1 vii 06: Canada Day: The Thrall of Love

Raw entries from my journal:


1 VII 06 Canada Day July 1 2006

7:00 a.m. talked with Suzy -- SNAFU at home -- had to end call because Willow had fallen out of her rope swing.
9:13 driving out of Vancouver
Driver Ianna (sht for Marianna) suggest Commercial Avenue as a cool neighbourhood in Vancouver (East Van)
Ont[o] 1st Ave towards Can. 1
To Brunette Ave rt in New Westminster
to Braid Str left off Brunette
rt on Canfor rt on Edworthy Way
Moose Headquarters 104 Edworthy Way
104 - 360 Edworthy Way New Westminster
BC V3L 5T8

Laura [virtually illegible scrawl:] phone operator spoke c @ Ferry [written more neatly in margin:] phone oper. I spoke with @ the ferry. (on the phone)
10:19 am back towards 1
[very shaky -- written while bus travelling along highway:]
Transcanada (1) 7000 km from Coast to Coast -- we will travel only about 1000

Driving toward Mt Baker
Abbotsford -- Raspberry cap.
11:30 am leaving

Tim Hortons -- tea & cruller (still batter-y) $1.99
Laundry last night 4.00
1.25 for wash
1.25 for dry
1.50 for powder

10:30 driving through Chilliwack in the FRASER RIVER VALLEY, not the lower mainland any more ag region strong manure smell

11:51 bridal veil falls
Sarbjit -- she who conquers all

12:15 leaving for HOPE
JACK JOHNSON --composer performer Great Percussion!

[sketch of mountains at Hope on 2/3 of page]

12:37 entering HOPE warm but extraordinarily windy

[boxed, no check] Biological Philosophy all life is a political act for humans -- How a life is led is the political STRATEGY

1:54 leaving Hope -- the chainsaw sculpture capital of CA

1870 YALE CONVENTION BC would join Canada only if a rr was built to link to the rest of Canada CBR railroad
2:12 pm YALE

RY COODER

LAZY BUT ALSO HEDONISTIC --
WILL DO MUCH FOR PLEASURE
SADISM AND MASOCHISM
MUST BE UNDERSTOOD AS
ESPECIALLY ARTICULATED FORM
WILL CREATE PAIN TO REACH A
DESIRED PLEASURE

LYTTON 44.4 [degrees] C hottest recorded temp. in Canada
3:06 entering desert
CANADA DAY CAKE @ LYTTON INFO CTR 3:35
confluence of FRASER (sediment full) and THOMPSON (glacial) at LYTTON
[shaky scrawl:] 351 leaving Lytton

many dead trees on higher slopes of desert mountains -- because of too much sun -- loss of forest cover? moth damage?
4:22 entering Kamloops forest district -- sage brush desert with ponderosa pines on the heights -- just "over the mountain" from Whistler
Cache Creek 5:00 pm

The shortsightedness and danger of irrigation -- RANT

Valley floor has cattails and sedges

GINSENG (!!) FARM 5:11
5:30 bicyclists above Kamloops Lake
Gyms rarely have fit people

SOD & LOG HUTS OUTSIDE KAMLOOPS
Be Good Tanyas -- Vancouver Newgrass
6 pm Kamloops
7:19 And now for the cookery part of our show...

8:30 JONESING FOR A---
What could be a physiological explanation for the connection I feel, and the distress at separation? Going away from Whistler was like going away from myself.

BILL BRYSON A short history of nearly everything Random House 2003 neither Here nor there

8:55 p, about to leave Squilax General Store for a walk to the Beaver lodge

THE PAIN RESOLVED ONLY IN THE PRESENCE OF THE BELOVED. I KNEW NOT THAT SOMETHING WAS MISSING IN ME UNTIL I MET HER -- NOW I FEEL THE LOSS KEENLY. I KNOW THE ANSWER TO WHAT IS MISSING LIES WITHIN, BUT SHE IS A KEY.

of all things: forget-me-nots along the shore!

9:31 at Beaver lodge saw beaver -- also least (?) sandpipers

9:45 received call from Craig and Erica at the Hostel -- A--- left today for HI Jericho and is going on the Rocky tour.

If she knew I would call HI Jericho she has a mind right for me; if not, I will make a mistake and pay for it -- it won't be the first time.

CANADA DAY FIREWORKS -- COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL

MOOSE TRAVEL NETWORK
(LAURA -- -- --) 8-6 in BC 9-7 in AB 1-888-244-6673
"we need to know your travel dates and pickup points. You have until 6 pm Vancouver time the night before to make changes to your travel pland if you are scheduled to depart on any trip leg on the following day. There is a $25 reinstatement fee for a no-show."

[box, no check] call Moose --
[box, checked] find out if A--- is on the Hoodapus or Wapiti
if yes [box, checked] find out if anyone is staying at HI Shuswap [arrow indicating process to point *]
[if no, indicated by arrow; box, checked] get number for other hostel if necessary.
[*, box, no check] GO ON WITH IANNA
[box, check] find out whether tour can be "jumbled["].

[note entered on the 2 vii 06] TIM'S COMING AT 2 TO PICKUP

30 vi 06: Whistler to Vancouver

My visit to Whistler was one of the high points of my travel through Canada. Several points contributed to that. First, Whistler is stunning. It is a group of villages set in a gorgeous mountain valley. Part of me wants to complain that these communities are so well-manicured as to seem plastic. And they are. And they do. And I still found Whistler stunning.

Whistler is basically a ski resort, and yet for the adventuresome there is no lack of activities in the summer: when we arrived, some of the ski slopes had been converted for mountain biking with huge mounds of earth built into ramps from which riders were launching themselves what seemed to me hundreds of feet into the air. As a protection against road rash -- and spinal injuries -- these riders were wearing quilted body suits, plated plastic armour, and, of course helmets. They looked as though they must be very, very hot; they also looked as though they should be actors in a science-fiction movie. But I think they were enjoying themselves.

Second, the hostel at which we stayed, although it was not particularly more expensive than the HIs in Vancouver or Victoria, was, by hostelling standards, downright posh. I shared a room with Steve: he had a single bed, and I had the lower of a bunk. We had between us a private full bath -- indeed, each of the rooms had a private full bath, as we discovered, and some had closets! The floors had plush new carpetting, and because everyone was to take off her or his shoes on entering, we could really luxuriate in this. Basically, this hostel was a private home converted for public use, and so it had a large living room which was cozy and home-like with sofas and coffee tables, and a large dining room with a big farmhouse style table and sideboards with dishes. The kitchen was also large, brightly-lit, newly-furnished with several commercial-size refrigerators, nice stainless-steel sinks, and composite counters. A large deck on the front of the house looked out towards Alta Lake and a smaller deck at the rear backed into the rocky, flower-grown hillside. Below this deck it seems was concealed a hot-tub (which I only heard about on the way back to Vancouver).

Third, I fell in love there. Oh, it was infatuation, but it was a thrill. After walking to Alta Lake on the evening of the 29th before dinner with some others from the tour, I took a quick swim in the weedy lake, and then when I returned to where we had stashed our towels and backpacks, I found an unfamiliar woman had joined our party. She was also staying at the hostel, but had arrived some days earlier and was staying to enjoy the mountain biking and running. She had also been swimming, and was drying in the sun on the little lawn between the shore and the boat-access road. She had a lovely tan, was obviously athletic, and spoke quietly with an attractive English Lake-District accent -- and yes, that is the order in which I observed these points.

I dried my hair with my towel and was preparing to go back to the hostel. She asked me what I was doing in my travels, and I gave what had become a kind of standard litany by that point: I have been sent by the College for which I work to study here and I plan to make a book narrating my travels. Well, she said, Why don't you sit down and say a little bit more about that? So I did.

But I had been preparing myself for a moment such as this, and I had learned a bit from my travels already. I did not want to be too focused on myself, and turned the conversation as much as possible to her background and her travels. This was very pleasant for me, as she had the sort of voice that hits a certain note or quality so that one's spine tingles to hear it. An hour and a half after I had planned to return to the hostel, one of the women in our tour group came to say that dinner was ready. My new acquaintance and I got up -- everyone else had already returned -- she went off to talk with some folks at the jetty and I went back to the hostel.

After dinner we met again and sat on the deck and in the living room and talked until dark, when Des, my driver - tour guide, led an expedition to Moe Joe's, which he apparently thought was an experience not to be missed. I didn't care for the experience, and furthermore hoped to meet my new acquaintance again before she retired for the night, and so I set off from Whistler in the dark, alone, and promptly became lost.

The paths in Whistler are wide, paved, and smooth. They are also dark. To the south in the night sky is a glow which I guess must be metropolitan Vancouver, but for the most part, the stars on a clear night are very bright. The trees are thick and beneath them is little underbrush, but along the creeks and in the deep shade under the trees a traveller at night hears grunting and snuffling, which might be the water rushing over the stones, or perhaps very large skunks. When later I described the sounds I heard to a native of the area, he said one word: "Bears."

On the 30th I rose early with the hope of catching A---- at breakfast, which I did: we talked for an hour or so and then she announced that she was planning to go for a run around Alta Lake. I thought perhaps I might meet her in her circuit if I went out walking. Once again, I quickly became lost on the trails around the lakes, and saw far more of the area than I had expected. About 1:30 I returned from my three-hour odyssey, and talked with A---- on the deck for about an hour and a half, at which point Erika, the hostel manager, invited her to go along on a shopping trip to prepare for a birthday party to be held that evening at the hostel. As it seemed like this might be the last we would see each other, we parted with a hug; but in fact the Moose Tour bus was delayed in its setting out for Vancouver and so we were only just boarding when Erika and A---- returned. So, very quickly, we said good-bye again, I jumped into the bus, and off we went, me hardly caring about anything else we saw that day.




Raw notes from my journal:


Checked e-mails until 1
6:45 up -- packed, downloaded photos from CF cards
10:45 off for a walk around Alta Lake
12:11 at Kagenwood Dr & Cheakamus beyond Whistler Creek(side) -- I think far SOUTH of where I want to be in residential community

Turning around & hope for better direction!

12:26 coming back into Whistler Creekside

The mountains express a tremendous permanency and solidity -- one can walk for hours and still one's relationship to the mountains remains relatively constant

How are the Appalachians like and unlike the Coastal Range?

Now I've found a roadsign I should have noticed an hour ago pointing to Whistler Village.

12:30 turning on to hiking trail beside creek at Whistler Creekside

12:42 at bridge N at forking of trail [?illegible: cross?] creek at Whistler Creek
Alpha LK park 1.5 km Whistler Ck 1 km > Whistler Village

1:04 readjusting pack; now off to Whistler Village

[A--- M----'s e-mail, written in her hand; notes on conversation with her:]

Delayed Onset Muscle fatigue syndrome DOMF

Plateau after 8-12 weeks, have to change the routine slightly every 8 weeks rotate

3:45 In Whistler Village picking up folks there -- now on to [unfinished; A---'s parting words:]

I want to hold you but I have these parcels...

[New travellers on the Moose bus:]

Kate from Melbourne
Tamara and Luke from Canberra
Ruth from London

4:35 Brandywine Falls "optical illusion" of cliffs moving
4:52 leaving BRANDYWINE
5:10 Tantalus Range Lookout
5:39 Brittania Beach 56 million tons of copper came out of the mine here until 1971 largest copper mine in the Empire
6:13 leave
9:00 arrive Hostel [Jericho Beach again] -- to grocery - back 10 pm

29 vi 06 Vancouver to Whistler: The Unsuspecting Traveller About To Be Changed

29 June leaving jericho Beach HI after thorough repacking and change of glasses -- my silver wire rims are finally shot; switched to "18th C" folding frames

8:04 waiting for the Moose Bus or something like it.
8:12 Steve from [Burnley near] Manchester
Rachel & Laurie Leeds University
Hampton
9:43 Cypress Hill Park
Steve from Burnley
Heidi from Somerset
Vicki from London
Rachel from Birmingham brunette U of Leeds
Laura from S of London blond
Sophie from Montreal
Duane from Toronto
Francisca f Switzerland Constance
Jo(sephine) f Rugby UK started in SA
Steve [Jo's husband -- a man of few words]
Jane from Melbourne
megan from Timmets ON
Elaine from outside Toronto Tio
[A woman whose name I never was able to figure out -- something along the lines of Pernilla] f Denmark
Caspar f Denmark
Shay f Cairns Australia

9:58 Hummingbirds
10:15 Grocery
12 following Howe Sound
12:20 Shannon Falls 3 highest pics show lower 1/3 of falls only
12:37 leaving

Stawamus Chief -- granite core
12:48
2:10 en route to Whistler -- basaltic columns
2:25 WHISTLER VILLAGE
2:57 AT ALTA VISTA
Erica manager

the Intrepid Traveller
The Imaginative traveller -- google

11:19 pm at corner of Valley Trail and Upper trail coming back from Moe Joes -- excessively nasty [the bar, not the corner]

Walked back by way of Blueberry Hill by mistake -- used mobile as light as req'd. back by 12;00 checked emails &c until 1

28 vi 06 Victoria to Vancouver

Raw entries from my journal:

28 JUNE 2006 VICTORIA
spoke c Suzy & Willow 5;30 this a.m.

WALKING IN HARBOURAGE -- "WESTSONG PATH"

a very strong, nauseating smell of kerosene

Bags stowed in HI Victoria luggage room and in KITCHEN there

Do a little walkabout and shooting.

The nightlife of Victoria is a bit rough, but i should be all right now.

8:06 a.m. beginning 2700+ m walk
8:34 a.m. nixed the full walk at 960 m and returned toward Yates St having taken a few photos of the harbour area & packed up the camera.

[In Ms Moriyama's neat and very small printing -- her mobile phone #] Tomomi Moriyama

10:10 arrive in [www].staincafe.com and begin downloads of cameras sent emails to Suzy and Willow

11:35 am
Serious Coffee on Yates in Victoria
eclectic "artsy" decor; three different types of flooring, otherwise basically unremarkable. Reminiscent stylistically of Senorita [Burrito] in Lancaster.
Standing rotator fan.

[box, checked] REMEMBER WHERE THE FIRST USB STICK IS! [STU'S]? IN THE FOLDER
[box, checked] ACQUIRE ANOTHER USB DRIVE

IN SERIOUS COFFEE, VICTORIA

Conversations about

tee shirts
It's hot in here, or is it just me?
it's hot -- it's the shirts

muffins
sold out of muffins, eh? Good for you -- bad for me.

Coffee
I'd like to by some coffee with good flavour.
We don't have any flavoured coffee, I'm afraid.
No, I don't want flavoured; I want good flavour.

about beer [last night with Simon and Kate]
Simon: in England, when I order "a beer" I get a dark beer [ *.] How much do you get -- here, it's like this much (indicates a small cup) -- in England you get a pint.
* The darker, the better [says Simon].

Simon orders a Shaftesbury's Wheat Ale -- a very pale beer.

Well, I didn't know what this was. I quite like wheat beer, though. I just picked one [off] the menu. I can have a [Guinness] at home.

about beer (after I downed an entire beer in about one draught):
Did you just drink that whole pint?

about travelling woman with no itinerary, little luggage, and no acquaintance with local language, culture, or situations:
Elaine from Scotland: I think it's half brave and half daft.

the Scottish women, in their mid-twenties and on their way to New Zealand, where they have work visas, have tremendous poise and wisdom.

12;10 p.m. and it's busy at the SERIOUS COFFEE. The stereo s playing old 70s songs -- "Sunshine of My Love" at the moment. Now it's the No No Song but in this case sung by Ringo Starr with Klaus Voorman

terrible brain freeze from smoothie!

Trash hauler: reFUSE Holdings Ltd.
large truck with a lift out of which roller cans are brought and exchanged.

City of Victoria hauler observed this morning employed a somewhat more conventional truck.

Bike cop.
Meter maid (metering officer, but in this case a woman)

[sketch of man observed on street several times, with arrowed labels as follows:]
sunglasses
two days beard growth
backwards baseball cap
grey Hawaiian shirt
jams
birkies
[basic label, in right margin beside sketch]
man who stood for almost twenty minutes at Yates 600 block wildly gesticulating to two others

LOTS OF BICYCLES HERE -- most pretty straight" but some considerably modified. for example, the decoupage job on the wheels of one [with a sketch]
Victoria's "no dumping" warnings are embossed in the castings of the drains.

the street markers n the sidewalk incorpoate a sort of UPC code which may be a form of braille to be read by canes

1 pm at View & Broad a white bearded panhandler sitting b a& b sound at Broad and The Bay (i.e. Hudson's Bay Co.) behind me. The Bay's Mall's architecture (190) demonstrates that the sculptural uses of brick, tile, and formed concrete in a semi-classical or semi-gothic style have not perished.

met Chestie near Chinatown -- she reported her hostel was nasty -- ours was worn but clean. Staff very involved but pleasant

walked through Fan Tan Alley

Surfing Chasid [with labelled sketch:]
crochet kippah
super-long tzitzit over shorts

To Carnaby Street -- then to Bank -- back to buy in cash ... see accounting pages 160 from machine 130 for shirt. back to hostel at 2:20
[I bought a beautifully embroidered cotton jacket-shirt from Carnaby Street for Suzy, at a considerable reduction from the marked price, and carried it carefully protected in a zip-locked plastic bag through all the rest of my travels. Donna Gross plans to write her memoirs, which promise to be most interesting. I spent the better part of two hours taking with her while in Victoria.]

...

3:15 pick up Swedes at Ocean Is.

[material deleted for legal consideration: a list of names of persons on the bus at this moment]

Check out BUG ZOO in Victoria the largest ant farm in the world

[sketch] Mt Baker in Washington State [drawn] 5:00 pm from ferry to Vancouver

W 4th St at the next past Wallace
Early Music Vancouver
1254 W 7th Av
Vancouver BC
Canada V6H 1B6

[box, no check] IN WHISTLER LOOK FOR AN INTERNET CAFE -- DOWNLOAD
[box, no check] EMAIL STU AT HOME, CALL HIS MOBILE TO CONFIRM

TSAWASSEN WHITE ROCK recommended as a nature walk

10:30 pm just after sunset at jericho beach -- guitar and drums
11:20 returned to hostel having walked out to Acacia Beach & back

27 vi 06 Tofino to Victoria

Above: Pacific Coastline near Schooner Cove, looking south towards Incinerator Beach

Raw entries from my journal:

in Victoria look for walkway around town

Post Canada
Breakers Wholefoods Cafe v. cool
8:49 departing
9:15 Schooner Cove to Incinerator Beach
9:35 out at beach -- Long Beach
10 leaving for Port Alberni
[on the way we listen to recordings of a Scottish radio programme, "The Real Radio Breakfast Show"]
Macmillan-Blowdell largest logger in canada
macMillan Park -- Cathedral grove
12:36 p.m. leaving Port Alberni
then to Coombs -- farmland established by General of Salv. Army to help 1/4 mil Welsh & English poor stuck in this area
1:00 p.m. MacMillan Park -- fun parking the bus.

Opplopax horridus devil's club [with sketch of leaf and stem]
Lee photographs us at the largest tree in Canada [with sketch of Lee, our driver, with a camera held to his face]

1:20 back on the bus to Coombs
2:10 p.m. [caption for sketch] making hay in Vancouver -- bales in stooks

ye canna geh on a lawn tractor [line of dialogue from the "Real Radio" show]

3:39 COWICHAN at MAY's Asian Cuisine to phone in eservation to Steamer's Public House in Victoria

5 p.m. checked in to room G in Victoria HI

stopped by Donna Gross's Carnaby Street store selling Afghani rugs and Guatemalan shirts

West Coast Fisherman [your guess is as good as mine, one year later!]

7:15 Steamer's Public House Victoria presentation [sketch] doiley [with arrow to doiley in sketch] paprika spilled over plates SERVICE -- all items served at once despite appetizer/entree designations. Follow up service limited.

Stir-fry veggies superlative
fries acceptable; chipotle mayo for same intriguing idea, not v. hot.
Salad mundane -- lettuce -- tomato -- cuke, red onion. Presentation nice but ingredients far from adventurous.
Guacamole acceptable, spring onion garnish.

[Comment from Scottish woman on tour as we leave Steamers: "Mark, did you just drink that whole pint?" I having just done exactly that -- downed a pint of beer in one draught... well: everyone was leaving, and I didn't want to stay alone, and I had just been given the beer; only one thing to do!]

GWEV -- Green World Electrical Vehicles [an intriguing business with a storefront near the Victoria HI]

A game of "I have never" at the hostel [liberally lubricated with hard liquor]

Youth Hostelling Association, HA -- in Britain -- avoid assiduously [on the recommendation of all Brits present]

Comment by Scottish woman to me: "You don't have much of an accent."

Elaine from Scotland
Sophie from Quebec

Carnaby Street 37 years in Business DONNA GROSS