KatieTheKat

After reading my mom's blog and her comment that she was going to take a look at mine for updates, I feel that I really should write a little something here. So much has happened in the last few weeks, and it still feels like my summer has just begun!

First there was my last week of work: accompanying about 43 grade 6es (and 3 other teachers) to a French Immersion summer camp-like thing in Powell River (CLAN = Centre de Leadership et Aventures en Nature, if I remember correctly). It was pretty nice to be paid for participating in such activities as rock climbing, kayaking, outrigger canoeing, mountain biking, camping, playing fun games, etc., not to mention being fed well all week too!

Instead of going back home with the busload of students, I was dropped off in the town of Sechelt, where I spent an afternoon snoozing on the beach and painting with my watercolour crayons. Then I walked 4km down the road to the campground, where I napped some more as I waited for my friends to show up from Vancouver. We proceeded to spend the weekend paddling and feasting in Sechelt Inlet, managing somehow to fend off rainy weather despite ominous-looking clouds.

Next a quick stop in Vancouver to exchange paddling gear for camping gear, then I was off to the island to have a quick visit with Matt, Lori, and Gerry before meeting up with Kit to take the Lady Rose to Bamfield and hike the West Coast Trail. The trail was of course beautiful, the cable cars were fun as always, and I really enjoyed the sea caves near the south end. I thought it worked well to hike from North to South, as, in addition to having lighter packs for the more challenging end, the fact that more difficult terrain was coming helped to maintain my interest in the hike. While the idea of ending easily sounds more appealing initially, I think that it also makes me want to just rush to the end of the trail once I have finished the hard part. This way, I found that it was easier to just take each day as it came and enjoy the journey. Another big highlight of the trail was the great people we met: a trio from Saltspring, a near-neighbour from Nanaimo traveling with an exchange student from Copenhagen, a couple from Britain, and a couple of adventurous lads who had met each other in Prince George. I suppose that is one of the advantages of Not traveling in an enormous group, in which one tends to socialize only with one's companions.

ooh and: Before and after the WCT, it was grand to stop at my mom's house for delicious strawberries, cherries, and raspberries too! And to load up on goodies at the Nanaimo Bakery!

After the hike, it was back to Vancouver to camp in my backyard with Spatz for a couple of nights (I have sublet my room and the house is full!).. then Scott and I hopped on the Greyhound to Manning Park for our warm-up hike in preparation for the John Muir Trail. We weren't sure exactly what hike we'd be doing when we arrived, but soon decided to go for a 120-ish km loop, mainly in Washington, and starting on the Pacific Crest Trail. Even though we didn't start hiking till 11 day 1, we still managed to get in about 25km or so, given that we didn't stop until perched in an alpine meadow near the remains of an abandoned camp at 9:30pm. Day 2 the initial plan was to cover about 50km (or more?) in a grand loop that would lead us over some ridges, down more than 1km to Ross Lake, back up about the same distance, across about 4 or 5 passes, and back on to the Pacific Crest Trail. When we first woke up, we had our doubts, but still thought it might be do-able. After the enormous descent and some dehydration which was finally relieved by the creek at the bottom, the doubts had grown considerably. After several kilometres along the creek involving weaving our way over and under blown-down trees and whacking a path through the bushes completely obscuring the trail and finding our progress to be quite slow indeed, I had become convinced the grand loop was probably physically impossible. Scott became convinced that it would surely result in tears all around, though he was adamant that it was possible, despite his injured and swelling calf. Thankfully, we bailed and went with option B: to hike the much-better maintained route paralleling the shores of Ross Lake then to trek back to Manning Park Lodge over Skyline Trails I and II, thereby saving ourselves about 20-30km. So day 2, we were refreshed by a swim in the perfect-temperature waters of Ross Lake, and we ate our dinner at a picnic table in a lakefront car-camping-ground. Unfortunately, this route also caused us to experience the most awful 5km of hiking ever: we had to take the road from Ross Lake to the Skyline Trail. The road is dusty and hard with little rocks that can all be felt through the soles of our matching runners and which irritated the blisters on and between all of my toes to no end. Every time a car passed (which many did, though none offered us a ride), a great cloud of brown dust filled the air and never had time to settle before the next car came through. There was no escape. Also the mosquitoes were absolutely horrible. Ok, but why am I dwelling on the worst part of the trip? Anyhow. That night we camped about 1km up the Skyline II trail, en route to Mowich camp. We had probably covered about 37km. Day 3 (today) was gorgeous hiking through alpine meadows involving a Lot of climbing and a lot of descending. It certainly was pretty... flowers of every colour blooming along the trail and on the hillsides. I especially like the little star-shaped ones and the ones that make a purple/green carpet on the ground. I can't say that I found the day incredibly enjoyable at the time though, as my feet and legs were tired nearly the whole day, and I was having trouble embracing the pain of the blisters between my toes. Also the sun was very hot - near the top of the last big climb when we had started our 2.5 hour rush towards the bus, I was hit with some dizziness and nearly began hyper-ventilating... but these were cured by a brief pause in the shade and the swapping of my found navy blue hat with Scott's nice white one (definitely bringing a light-coloured hat with me to California!!). Yes, rushing. The difficult part about today was the fact that our bus was scheduled to leave the Manning Park Lodge at 5:15pm. By 2:30, we were still at least 11km away, and not yet at the top of the final high summit. So we pushed ourselves, aching, up the hills and then we ran, ran, ran down down down to Lightning Lake. At the road, we speed-walked down the roadside watching the minutes tick by. Finally at 5pm, still at least 2km from the Lodge, a car responded to our hitch-hikers thumbs and stopped to give us a lift. Whew! As it turned out, of course, the bus was 1hr and 15mins late - if only we had known that earlier! 23ish km before 5pm can make for a tough day. Still, I was feeling pretty refreshed and well-rested after our 4 hour bus ride (naptime!) and a super shower (that's why I'm still up!)... but it is wearing off again and I think it is time for Spatz and I to curl up in the backyard once again.

good night!