Crossing Canada With The Maplemusketeer Volume One - An Overview (June 2014) | Page 30
This trip is not something I do casually
or easily. It is something that makes
me nervous, and intimidates me. There
are many questions that caring and
concerned family and friends ask that
I don’t have simple answers to.
A new day, a new adventure. My
friend Nicole and I head out along
the west coast to where the forest
meets the sea in the protected
area of Juan de Fuca Provincial
Park. We’ve developed a rainforest
adventure technique that takes
advantage of the fact that storm
cells often rotate storm fronts
across sections: drive through the
rain to the next park along the
coast that isn’t getting rained on.
Start there.
How will you get between places?
How will you make money?
How will you find enough to eat?
What are you doing?
It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know
if it will work. But it is the best thing I can
think to do. I have invitations to stay with
friends old and new across the country,
I have some sporadic writing work,
some money coming back from the
gov’t, and I only need to figure out how
to get one more step down the road.
Being in the coastal rainforest
with friends is one of my favourite
places to be.
It’s still really freaky.
By the evening of Day Two I’m
assaulted with doubts, feel sick to my
stomach, feel attacked with fears, and
after a half hour of wrestling with it
I reconfirm to myself that this is the best
that I can think to do, that I’d rather
‘fail’ at something I believe in, and
learn from it, than succeed at things
I don’t really care about. Grounded,
and somewhat internally exhausted,
I go to sleep.
Nicole Barrette:
http://cerro-torre.tumblr.com/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65165986@N03/
Canada’s Oldest Chinatown Victoria
Hanging Out West Coast Style Mystic Beach
Victoria – Nanaimo – Campbell River – Egmont – Sechelt – Vancouver – Abbotsford – Hope – Yale – Revelstoke – Golden – Calgary – Didsbury – Edmonton – Farmer’s Field – Kola – Winnipeg – Nivervil e – Toronto – Kitchener – Woodstock – Sauble Beach – Stouffvil e – Newmarket – Orleans – Montreal – Moncton – Halifax
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