As The Crow Flies

Laen Finehack taught me this and I had an opportunity to use it this morning. If you grab a Sharpie out of your pen can instead of your whiteboard marker, and start drawing on your whiteboard with it, just grab your whiteboard marker and draw over it and it will come off.

It froze last night; time to get serious about getting some wood in. My chainsaw won’t start; I’m not so sad about it because I’m thinking about buying wood this year.

Today, on my walk back to my cabin, I met a vehicle with a drunk guy and a teenager in it. The vehicle didn’t have a windshield and had a bale of hay in the back. He was lost and asked directions. He was trying to clutch start his vehicle so he was stopped there, I walked a little ways and saw a beer can lying on the ground. I called back at him, “Hey, is this your beer can?” The kid shrugged and the drunk guy said, “Ahh, yeah maybe it fell out”. When I got up to my gate I saw someone had drove right through my fence and there was another Bush can sitting there.

Hunters I suspect. They drive all over the place like they have some right to. They throw out a bale of hay, get drunk and wait for a deer to come eat the hay and then shoot it. When they leave they toss their beer cans out their windows.

I got a sledge hammer and was trying to straighten the metal fence pole and get the fence back up when this little dog came walking up to me. My nearest neighbors are a mile away and they don’t have a dog. I carried the dog up to my cabin and gave it some water outside. Then I went inside and called my neighbor to see if they knew anyone with a little dog. They didn’t.

When I went back outside, the dog was gone. I went back down to my gate to work on it. A pickup drove past me with two guys with camouflage caps on; I said, “I don’t want hunting on my land if that is why you are coming up here.” They said, “No problem”

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Even though when I bought my water access only cabin in coastal British Columbia, I had dreams of kayaking home after long trips up to Alaska and down to the Puget Sound, I had never even kayaked the 18-22 miles into town.

While up at my BC cabin, this time, a section of my stovepipe rusted out. It was getting colder and I was longing for adventure, so one morning I started out to town to buy a section of stovepipe. It was nine before I got my kayak loaded and ready to go and I knew that by noon or so the water can get really rough but my inner voice assured me that I should go.

I had the first 9 miles done in 2 hours and despite not having paddled a kayak in a year and the upper body weakness of a long distance hiker, I felt great. Then the wind and the chop started. In the next hour I had only gone 2 miles.

It was where two inlets come together and I would have an unprotected crossing ahead. My inner voice was egging me on but I began to suspect that my inner voice was trying to kill me, so, I paddled into a little cove with a beach. When I pulled my skirt off from the kayak, a wave came up and swamped my kayak. I turned the kayak back over and pumped it out. Then pulled it up on the rocky beach.

I could see by the seaweed and mussels attached to the rocks that this beach disappeared when the tide came in. I changed into some dry clothes, (Note: You might as well just wear rain pants when you kayak in coastal BC ) then pulled out my pad and stove, and reclining against the rocks made a hot beverage and thought about things. Up on the rocks, was a spot that might be big enough for my tent.

About then it started to rain so I decided to try to get my tent set up there. It required hauling up some rocks to secure my tent because I couldn’t get my tent stakes in very far before they hit rock.

Then I took on the arduous task of hauling my kayak up the rocks. To the painful sound of gel coat scraping away, I pulled, pushed, and carried it precariously up the rocks. I tied it to a tree up there.

Then I crawled into my tent to wait out the rough water and rain. I knew I should only be grateful for this site but it slopped terribly into the sea. Of all the campsites I have ever had, I must say this one was as far from flat or comfortable as I have ever had.

I decided to wait until morning to paddle into town because I didn’t know where I was going to sleep once I got there anyway.

The next morning, the rain had stopped and the water was calm. I paddled into town but now I was sore and it was much tougher.

I spent that night in town and paddled all the way back the following day. I didn’t want to because I was sore, but lots of rain was in the forecast in the coming days, so I thought this was the best day to be going. My shoulders burned, my wrists were swollen and painful, and I was tired.

When I got back to my cabin, I replaced the stovepipe, made a fire, laid down on my couch and quickly fell asleep. I laid on that couch for the next 3 weeks and watched the rain fall.
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After a month at my BC cabin, I have made it home to my winter cabin on the sunny side of the mountains. It’s been 5 months since I left it and I as I drove home I wondered if everything would be alright. Would I come home to find someone had stolen my solar panel and my chain saw? If I came home and found that I had been robbed I thought I would just buy a ticket to somewhere and go.

But as I got to my locked gate, it was just as I left it. I was tense as I drove up to my cabin and was relieved to find everything untouched.

As I unlocked my cabin I noticed the window in my front door was frosted over. I opened the door to find my entire cabin coated with a thick white dust. Some of my books had been knocked of the shelf and lay on the floor covered in this mystery stuff.

There were no foot prints in the dust and it was as complete a job as could be done. It wasn’t just horizontal surfaces everything was coated even vertical surfaces.

Thinking this may be a diabolical threat on my life and possible anthrax, I thought I should save a sample to have it analyzed.

After taking pictures to document this malicious dust attack, I started throwing everything outside. I tried to vacuum but I could only vacuum for a minute before the filter would plug.

Suddenly I had an idea of what it might be. Up in the loft I have a large fire extinguisher. I went to check it and sure enough it was empty and the hose was hanging loose.

It had apparently gotten so hot in my cabin that the fire extinguisher blew. If you have ever wondered what happens when a extinguisher goes off in a small cabin let me tell you. The stuff goes everywhere. Under the couch is heavily coated, the walls, the windows everything. It blew with such force that it blew my books off the shelf.

Man, what a mess. So I went into town, bought a shop vac, and washed everything.

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Going up to my BC cabin for a bit. Selling it is on my list of things to do.

My post hike recovery time of eating, watching tv and looking at the Internet is coming to an end.   It’s time to move on to one of my cabins and start preparing for winter.

Life is so easy on the trail; all you have to do is get up and hike every day.  My thoughts on the trail are only: how much food do I need, how much water do I need, how many miles can I walk, and what a great view.  In the real world there are so many options and things to think about and do.   I miss the trail.