Friend of Molly

I had intended when I first planned my trip to return home from Canada via Highway 395, which begins at the Canadian border and ends on the south end of the Mojave Desert, not far from where I live. I’ve always loved the road as it borders the eastern Sierras through much of California, then cuts starkly, beautifully, through the desert. But other plans interfered. Robin agreed to go camping with me a few days the week of August 23. (It’s her 24th birthday on August 28, and this is part of her celebration.) In order to meet up with her on time to spend those days I had to leave Canada two days earlier than I had planned. So I took a more direct route. I headed south from Kootenay pretty much on Highway 95, ... read more

I camped two nights in Yoho. The whole time I was there I kept singing the "Pirates of the Caribbean" song, "yoho yoho a pirate's life for me," though I was more likely to sing the church camp version to the same tune, "yoho yoho a Christian's life for me. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below, praise God above ye heavenly hosts, Creator, Christ, and HO-ly Ghost. Yoho yoho.... etc." The first day, Monday, I drove up to Takakkaw Falls and hiked a bit up Yoho Valley. The second day, the 18th, I went to Emerald Lake, iconic Canadian Rockies lake, and hiked up to Emerald Basin. This was a much more substantial hike, climbing steeply up from the valley floor and wandering up and down over a trail ... read more

What’s Different in Canada? They speak with an accent. The “ou—“ sound in “out” is a quick little dipthong—ah-oo. Ah-oo-t and ah-bah-oot (about), etc. It’s amazing how many words have that sound in them, and how often people say “out” so that I keep being reminded I’m in a foreign country. They also very slightly burr their r’s. Rrregal. The “i” like in “night” is a bit close-throated—ah-ye. They say, “Nice day, in-nit?” The combination sounds a bit Scottish, a bit US Midwestern. Some have stronger accents than others. Restrooms/bathrooms are called “washrooms.” Center dividers in the road are called “barriers.” Left turns are difficult because there are not many left turn lanes. If you are heading one direction on a two or three lane road, and you want to go to the left, sometimes you ... read more

Whistler is too fancy for me. In the midst of what I'm sure are glorious mountains, shrouded in clouds, dripping with rain, you have to pay $2 an hour to park on a crowded horseshoe-shaped street of boutiques, bistros, and landscaped bits of wilderness walkways. Molly and I slept well, however. The forecast called for more rain so I decided not to camp at Nairn Falls, just a bit east of Whistler, where I had reservations. We did stop there for a hike to see the falls, then headed east through the mountains on Highway 99, the same 99 as the oleander landscaped Central Valley road. Beautiful country, hardly any traffic, no parks, no campgrounds, just woods, streams, mountains. Coming down the other side of the range, the country dries out. You see sage brush and ... read more

I’m back in internet territory after two days camping along Hwy 4 which runs west across Vancouver Island to Pacific Rim National Park. Tomorrow I take the ferry from here, Comox, sweet little seaside town, to Powell River on the mainland. Now I’m exhausted, stinky, ready to take a shower and sleep in a bed for a night. From Nanaimo we headed west on Hwy 4, stopping at Englishman River Falls Provincial Park, lovely hiking up and down the river to view the two falls and the deep green water. Then further west to Little Qualicum River Falls PPark, where I had camping reservations. These falls were even more spectacular, more bucolic, more deep green. The campground is spread through deep forest, so well-maintained that it looked like the gravelly dirt had been raked in my ... read more