert there is much more eye-pleasing then the area around Kamloops. Lillooet is in a pretty cool location and I started to really like the place. Small town, probably a few thousand people, maybe 5-6000 with surrounding area. After that, the highway becomes narrow and windy, as it works it's way up towards Cayoosh Pass. Very awesome in here. Super narrow valley, with lots of rec sites by the river. It was so fun (but sketchy) to drive through. The scenery had changed drastically within 10 minutes. From desert to mountains. Once you get higher up, there's some wicked mountains, big lakes, and glaciers too. It's like the coast version of Roger's Pass. I believe you gain like 1000m, which is much more drastic of a change, but you still end up at a lower elevation than Roger's Pass. Descending to Pemberton, you drive by huge Lillooet Lake. After that is a small town and I would've never known if the next hitchhiker I picked up hadn't told me, but it was actually a reserve. This was in stark contrast to the reserve I forgot to mention at Burns Lake where me and the native guy had picked up that doobie. That place was very depressing. No trees, no color, just ugh. Felt very gray. But this town was super nice, I actually thought it was Pemberton. Pemberton itself is really nice, kind've like Canmore. Probably because it's only 30 minutes from Whistler. After descending from the pass, the valley had widened out again, but there was still mountains all the way through. I picked up a young native hitchiker, who told me all about the area, which was cool. Whistler is ever more posh than I'd expected. By far the richest place I've ever seen, it was unreal. Which isn't to say that I liked it, just that everything looks brand new and top of the line. It starts to get more coastal here, as far as vegetation goes. Nice area, but the scenery isn't as striking around Whistler as it is elsewhere. I dropped off the hitchhiker just past Whistler. The drive to Squamish was very busy and there was lots of construction (in prep for the Olympics), especially from Squamish to Vancouver. I saw some mountains that made me drop my jaw, it was very cool. The area Squamish is located in is really nice too, but there's some mills in the area that make it pretty hazy. The forests here are very cool to drive by. The Sea-to-Sky highway goes from Vancouver to Whistler, and is definitely quite busy , narrow, and windy, as it goes right along steep embankments down to the water. Nice views of the ocean and islands, before arriving at the ferry. This route had taken me about 5 and half hours at a moderately fast pace. Normally Kamloops to the ferry takes about 4 and a half hours, so I think the extra hour is well worth it. Not sure what the road conditions are like in the winter, but in the summer, I would VERY highly recommend checking this route out, I loved it. Didn't have any music in my car, yet I was never bored. Plus you don't have to drive through Vancouver at all, the ferry is the first thing you get to (if that's where you're going). I had just made the 5:00 sailing, and I had a great view of Mt Baker on the ferry, which I don't ever recall having seen from the ferry before. Everything seemed so new, since I'm not used to day sailings, so it was quite hard to get my bearings.

And that's all. I really liked the area between Lillooet and Pemberton and would definitely consider living there or even just checking the area out more in-depth for a summer, while camping at any of the rec sites along the way. I'll add a few posts about various aspects of the trip that didn't fit into my linear timeline here. Congrats and thanks if you actually read through the whole thing. That was over 13,000 words. Good job, team!