ROAD TRIP!! - Vancouver to Washington & Oregon - part 1

Hi all,

I've just recently returned from an awesome 8 day road trip down thru the Pacific Northwest states of the USA. The main cities I cruised thru were Seattle, Olympia - Washington, Portland, Eugene and Bend - Oregon.

The purpose and objective of the trip was a mini outdoor music festival called Summer Camp at the Les Schwab Amphitheatre in Bend - a small town of 65000 people in central Oregon state. There were 5 bands, all local to the PacNW - Viva Voce, Pedro The Lion, The Decemberists (Portland), Built To Spill (Boise, Idaho) and headliners Death Cab For Cutie (Bellingham/Seattle).

The secondary purpose of the trip was to road test the ideas of hitch-hiking and couch-surfing - kinda researching the feasibility of it in preparation for my big 5 week adventure to California/Nevada/Arizona in September.

Yeah, hitch-hiking! I wanted to do something different, see the States from a different viewpoint other than the window of a bus, meet new and interesting people, the local, real people of the country (every ride had their own story), and without having to adhere to anyone else's schedule. I only had only one fixed date and place in mind - August 6th in Bend. How I got there and in what time frame would be dictated entirely by the whims of friendly strangers. I know some of you may think its dangerous and risky, but I successfully thumbed it practically the whole 8 days.

Now, couch-surfing - what the hell is that, I hear you ask??? Well, it is this great traveller friendly set-up I recently was told about - kind of like an exchange program, where you can visit like-minded people in various towns and cities, and stay at their place for free!!

There are at least three websites (that I'm aware of) that you can sign up to (for free) and register your interest.

http://www.couchsurfing.com/
http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/
http://www.hospitalityclub.org/

It's basically like a massive database. You do a search for a particular location (say, Seattle) and date/s you plan to visit, and a list of profiles of people offering free accommodation pops up on your screen. You then send an email to as many of these people as you like with your plans and a mini-profile of your own...and wait for the replies! Some say No, Some don't reply at all, and some say "Come on Down!!". I sent out emails to folk in about 25 different cities in 5-6 states, and had 32 replies from 16 cities! The system works!!

Oh, and then there's this awesome hitch-hiking website http://www.digihitch.com/. Set up and run by hitch-hikers with advice, stories and forums for hitch-hikers. This turned out to be very, very useful in my planning. And, in fact, the guy who'd set up the site is also a 'globalfreeloader' and offered me accommodation in Phoenix, Arizona, later this year.

So, anyways, Sunday July 31st was D-Day. Bright and early I was up with my rucksack - 12Kg with just the essentials, my CD walkman, and a cuppla books, and my camera bag. Oh, and US$300 - my budget for 8 days, US$30 per day, plus US$60 emergency cash. I opted to at least get across the border before I embarked on the hitching lark, and so caught a Greyhound bus to Bellingham, the first big town in Washington.

I didn't spend much time here-about as long as it took to walk from the bus station to the I-5 Highway on-ramp (30 minutes). What I did see tho, was very pretty - the suburb of Fairhaven, the toursity area, kinda set up like an early 20th century colonial town.

Now for the first attempt at serious hitch-hiking. In Washington it is illegal to hitch on the Interstate highways, but the on-ramps to the highways are fair game. I had my big piece of cardboard, and scrawled "SOUTH - SEATTLE" and a big smiley face on it, set my rucksack down at a visible spot, took a photo of myself for posterity, and, at just after 11am, stuck out my thumb.



Amazingly, I had someone stop for me after only 15minutes. Two guys, Luke and Jeremy, in their 20's returning from a wedding in Bellingham to the outlying Seattle suburb of Bothall. En route they got a phone call which resulted in "Hey Tony, I can take you all the way to Downtown Seattle dude, I just gotta stop in at home and pick up my sister - we're going shopping at Pike Place Market - do you mind?" "Um, no man, sounds perfect". This was more than perfect in fact!...



In a very nice looking residential neighbourhood in Bothall, I got invited into their home, met lake's sister Michi - a cute as hell 21 year old, mmmm, who made me a tuna salad lunch, complete with local microbrewery beer, and then we were on our way again, down the I-5.

Ride Distance - 90 miles

My first couch-surfing contact was in Seattle, a guy named Sean and his buddy Danny who lived in the University District of town - a sweet spot just minutes from Seattle's famed student-boho-hippy hotspot "The Avenue".



I had arranged for Luke to drop me at an intersection nearby, said my goodbyes and thank-you's, and 5 minutes later was in Sean's car heading back to their place. As it turns out, Sean and Danny don't actually officially live in their house - they are just long-term dossing themselves!! So it was kind of cheeky of them to offer me a bed, but 2 housemates were moving out that weekend so they figured there was room. Who am I to complain.

My time in Seattle would be brief, just overnight, and it was already pushing 3pm, so allowing just enough time for the boys to put back a coupla cones of Seattle's finest green (I abstained - honestly!!) we headed out, in blazing 30+ degree heat, down to Green Lake Park, where an amazing freestyle frisbee competition was in action.



Who knew you could do soooo many tricks with a spinning frisbee!!! Sean and Danny (who, incidentally has the biggest white-boy afro hairdo I have ever seen!!) were avid Football (Soccer) fans and players, and so a quick kickabout was had, long enough to work up an appetite for some Thai food at The Avenue's finest Thai eatery, Thai Tom's - a small but very, very busy little cafe. Yum!!



A little guided tour of the city took in the very photograph friendly Gasworks Park overlooking Lake Washington and a drive over the bridges giving an awesome viewpoint of the city skyline, then it was back to The Ave for ice-cream. What a treat!

Next morning I said my goodbyes and thank-you's again, and headed into town. As you know, I am a huge fan of Seattle, it's music scene, and of course KEXP FM. I simply could not pass up the opportunity to check the place out while I was in town, and perhaps meet some of the DJ's that made my working day so much easier.

While there, I was given a tour of the studio, checked out the DJ booth, and had my pic taken with Midday Show DJ Cheryl Waters. I was also telling them why I was there, and about my road trip, and the station manager gave me a free KEXP T-Shirt, on the proviso that I wore it down the I-5 and at the gig. Awesome! I kept my promise on that one too.



So, then it was back on the road. My hoped for end destination was Olympia, the capital of Washington state, and my next couchsurfing host. The I-5 runs right thru the centre of Seattle, but one piece of advice from digihitch was to get to the outer suburbs before trying to thumb a ride, as it would be much easier than in Downtown. Not knowing exactly how to get out of Seattle, I followed a whole bunch of locals' advice, some good, some bad, and ended up taking 3 different local buses ($3), and about 2 hours, to progressively get further South.

At 1.30pm, I ended up at an I-5 on-ramp midway between SeaTac Airport and Renton, at the SouthCentre Shopping Centre.



Not more than 15minutes of waiting here and I got a ride from Roger, who turned out to be quite the religious fanatic. Not that he was preaching or anything, but all conversation somehow related to God, Jesus or The Church. He was headed to Tacoma, about 1/2 way there.

Ride Distance - 40 miles.

Sat at an on-ramp just southside of Tacoma next. 10 minutes is all it took to get the next ride. Just a short one, mind, as far as Lakewood, with Ned and his 2 small dogs Sam and Koa, who spent the whole 15minute journey facing away from me so their arses were practically in my face the whole time.

Ride Distance - 10 miles.

I was on a roll here. It was not more than 20 minutes before I got picked up by Tony. This guy was interesting. He was a medical first aid instructor, and had a prosthetic limb from the elbow down, with a hook for a hand - in his previous job he was an electricity lineman, and in his words 'I touched the wrong wire'. And when he saw my camera, he also mentioned he used to do professional photography when he had both hands. Tony was able to take me all the way into Olympia, and dropped me off at the local bus station, just shortly before 4pm.

Ride Distance - 25 miles.

Here in Olympia, I called my new host Eli, a computer IT techie guy, who was still at work when I arrived. I got directions to his house, and was told "Someone should be home, but if not, the front door should be unlocked. Go inside and make yourself at home". This is unheard of these days usually, but not in Olympia.Despite it being the state's capital, it's really only a small town of 42000 people, and the area that Eli lived in totally felt like it was in an old-school country town. It has a reputation for hippie-dom and a chilled, relaxed vibe.







It's also Courtney Love's home town, she of Hole fame, and perhaps more famously for being Kurt Cobain's wife. So Olympia had to be another of my stops on my Rock'n'Roll Grunge pilgrimage tour of the United States, after earlier in the year checking out Seattle's finest venues and Jimi Hendrix's memorial.

Once again, I didn't have a whole lotta time to spend in town, and killed 2 hours nicely by walking about the city centre, and visiting the imposing and outstanding dome-topped Capitol Building. It is set upon the top of a bluff overlooking the southern tip of Puget Sound, and has a grand majestic look about it, typical I suppose of all American political buildings built in the early 1900's. I walked in just before closing and the place was practically deserted. So deserted in fact, that when I was done checking it all out and wanted to leave 30minutes later, it was all locked up!! I couldn't get out! Seriously, there was NO ONE around. All the other tourists had gone, and no staff to be seen, not even a janitor.





This was wierd. Here I was, locked up inside among Washington's corridors of power, all on my lonesome. I shouted out "HELLO's" and whistled. I walked up and down the 3 flights of stairs looking around. I even went behind the reception desk to use the phone, but when i hit the 'Security' speed dial, it went to voicemail!! Finally, i checked the enormously large wooden oak doors again, but they wouldn't budge. At last, I noticed a small latch about 8 feet high, and another a ground level, snapped them open, and was able to let myself out...leaving the doors to the states most important and powerful building wide open!!


I walked back to Eli's place still in wonderment at what I had just experienced, and we then arranged to have dinner with two of his housemates, Danner and Eliza, at 'Le Velour', a nice, cheap funky cafe-bar on the hipster 4th Avenue. Then, back at his house, a nice little treat awaited - a hot tub in the backyard, perfect for a unisex skinny dip!



more to come....

Rusl & Jane's amazing all-star all-riding super-duper fab bike wedding

Hi guys,

I've mentioned more than a couple of times about my bike-activist friends and their crazy-chopper bike contraptions.

Well, last weekend I attended a bike wedding for good friends of mine, Rusl and Jane. The invitees were what could only be described in this community of bike-freaks as an A-list of the who's who of Vancouver's cycling fraternity. As somewhat of an outsider in town, I felt honoured and touched to be have been invited to such an event, and now feel truly welcomed into this circle of amazing people.







Rusl and Jane are an awesome couple, two 20-something cool eccentrics, totally suited to each other, and even more totally committed to community awareness raising bike activism, and this wedding was just a culmination of all of this. It was fantastic. I've never been to an event quite like it.



Along with the regular cycling community there was of course a large contingent of the wedding couples' families, elderly grandparents, aunts and uncles, many of whom i'd guess hadn't seen a bike since their teenage days.



They couldn't possible be expected to ride in the procession themselves, and so in the weeks leading up to the big day several chariots were built for them to be towed along in! There were also plenty of people without bikes at all, so it had been pre-arranged that anyone who happened to have a spare bike or two (or three) would bring them along. In the end, the number of bikes outnumbered the people, despite being 150-odd folk at the wedding.



The day started at Trout Lake Park (right by my house - how convenient!) for a gathering of all the guests, and a blessing of the bikes by the officiating bishop. Rusl and Jane had especially built their own wedding love bike for the day (and their life ahead together) - a contraption of two recumbant bikes welded together, a love seat bench, dual steering, and painted bright pink!! (see the photo link to my slideshow below for a better understanding of this!)





Once all the riders had gathered and passengers seated in their various chariots, we all rode off around the lake in a procession of some 150 people, with tall bikes and choppers in amongst the 'regular' road/mountain & single-speed bikes, whooping, hollering and cheering all the way. I was employed as one of four riders used to tow a chariot for one of the 50-somethings, Kathy, in the party. It then took off into the streets for the 5-kilometre journey down to Burrard View Park, overlooking the Burrard inlet for the actual ceremony. The weather was perfect, it was just the beginning of the summer spell that I wrote about in my last entry, bright blue skies and mid-twenties temperatures.





Jane looked stunning in a body hugging little red dress, and Rusl was resplendant in a 70's style blue top-hat-and-tails suit and bow tie. We all sat down on the grass in a circle formation with a path left thru the middle for the couple to walk down the 'aisle', with a couple of violinists playing the wedding march. It was beautiful.









After some milling about chatting, wedding pics and other formalities, the party then jumped back on the bikes to head back to Trout Lake Park where the reception was being held in the Community Centre. The ride back was a little more difficult as two of the chariot pullers had bailed out, so it was left to me and Lee on our own to pull Kathy along. It was actually slightly more of an uphill journey on the way back too which didn't help.



At one point the only disaster of the ride occurred, and I happened to be the 'victim'. I got distracted, stopped pedalling for just a moment and the chariot caught up to us, bumping against my rear tyre, knocking me off balance. I came of my bike (landing on my feet), but the chariot rode over my back rim, buckling the hell out of it. Some minor on-the-spot adjustments, and we were on the road again. I suppose if yer gonna wreck yer bike, you may as well do it surrounded by a large posse of bike fiends! The rest of the ride was taken at a much slower pace!



Back at the Community Centre, I was promised that as it was a wedding accident, my rim would be fixed or replaced for free. This is one of the things I love about this group of people - the philosophy that the community looks after their own. My previously soured mood was restored.

The reception was something to behold as well - 150 guests from all different walks of life. People had come from everywhere too - all over British Columbia and Alberta, some as far away as San Francisco! The food was a buffet styled mix of catered and 'potluck' - basically, the guests were invited, if they wished, to contribute a dish of their own making. This is such a great idea - it made the choices at the buffet seemingly endless - everything from Salmon to Chinese to Indian and Mexican, soups, and salads galore -a gastronomic delight. Some of the guests were also boutique winemakers and microbrewers, so homemade wine and beer was in plentiful supply.



Then, to top things off, among Jane and Rusl's contacts in the activist community are several members of a latino-salsa-funk band. So, we had a 17 piece band full of brass instruments, bongo drums and the like entertaining us. This was truly an awersome party.





This was a wedding so different and amazing in so many different and amazing ways, i can honestly say I've never had a day quite like it before. What a wonderful day!

Check out this link to see what all the fuss is about!
http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=freetoeknee&P=A0E5&AID=2631072&Show=Y

Cheers,

Tony

The Vancouver 'summer', dinking, Canada Day and The Jazz Festival

hey there,

well, i guess its been about 3 weeks since i last wrote about the camping trek i did. getting slack!!
Before i get into details, i just have to say how disappointed i've been with the Vancouver summer thus far. All through the winter and spring I was hearing all the big hype about how 'awwwesommme' the summer was going to be, temperatures in the high twenties and low-mid thirties almost every day, just perrrfect for all the outdoors activities that everyone gets up into in this fitness-activity (and image) obsessed city - hiking, biking, camping, climbing, kayaking, sailing, etc etc etc. I was to be in my element.

well....all of June was basically crap - barely a day over 20 degrees, overcast and gloomy, with rain forecast on probably 4 days out of 7 in a week. The first 1/2 of July was pretty much the same too. I feel ripped off!! ;-) To be fair tho, the past week or so has been better, the sun has come out and has some decent warmth to it, pushing temps into the mid 20's, and its now looking good. I s'pose I shouldn't complain too much either, given that 1/2 of you reading this are in Britain and Ireland, and what i've described thus far would almost be considered good!! ha ha!







And it has been on its best behaviour when it counted, namely with the International Jazz Festival and Folk Music Festival held in late June/early July and last weekend in July respectively. During the Jazz Fest, my friend Kellie and I spent the bulk of the July 1st Canada Day long weekend cruising various outdoor venues checking out all of the free Jazzy entertainment on offer. Given the occasion and the weather, there were people out in their thousands celebrating thier nations' Day, in fantastic mood, milling about and creating an energetic and relaxed, chilled out vibe.



The famous Granville Island Public Market was particularly popular, people wandering the tightly packed aisles of fruit and veg, cheeses and meats, arts and crafts, and delicious (altho over-priced) food vendor stalls inside, while 3 stages outside entertained those soaking up the sun (in the morning at least - the weather turned a tad nasty mid-afternoon).





David Lam Park the following day was a picture of tranquility, nestled in between the glass-encased high-rise apartment blocks and the False Creek Marina, thousands of folk and thier kids draping picnic blankets over the grass, having a relaxing day out in the hot sun with some cool jazz, rhythm and blues, salsa, reggae and latin bands keeping a very happy vibe indeed.





It was actually quite funny on the Saturday, Kellie and I not knowing exactly what we wanted to do or where we planned to go. Rollerblading around Stanley Park popped up as an idea, with me on bike, but we had to get to Stanley Park to rent blades first-quite some distance away. Then Kellie suggested I 'dink' her down there on my bike!! I haven't done anything like that since I was about 18!! - and neither had she!! After a nervous start we headed out, down the side streets and laneways, with her resting on her butt on the front handlebars, and me doing all the hard work, pedalling and looking over her shoulder to see where we were going, as well as any oncoming traffic! We got as far as David Lam Park when we saw all the Jazz stuff going on, and ditched the blading idea. But man, that was a crazy little flashback to our teenage days, and we got quite a few odd looks from folk as we passed them, seeing 2 people in their late-20's/early 30's larking about like that!

All in all, we had a blast, and Vancouver once again proved it knows how to throw a party.
There was one other Jazz Fest event I went to, at the always-awesome venue, The Commodore Ballroom. I had heard of this Algerian/French superstar called Rachid Taha (www.rachidtaha.artistes.universalmusic.fr) , and saw him live at Womadelaide Music Festival in Adelaide in March2003, and again recently via KEXP FM, and liked what i heard so had to check him out in a live setting.



A punk in attitude and gritty rocker in style, he immediately grabs your attention. He has been around for 15 years or so, and in that time become quite famous as an eclectic artist, popular in his native lands, and has built up a formidable reputation as a man not afraid to speak his mind politically. He sings in Arabic mostly, with some French and uses a wide-ranging fusion of North African sounds of traditional Arabic instruments, while drawing on the western rhythms of alternative rock, hip-hop, reggae, and occasionally edgy techno samples and remixes. The result is a sharp sound halfway between Led Zeppelin and Johnny Cash, where the guitar riffs cut their way wildly through the oriental wreaths of sound. His most recent release includes a cover version of The Clash's 'Rock The Casbah', lyrics translated into Arabic. Interesting, huh!



When he came out on stage though, he honestly looked like he'd taken somewhat of a great deal of the famously narcotic BC bud - incredibly potent strains of locally grown marijuana. He was a mess. I thought he was crap, all over the shop, sweating like a bastard, he could barely stand, let alone sing. Eventually tho, he got it together, and by the end of the gig he had redeemed himself in my eyes. Despite struggling with the language barrier, he still managed to interact with and energise the audience, and at several points throughout the show, had a member of the audience on stage dancing with him, including one particular girl whose ass-shakin', hip-wobblin' belly dance routine brought the house down with audience cheers.



I should also give an honourable mention to the support act too, a West African tribal rhythm band 'Aboubacar Camara and Doundounba', from Guinea, an amazing 8-piece ensemble of players and dancers dressed in full traditional regalia. Man, they drummed and danced up a storm for over an hour themselves, and were a perfect warm-up act, getting the entire 1000-strong audience in to the mood.



The long-weekend for was extended by an extra day, given that I work for a company that deals with US trades, and the Monday was July 4th, Independence Day! Woo-hoo! I Love It!

Cheers, Tony

Melbourne Billboard graffiti

Billboard graffiti
Originally uploaded by kvalentine.

nice piece of ad-busting!!

the culture-jamming network at it's finest in Melbourne

From an Australian bar receipt

From an Australian bar receipt
Originally uploaded by Tom Coates.

found this on 'flickr.com'

funny as hell!

2 years...

Hi all,

Just a quickie.

How could I possibly not notice? I let it slip by completely without recognition! I can't believe that! I did absolutely nothing to celebrate it! (Um, well I did go see War Of The Worlds, but that hardly counts!)

Yesterday was July 5th. That's 2 years to the day since I left home. Woo-Hoo!!

I just had to share.

Cheers,

Tony

juan de fuca marine trail

hey all,

I was back out to Vancouver Island recently, just 3 weeks after my weekend jaunt to Victoria. This time tho it was for more than just a night and a cuppla days.

About an hour away from Victoria, on the south west coast of the island is a tiny little village called Jordan River. So tiny in fact, all it consists of is a campground and a shack containing a cafe/take away food joint. But, its also the beginning of the Juan De Fuca Marine Trail, a 47Kilometre trek along the beaches, reefs and forests along the coast. Typically, it takes 4 to 5 days to hike this from one end to the other, at Botanical Beach and finally Port Renfrew. We opted to take a little longer to complete it - 7 days and 6 nights, basically taking it easy and giving us ample opportunity to check some of the numerous side-trails, and camp overnight at every site on the trail. Doing it this way, we actually hiked closer to 60km over the 7 days.

Usually when I mention my doing this trek, most people say "Oh, do you mean the West Coast Trail?". Well, no. There are some key differences.

The West Coast Trail is incredibly famous worldwide - it's more expensive, and a lot longer at 75km, as well as being a lot more rugged and difficult further north up the coast, taking somewhere between 7 to 9 days to complete. Also, once you're on that trek, there's no getting off - there are no exit/jumping off points along the way. If you're 5 days in and you break your ankle, it's gotta be a helicopter rescue. I'm serious. Hence its fame.

The Juan De Fuca is kind of like its little brother. Being located just a few kilometres from Highway 14, there are 3 or 4 points where people can park, take a trail down and visit the various beaches on day trips, or opt to do just one or two day hikes, rather than the whole kit and kaboodle.

I would have preferred to do the West Coast Trail, but time and money were factors, and so the cheaper, shorter option prevailed.

Anyway, so I once again hooked up with the Simon Fraser Uni hiking club, and 10 of us (organiser Andrew, his Israeli girlfriend Sigal, French Xavier and Maryse, Korean-Canadian's Nellie and Ellen, me, and Canadian's Caroline, Bryan and Farley - a nice multi-cultural mix) met at the ungodly hour of 7am on a Sunday morning to make the arduous, and pointlessly annoying journey to Victoria (which you'll all know about from my previous email about Victoria). We then picked up our chartered bus to Jordan River, and, in beaming sunshine-y weather, set off along the rocky, boulder strewn Jordan River Beach.



Being away from civilisation for a week meant we needed to be fully self-sufficient, and so as you would expect, we carried in everything - tents, sleeping bags, food (our biggest weight - feeding 10 people for 7 days is heavy business!! - but it does mean our packs would get lighter every day!!...), cooking equipment, water filters, the whole bit. On average, we were carrying about 20-25kilograms (40 Pounds) on our backs each.





Arriving at out first nights camping spot, Mystic Beach, late afternoon. The great thing about the timing of our hike was that it coincided with the longest week of the year in terms of daylight hours, the Summer equinox, and the rising of a Full Moon.



So getting to the campsite around 6-ish there was still plenty of daylight hours left to go exploring. This soft, golden sandy beach defnitely lived up to its name - a secluded cove hemmed in on 3 sides from the forest above by a giant sandstone cliff, with a sweet little waterfall spurting over the edge of the cliff onto the beach at one point - just perfect for an early evening shower! Looking out over the Juan De Fuca Strait, on the horizon were the soft contoured outline of the gorgeous Olympic Mountains in Washington, USA, which were to accoompany us for the entire trek.



The first day we had been drenched in sunshine all day, and as the evening set in with the sun setting against this backdrop and a smattering of cloud reflecting the rays beautifully, we started up a campfire with driftwood gathered on the beach. And then the moon rose, not quite full yet, but bathing us with enough light that rendered our flashlights pointless, and we lay back watching the Northern Hemisphere stars. Bliss. Oh, and our 2nd days hike, and night campsite at Bear Beach was practically a carbon copy. Too Good.





While our campsites were mostly beach locations, quite a lot of the hike was in amongst the various forest environments - lush old growth, new growth, cedar wood, rainforest that seems far too tropical to be Canada, the trail passing by majestic Cedarwood trees left behind by loggers at the turn of the century, up and under, in and out of a giant tree-fernerys, you name it.







And it's even easier to appreciate towering cedar trees when they provide natural bridges and stairways over rugged terrain and steep hillsides. Day 3 was our toughest day, spent clambering up and over at least a dozen mountain ridges several hundred metres high and dives back down into valleys at sea-level, meeting pretty little spring water creeks and streams which were perfect locations for taking breaks and doing a little exploring. It was on this section of the trail that I sustained the only injury of the trek, and a minor one at that. I slipped on one of those cedarwood stairways, covered in moss and damp, landing on my arse, and for a moment struggling like a turtle on its back, with my 25Kg pack weighing me down. When I got up I noticed my bloody hand, and realised i had sliced the webbing between the ring and pinkie fingers on my right hand. Ouch!



Before the trek started we were strongly advised to buy some gaiters to cover our boots, to protect against adverse conditions on thre trail, as well as potential nasties like leeches. Well, luckily no leeches, but the gaiters did come in handy for the thick sloshy mud-pools that made regular appearances on the trail, particularly on days 3 & 4. It definitely 'watch where you step' terrain, one foot wrong, and you'd have it buried 12 inches deep in foul, stenchy goo! If i was 3 years old, i'd love it!! It'd be mud-pie city!! But as it was, we all wanted to avoid that particular experience as much as possible. Sadly, I don't think one of us managed to escaped that fate!



Trekking into the campsite at the rocky Chin Beach, one of the first two hikers in, just as the rain began to fall, finding a site with suitable shelter was item one on the agenda. A snug and cosy spot under some thick scrub would have to do for 3 of the 4 tents we had (the 4th pegged in at another site 50metres further down) - the closest in confines we had camped together so far, after having the luxury of good weather and expansive sandy beaches previously.





Second item on the agenda was collecting and filtering the water for the camp cooking, and seeing as we were at least an hour ahead of the rest of the group, Farley and I got stuck in.



The other nightly duty was that was absolutely necessary was to hang all of our food from a tall tree branch in sacks. Why? One word...bears. At every campsite along the way, there were warning signs saying to do this, because this is a wilderness environment, where bears do frequent, as well as cougars, and other assorted wildlife that would love to nibble thru any ground level foodstuffs, mice, rats, raccoon, you name it. It was a nightly sport trying to toss a rope-tied-to-a-rock over a tall-enough branch, and then pulley-ing it up to a height, then finding something to tie the other end to keep it there.

The weather on the whole was almost perfect. 5 out of the 7 days was bright and sunny, just one day and night of light rain, and one morning of pea-soup thick fog. This was a blessing, becasue as much as its nice to hike in beautiful blue sky and sunshine, having a shroud of mist surround you while hiking along a rocky reef by the sea while the tide is out, or through dense rainforest foliage, gives the scenery a completely different feel, an almost other-worldliness, where you cant see more than 15 feet in front of you. At times, hiking alone at the front or rear of the group, I felt like I was the only person on the face of ther earth. It was amazing.







With the trail meandering up and down the rugged valleys and ridges, there were inevitably sections where it was impossible for a trail to go, beig too steep or dangerous. There was at least five suspension bridges built along the trail to deal with that problem. Those with even slight vertigo will want to keep their eyes firmly fixed ahead since the bridge deck is simply a metal grate that allows you to peer past your feet to the creek bed hundreds of metres below. I have no fear of heights though, and these were somewhat of a thrilling highlight whenever we came across them. Amazingly, and somwehat to our relief, we even had a section of trail that followed an old logging road, and was as flat as a tack for about a mile. Boy, were we thankful for that small mercy!



That didn't last long tho, and one of our main side-trail objectives to a sea-lion grotto followed shortly after, a harrowing and hair-raising scramble through dense scrub, following the peak of a ridge down to the rocky granite cliffs overlooking the strait. Alas, no sea-lions to reward out effort, but a great lunch spot with awesome coastal views were ample compensation.



Day 5 was our lazy day. We only a short 7km hike ahead of us from Sombrio Beach to Little Kuitsche Creek, and so we decided to laze about for a while, chill out, read a book, sunbathe and watch the waves, as well as the surfers braving the conditions to try and catch those waves. It seemed a pointless venture to me, there was a swell of barely than 2-3 feet. It wasn't until almost 4pm that we left the campsite! An obligatory explore of the area was always Xavier's first priority on arrival, and it was here that he discovered a cave at the foot of a rocky cliff at the seas' edge, which demanded further exploration. Only catch tho, was that the tide was halfway in, the water level was waist deep, it was dusk and getting cold and therefore the water was likely to be freezing. Putting all of that out of our minds, Xavier, Bryan, Nellie and I got our swimming gear on and went for it, taking a headlamp along to check out those little nook and crannys. As we presumed, it was bloody freezing! This cave measured about 15 metres or so to the very back, where it was quite dark. Xavier switched on his headlamp and looked about. "I think i see a pair of eyes!!"...yeah right, whatever. The next thing we new, a little river otter, about 2 feet long, came scampering out and did bolt straight for the sea, turning it head once, as if to say "who and what the F**K are you!!". It sure as hell gave us a fright, but a laugh as well, whereas the poor thing must have been scared out its wits, no doubt never seeing anything the likes of us before in its little home! Good story anyways!



One thing I was definitely hoping to see along the trek was heaps of wildlife. To this point, I'd seen a couple of sea lions way out on the rocks and the water otter. Ellen spotted a bear cub once, and other than that, our group had seen nothing other than the birdlife you could hear way above in the trees. No whales either. Not a one. Nada. Disappointing. Along our next section of the trek though, we were supposed to check out another trail to another sea-lion grotto. Alas, there was a sign up saying the trail was closed due to a 'problem juvenile bear' in the area.



These are the kinds of warnings you ignore at your peril, so that idea was dashed. Damn. Down at Parkinson Creek though, Xavier the Explorer, again, spotted a foot-long Garter Snake sunning itself on the river rocks on the banks. These snakes are not poisonous, and amazingly, not only did it not slither off at the first sight of us, but we were able to pick it up and pose for photos with it!! Highlight of the Day.



Our final camp was gorgeous, set in the forested backcountry Payzant Creek. Our final kilometre of trekking that day was incredibly easy, with newly erected boardwalks covering up the worst of the swampy-muddy crap we'd been through before, and then crossed the final bridge into the campground overlooking a beautiful waterfall flowing over a cliff on one side of a ravine, and on the other cliff edge, a series of campsites overlooking the creek and falls surrounded by stands of tall trees, with the canopy of branches and leaves filtering thru sunlight in such pretty shaftfs and shards...My favourite campsite since the first night! it was stunning!!



Our last day started off in a shroud of mist again, and some of us rose early at 6am to get ina quick walk down a side trail to Providence Cove, yet another secluded rocky beach, which, with pea soup fog, was incredibly eerie, but beautiful and peaceful all at once. Thankfully the last day of hiking was the easiest, with a lot more of the boardwalks that we were treated to you the previous afternoon, and along the tidal reef pools for the very last section. With the tide out, we were able to explore the pools and check out the small marine life, the sea urchins and anenomes, starfish and hermit crabs. it was way cool.

The best was yet to come tho! at our very last stop, at Botanical Beach, we were surprised to sea a baby seal bathing in the sun amongst the rocks and seaweed. It was so cool just to sit and watch him (or her) sleepily doze in the sun and occasionally yawn, give us a nonchalant look, and go back to sleep!



This was definitely the highlight of the day, and possibly the trip. It was definitely THE talking point on the bus and ferry back to Vancouver.



Anyway, hope this wasn't too long. I didn't honestly think this email was going to get so epic!

talk soon,

tony

p.s. i know some of you have seen these already, but here's a link to a slideshow of my pics from the trip, so that you can see what i've experienced all for yourself!

http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=freetoeknee&P=A0E5&SID=31738&Show=Y