heading out

Here's a photo of me swimming (well, not actually swimming, but about to) at a nearby lake....I'm going to keep this one nice and short as it's getting late. But I take off from Achille and Francoise's place tomorrow (the French Canadian couple I've been wwoofing for). Achille and I are both going to a nearby music festival, in the Slocan Valley, about an hour away. Then I've talked to someone else that I may be wwoofing for next week. But I'm ready for a break for a few days, after hauling and chopping wood for, I think, 8 of the past 9 days (with a day off in the middle). Speaking of which, notice the photo below of me chopping wood. I chopped all of the wood in the pile next to me, plus another even bigger pile, and one smaller one. So I definitely had a bit of a lumberjack experience...I'm sore but mostly in a good way. And it's been great hanging out here on their beautiful piece of land. So the wwoofing thing is definitely a great idea, a good way to meet local people, travel around and do it cheaply. I literally didn't spend a dollar while I was here (except, of course, for all my unavoidable monthly bills, i.e. phone, insurance, credit cards and student loan).....I'm not sure exactly when I'll have internet access again but most likely pretty soon, so I'll write again whenever I get to another place, or at least get my upcoming plans straightened out.

chopping wood on a rainy day...

still WWOOFing

I'm now working for some other people doing the WWOOFing work exchange. I worked for a nice fellow named Joseph over the weekend, clearing out an area of weeds and then erecting an already-assembled dome greenhouse (which turned into a little bit of a fiasco, due to a lack of directions, but eventually we got it set up). He had a busy week though this week and wasn't able to accomodate me beyond just a few days, which worked out fine because I was ready to do some more exploring of the area.

So I arranged things to start helping out some other folks starting this past Thursday, then last Sunday I took off and headed up the Slocan Valley to check it out. I camped two nights by Slocan Lake at two different spots, and spent another night near some hot springs, which I didn't go in because it was already hot out, so I just went in the river instead. I did a great hike up to Shannon Lake, up above the much larger Slocan Lake, and other than that just drove around the area, explored a few back roads to see where they went, took photos, etc. But there's definitely a lot more exploring to do around here as B.C. has so many National and Provincial parks it's ridiculous. So hopefully I'll get some more free time this summer to do some more cruising around, which I'm sure I will.

Wednesday night I arrived at the house of Chanisse and Francois, a French Canadian couple who live on a nice little piece of land about 20 minutes west of Nelson. They are both originally from Quebec, but were living in the S.F. Bay Area for a while, before moving up here a few years ago. They're really nice and the food is great. So far I've worked a bit in the garden, plus yesterday Chanisse and I went and loaded up a truckful of firewood, then I spent today splitting it. Although WWOOFing implies that you'll be working on farms, that's obviously a fairly wide-open definition, as a lot of the hosts in this area seem to be simply individuals who need some help on their land. That's fine since I think it's probably a little more laid back and a more personal experience than working on a large farm. But we'll see, I'll probably get the chance to work on a farm as well for comparison. As for how long I'll be here, I really have no idea. They like about a week committment, so I'll be here at least that long, and then it'll probably just depend on how much stuff they have ledft for me to do. I like the set-up here, a nice piece of land with a creek flowing through it, and the room I'm in is pretty nice and definitely plenty quiet at night.

In the meantime, I've also gotten my application in to get an SIN card, which will allow me to work for pay in Canada. That will take 3-4 weeks to be processed, by which time I may be ready to start thinking seriously about finding some paid work. Nelson is a great little town, but I hear that it is hard to find jobs there. But I guess I'll just keep my eyes open and see what's out there, and then be prepared to head out and perhaps find some work in one of the many parks in the area, which would be a pretty good arrangement, at least through the end of the summer. So I guess that pretty well covers things for now. I'm actually in cell phone range here, and I'm able to get online here as well so I'll try and be fairly regularly in touch. Below are some photos I took over the past week...

more pics...

My car parked in front of Joseph's large dome, where I worked for a few days over the weekend:



Joseph wacking down some dead tree limbs:



A barn on the way out to the Slocan Valley:



Banoch Point, on Slocan Lake, near where I camped in an unnoffical (and free) campground the first night that I headed up the Slocan Valley:



A farmer's field:

and more pics...

A boat on Slocan Lake (in the next valley to the west from the town of Nelson, which is on an arm of Kootenay Lake; both of these lakes are pretty huge):



Cruising along:



The moon rising over Slocan Lake, but taken from an official campground where I camped at a different part of the lake, a couple of nights later:



The house for Francoise and Chalisse (the French Canadian couple that I'm currently working for):



The small shack right nearby which I'm sleeping in, but despite its outward appearance the room inside is actually pretty nice:

photo link

Here's a link that was sent to me by the folks I'll be working for next, with some photos of their land and the area in general. You should be able to get to it by clicking directly on the subject line above.

in Nakusp, B.C.

I'm going to keep this short for the time being, but I'm now exploring the Slocan Valley for a few days, which is just to the west of Kootenay Lake (where the town of Nelson is). I worked for Joseph for just three days, as he had someone coming on Sunday evening that he was going to be tutoring all week, and so he'd said when I first talked to him that he didn't want to be splitting his time, and so I could just come by for the weekend, actually Friday-Sunday. That worked out fine, because I hadn't gotten the chance yet to do a little more exploring of the area on my own. So I took off Sunday evening, but not before setting up to work for some other folks, starting on Thursday morning. But I've been out of cell phone range through this whole area of the Slocan Valley (even though there's plenty of small towns), so wasn't able to text message anybody, or send to my email account some of the photos I've taken in the past few days, to be able to post them here. So I'll try and write a little more once I get the photos sent from my phone, so that I can then upload them.

In the meantime, one cool thing that happened was that I ran into a guy, Shaun, at the youth hostel in Nelson, who I'd met previously on the island of Kauai, Hawaii back in May, after I got back from hiking the Na Pali Coast. He's from England and has actually been WWOOFing himself around North America, and had worked on a couple of farms in Hawaii. I'm sure he mentioned to me that he was going to Canada at the time, but I'd forgotten and so of course it was a pretty big surprise to run into him here, especially considering how big Canada is. So, since I don't have any other photos to post right now, here's one he just emailed to me from Kauai, from sometime around early May. This was at a potluck get-together at Hanalei Bay with some friends of my friend Jasmine (which was how I'd met Shaun to begin with, who was a friend of a friend of hers, both of whom were visiting from the Big Island). I must admit, I look pretty damn tan here. To my immediate right is a girl from England who lived on Kauai, but I forget her name, and then Jasmine is next over, but unfortunately her back is turned. But anyway I'll wrap things up here for now, and just try to write again later this week or else maybe over the weekend.

a few random photos

I made it to Nelson, British Columbia, Canada yesterday evening. I'm staying for the next few nights at the Dancing Bear Hostel here in town. I have to keep this short as I only have a few minutes left on the library computer here, but here are a few photos...

A nice sunset in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho last Monday (I stayed at a campground near there for two nights before arriving in Canada):



In front of the hostel here in Nelson:



Baker Street, which is pretty much Main Street, in Nelson:



This is a photo my brother just sent me, hitchhiking in front of a "No Hitchhiking" sign in Washington State last summer, when my dad and brother visited just before I left Portland for my big trip:

in Missoula, Montana

I left the Rainbow Gathering in Wyoming yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, drove all the way to Missoula, Montana and stayed in a hotel here last night. I'm just taking care of assorted business here for a little while, then I'll probably head out of town sometime in the next couple of hours, after I finish up online (I'm in the local library), get some more food for the road, fill up the gas tank and that's about it. I've got limited time online here, so I'll make this pretty short. But from here I'm headed west into Idaho, then will be going north up through the finger of Idaho, and then into Canada, headed for Nelson, B.C. I emailed a bunch of the WWOOFing farms in the area before the Rainbow Gathering, and so got a number of replies back. Some of them are already full for the summer or otherwise don't need people, but a handful of them did say they could use some help, so it looks like I'll just have to make up my mind which one sounds the most interesting. Some of them included photos and the area definitely looks pretty gorgeous.

One other note, I think I mentioned it already but just to make sure, unfortunately I won't be able to make many phone calls while in Canada, since I'll get charged 50 cents a minute to use my phone on top of my usual monthly bill. But the good news is that sending text messages, including photos, from my phone is still cheap, so I'll try and send photos every once in a while to people who can actually view them, and also I can send photos to my own email account, and then either email them or post them here. Speaking of which I did that with some photos I took at the Rainbow Gathering and will include them below. So, I guess I'll probably be writing next from Canada (although I'll make some more phone calls while I'm still here in the U.S., possibly for the next day or two)....

Here's a nice sunset while driving through Wyoming to the Rainbow Gathering:



This is where I camped the night before I actually got to the gathering, although it was only a few miles away. I decided to camp here rather than dealing with the crowded parking area, and trying to hike into the gathering area (which occurrs away from where all the cars are) in the dark:



This is one of the few big structures built by one of the kitchens, Granola Funk. It's a stage for music, plays, etc. Other than this though, mostly it's just people playing music around campfires:



This is a kitchen in the woods set up by my friend Jeffrey, where I hung out a bit:

more photos

Here's a self-portrait taken at the main meadow:



People gathering for the 4th of July (silence during the morning, then around noon people start making music and just have a good time all afternoon):





The dinner circle in the main meadow the evening before I left:



A map of the gathering site with all of the kitchens (there's more than 100) and other things of interest going on: