Amplified Thoughts

Holiday Blog Part 2

Day Three

All I had to do this day was get to Saltspring Island, and set up camp. It was a very cold morning, and since I didn’t yet pick up a bbq lighter for my campstove, I broke camp and heading towards the ferry, although not before taking a much needed dip in the Harrison Hotsprings Public Pool!

I thought I got to the Ferry fairly earlier (2:30pm), but little did I know … a lot of people like to travel to Victoria on Monday afternoons! After only few hours wait, I was off and sailing. Thankfully, once we hit Swartz Bay, it was a quick turnaround, and I was right on another ferry heading to Saltspring Island.

As I was packing my camping stuff down to the campsite, I heard some of my “neighbours” yelling in joy! I went over to see what was up, and sure enough … the Canucks beat Dallas!! Buoyed by the Canucks win, and set up camp, had some tea, and went to bed with the sound of the surf/ waves/ and occasional ferry going by.

Day Four

It was raining, and it was cold … and I didn’t much feel like getting out of my toasty sleeping bag! So I waited, and when the rain seemed to stop – I quickly got dressed and ventured outside. It was beautiful out there, albeit a bit chilly still! The camp sites are all on a large grassy slope overlooking the ocean. So picturesque! I wanted to eat some fruit, but my colder self informed me that something hot was required. So oatmeal it was.

After that, I was still cold, so I decided that the best way to warm up would be to take a “little” hike. Now I must explain … up to now everything on the Parks map looked huge, but ended up being quite small in actual distance. Knowing this, I did something out of character for me, I didn’t bring my backpack with water and extra food. I thought one fruit bar would do it for me, since I just had a hearty oatmeal breakfast. This has my first mistake of the day.

I hiked for a while, and saw some amazing sights! The day was still cloudy, and a bit drizzily, but I was enjoying my time by the sea. I thought I arrived at the end of the trail, and like I thought, I thought the trail would be longer. It was nice none the less. Then I found more trail, so I thought – let’s see where this goes. Where it went was farther and longer then I had anticipated, and the cold I had seemed to be sapping more energy then I had thought it would. By this time my oatmeal wasn’t giving me much energy, so I broke out the fruit bar, a bit earlier then I wanted to, but hey it should give me energy for quite a while.

With the end of the trail in site, I was exhausted! That kind of tired where you’re not thinking very clearly, but I was so close to the end! I soldiered on, and reached the end of the trail! Whew! I was soo glad! I took some time to rest, and then turned it around to go back to camp.

I decided that I’d take the most direct route back to camp, rather then the scenic/ meandering route. This was a good choice, in theory. I got to the point where the trail turned to head directly to camp, checked the sign to make sure I was in the right place, and kept hiking. It was supposed to be only 700meters to the next signpost. I hiked, and hiked, and hiked, and thought I must have taken a wrong turn! Rather then heading directly back to camp, I seemed to be gaining elevation, and heading west of camp. I kept going until the trail I was on ended. Uh oh! I calmly looked around, but I couldn’t find if the trail kept going anywhere near. I knew there was a farmer’s field nearby, so I bushwhacked a bit to see if there was any kind of trail there … nope. I remarked to myself “this is how people get lost and in trouble in the woods” lol! My only option was to backtrack on myself, and pray I missed a trail that lead back in the general direction of the camp. Turns out I did. There was a little, not very well marked, trail that heading in the direction I should be going … and there were trail markers letting me know I was on the right track! Praise God! Those markers became very precious to me! I was constantly worried from then on that I’d get “off trail” but seeing those markers every 50 meters or so kept me knowing that I was on the right path.

In the end it turned out, rather then taking the shortcut back to camp, I didn’t take the right trail, and took the longest way possible to get back to camp. I also hiked to the highest point of land in the camp. Earlier, it was my plan to hike that trail, but in that moment it really didn’t matter! My lesson: NEVER forget your water/ extra food when taking a hike! Funny how the most powerful lessons learned often have to cost you something. To cap off the hike, the sun finally came out, and it turned out to be a beautiful day!

Day Five

I packed up my tent and belongings, and headed off to Vancouver Island, stopped briefly at a coffee shop in Ganges where I had left my MEC jacket the night before. Once I arrived in Victoria, I found my brother’s townhouse, where he’d been living this past year in Victoria, settled in and watched the hockey game.

Day Seven

I was planning on resuming camping this day … however the forecast called for rain all day! So, Cory allowed be to stay at his place one more day, even though he was gone, on the road back to Smithers. The forecast seemed to smarten up, and said it was only going to be a showery day. So I decided to take a walk. The walk was fantastic, however the “showers” actually meant “rain”. I was was pretty drenched by the time I got back to the house!

Overall, it was a really great holiday. It was nice to come and go as I pleased, with no paricular place to be. After my holiday I still had a young leaders retreat called TimeOut in Victoria, and a BC PAOC District Conference in Victoria as well. So I almost had a full 2 weeks off. Very nice ... very nice indeed!

posted by Jesse @ 4:49 p.m.