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'
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!
4 comments:
scarred for life, never to look at ziplocks the same again.... oy
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