This one was just me exploring alone, the rest are me and Drew en route to, and at, the beach we hiked to near Tofino.

Wednesday night, I went to a club in Courtenay to see Sweasthop Union. I almost had someone to go with, but alas... it probably wasn't worth bringing anyone too anyways. The club scene did nothing for me. I went for a walk, then read in my car, until thigns actually starting happening. Moka Only (of Swollen Members) didn't do anything for me. The sound system for Sweatshop was lame. Vocals so loud that you couldn't here the beat. I wanted to dance. bad combo. It was alright though. I don't regret going. I find Sweatshop is just much better listening to alone, when you can fully appreciate and not doubt the sincerity of the underlying themes. There's definite irony in the line, "we're just a couple of MCs that don't like clubs".

Anyways, Friday night, last night, was Lorin. Well, it was SUPPOSED to be Lorin. Long story short, I had the option of Trina and Bassnectar, or Ashley, Steve, and another guy and girl, and going to a DnB night. I think I made the wrong choice. We go to The Met late, music was ho-hum. I did put some effort into dancing, since my body's desire for DnB was probably to blame for me missing Lorin BassNarnar. This morning, I called Trina up and went to chill with her. I can't believe what I missed out on last night. UGH! But it was really cool and refreshign to chill with Trina, which of course only makes me regret the previous nights' decision more. In fact, I don't think I've felt such regret in recent memory. On the plus side, Trina turned me onto the genre of 'dubstep', which I'm listening to right now and thoroughly enjoying, and she also leant me a book called Hey Nostradamus.

The trip to Van was great. Figured out a parking scheme to avoid paying parking fees, snuck onto the ferry and scored a day pass for the bus from some random stranger. The guys that gave me a ride onto the ferry got me stoned too. I met this really cool chill English girl who was backpacking around the world. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada. wicked. The return trip was lame, even without the guilt of a missed party. Me and Trina had gotten stoned together, but after we parted, I was feeling quite lethargic. Stuck on the bus between two really loud and extremely annoying conversations and then couldn't managa to pass out on the ferry.

Overnight party, 2 stage, breaks and DnB, campout next weekend
vs
Planet of the Drums: Dara, Dieselboy, and AK1200, none of whom I've seen before

Both next weekend, haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards the campout.

one for the ages

What a weekend. Epic. I'm not even gonna bother going into detail too much, but here's the deal. Drew was in Vancouver, so I met him there and brought him over to the island for two nights. We got to the island at 9:30, packed up my mom's car, and took off towards Tofino, and camped at Toquart Bay on Barkley Sound. Despite the incredibly packed rec site, we found a private area. First night camping of the year, felt really good. The next morning, we were up at 8. In Tofino, I ran into Leane, who I haven't seen since I worked with her at Kicking Horse in Golden in the Summer. I've ben thinking about her thoug, cuz I didn't get to hang out with ehr that much, and I missed her. So I was super stoked (and trippin right out at the odds of it all). She's probably moving to Nanaimo, so that's wicked, definitely gonna have to keep in touch with her. Around noon, we hiked an unmarked trail down to a very secluded beach and for a while, we were the only ones there. Three other groups showed up throughout the day, but there was lots of beach to chare. Later on, we found another trail to the next beach, which was even nicer, and totally deserted. Super gorgeous and with lots of little nooks and crannies that are perfect for camping. The weather was really good, considering it's Tofino. The tide was low, but the waves were up, so we were super lucky. We had a wicked time down there. On the way back to this side of the island, we explored almost every little random backroad before Port Alberni. Found two great bridges to jump off, and got some insiedr info on a place with more jumpin spots, with camping. Found several unmakred campsites, one beside an impressice waterfall. Also came across numerous smaller waterfalls and scoped out one in the distance that must've dropped 100 feet, but is probably rarely seen by anyone. All in all, it was a very succesful and fun recon trip. I was pleasantly suprised at how driveable the roads were, and there were less gates than I thought. We got home at 9pm, so it was a very fulfilling day. I ran out of pictures after we got to the first beach though, So I'll have to return to all the other places take snapshots.

I've got some good times to look forward to too. Sweatshop Union Wednesday, Lorin Friday, dnb/breaks outdoor campout June 3. Commence stompdown.....

I finished my first CrimthInc novel today, Off the Map. Prety cool publisher, if I may say. There's no description on the back cover, doesn't even mention the full name of the author anywhere in the book. The copyright info reads:
anti-copyright 2003
For the next 400 years, this book, and any of the elements herein, may be reproduced by anyone through any methods imaginable and must enter the world with great love and resolve; of course under no circumstances shall any monetary gain result from those endeavors.

It's an autobiographical account of a few months in the lives of these two young ladies who buy one-way tickets to Europe and hitchhike and squat across Europe looking for various intangibles. I really enjoyed it. Makes a nice travel-bug trilogy along with Even Cowgrils Get the Blues (Tom Robbins) and Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer).

This one chick at work today expressed her extreme distaste for The Celestine Prophecy. I couldn't get her to really go into detail, but basically I think she's just a cynical fuck whose time has passed.

Well I had my first real summeresque Pacific Ocean beach experience. It was pretty rad. Today's sunset scene was pretty cool, i'm gonna have to go down there more often, and make sure to bring a hackey sack. If it's nice tomorrow, I'm gonna do the beach scene, or maybe even the river scene, depending.

For mother's day, we were going to go on a hike out near Comox, about an hour north of here. On the way there, we stopped at what will probably be the only gear swap of the season on the island (which I think is appalling). We didn't get there right at the opening, so we probably missed the ebst deals, but IO picked up a pretty decent MEC daypack, a sleeping pad, mosquito net, and shirt for $60. I was pretty happy about that.

The road to the trailhead was closed due to logging, so that was pretty fuckin lame. Things are so different on the island when it comes to the backroads. I'm still trying to figure it out. I don't think there's all that many rec site/campgrounds, cuz almost all of the backroads are privately owned. Which means it takes a lot more planning to find out whether a road/trail, is accesible. A dirt bike would be super cool to have here.

If you went straight through the Hopi Reservation to the other side of the world, you would come out in Tibet. The Tibetan word for sun is the Hopi word for moon, and the Hopi word for sun is the Tibetan word for moon.

"When the iron eagle flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered over the earth and the dharma will go to the land of the red man." --- Padmasambhava, 8th c.

"When the iron bird flies, the red-robed people of the East who have lost their land will appear, and the two brothers from across the great ocean will be reunited." -- Hopi Prophecy

wow, i guess they just discovered the first wild polar-grizzly hybrid. how fucked is that?

I tried going on a fast. Yesterday I only ate fresh fruit and raw veggies. Today I only consumed herbal tea, water, and diluted pure fresh fruit juice. It was kind've like a rollercoaster. Sometimes I liked it, other times it was hell. I just caved in though (7PM) and ate a banana, and I probably won't stop there. I had intended to finish the fluids-only fast today, then go back to the fruit and raw veggies for the final day tomorrow. It was definitely interesting and I'm a bit disappointed in myself. I thought the hunger pangs would've gone away by now. My mood was getting pretty shitty. At first, it was like mind over matter, but that was earlier in the day. My hunger was consuming me. I think part of the problem, is that my body is so low, and my metabolism so high, that it's harder for me to go as long without food than for most people. Or maybe that's just an excuse and I'm a pussy. I've been wanting to do an actual fast for years, but everytime I try, I can't make it past the first day. At least I made it through yesterday though. Puts a lot of things in perspective too.

So I've got two days off in a row. Today, I couldn't find anyone to hang out with, so I hitched about 20 minutes north to do a hike up Rosewall Creek. Took me like 2 hours to get there though. The hike is a super easy 2km to a waterfall which was pretty nice, but then I found a small path heading steeply up the hill, so I followed it for a ways and emerged far above the river and falls, ona nice perch in the sun, so I smoked some salvia and laid down for a nice session. Hitching back was almost as hard. Overall, including the 4km on the trail, I must've walked 12km today. I had to take the main highway back, so instead of backtracking home, I jsut waited at work for someone to get off and gimme a ride. Not sure what tomorrow's agenda is, but I have high hopes.

I came across this pic a little while ago. This was from me and Kelly's epic journey into the Sullivan


















This is Horne Lake, where I found that little waterfall in the canyon the other day. The only canyon pics that turned out well was the panorama, which i can't scan, but this was the view hiking back down. I really liked the lighting

I wish I'd been posting more, cuz there's been things I wanted to post that are forgotten now. Well I had my BC Provincials for Karate on the 22nd and got two more gold medals. There was only 3 other guys, but they were all higher ranks than me. There's one more tournament in Courtenay/Comox at the end of this month, but i don't know if I'm eligible.

I went to Victoria this weekend for Lindsay's birthday. Me, Lindsay, Jess, Ashley, Steve, and Bronwyn got drunk and went to see FreQ Nasty. it was a really good show. He dropped some very choice tracks on us unsuspecting masses. Wasn't too crowded or smokey either. I'm gonna go see Lorin/Bassnectar in Vancouver on the 26th, and Sweatshop has 4 dates in the area around the same time, so I'm gonna try to catch the show in Tofino.

The pics below are of me and Haley at Wesley Ridge overlooking Cameron Lake. We'd been having lunch together a lot at work and finally got out to do something on Friday. She's rad. Really nice, easy-going, down-to-earth, and NOT neurotic. She's gonna come to the Sweatshop show with me.

The ocean was crazy here yesterday. Clear day, but quite windy, and the waves were the craziest I've ever seen on this side of the island. There were numerous surfers down at the beach. I'd estimate the waves at 4-5 feet.