Denman Island

 
I was so excited to see my sister. It had been 8 months and the closer I got, the more I realized how much I missed her! We spent a week with Jake's aunt and uncle Shirley and Barry outside of Seattle where they treated us to wonderful hospitality, meals and company. After outfitting us at REI, a couple of Birkram yoga sessions, a walk to the green river near their home, some wonderful meals, a tour of downtown Seattle and some great chats, we were off to Canada. Jake was crossing for the first time as a permanent resident and the border crossing was easy. We drove through Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay and went to our first ferry to Nainamo on Vancouver Island, drove north up the coast and got to the Denman island Ferry (a 10 min ferry crossing) where we barely made the ferry and were told by Jenny to get off the ferry, stay right and we would see them. Well, it was that easy and we arrived at her new business, Kaffee Klatsch Bistro.
I had seen some photos of what it looked like before my sister took over and I was blown away by how great it looked (check out the photos). It was beautiful, inviting, warm and sunny. It was everything Jenny had ever wanted, and she had finally done it. In the coming days we would taste the delicious foods (see the menu photo), and meet tons of people who would do nothing but talk about how wonderful Jenny is, what she has done to the bistro and what she has done for the community. The bistro is clearly a success and Jenny a star.
Our first day there she drove us around the island, (which would take about an hour to drive most of the main roads) and we saw beaches and mountains and water and ferries and old farmhouses and forest. It is so beautiful here and there is so much to do, even just on this small island.
We met Jenny's "morning crew" a group of men and one women who are in for coffee every morning, often before she even gets there to open, and who mostly work doing home renovations. John, one of her favorites and a father figure to her, is also a fisherman and promises to take us out on the boat. He is always volunteering to do something for someone. Don, her handyman who has and continues to volunteer his time, expertise and tools, is in charge of the project we're working on while we're here, which is to demolish and rebuild a sunroom off the bistro and make it an improved 4 season room. Wendy, the female carpenter is just one of the guys and is married to Gunther. Dusty, Jenny's boyfriends boss and good friend, lives in a beautiful house at a high point on Denman with beautiful views and is just getting a wood mill up and operating with Matt. And this is just the beginning. So many people to meet, such a small town, such a familiarity.
Our experience here so far has been so wonderful and as we walked in to supper last night (which is some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten), the "morning crew" had saved us 2 seats at their table.
Every Saturday night, the Bistro does tapas (small portions, like appetizers, where you get to try many flavors) and every time it's a new menu, put together by Kyla and Amanda. Some people, like John, order all five things on the menu, and then order some again. Others pick and choose and share. It is a delicious idea, and last night was so popular she had a full house and a sold out menu.
Speaking of food. Jenny was a vegetarian when she moved out here, and now seems to eat more meat than I do. Don, is quite proud of the fact that he has turned her back onto meat and some seafood. Asking me if I liked prawn, I explained I rarely eat sea food, but would be willing to try anything. So, the next day he brought in fresh (still alive) prawns he had just gotten from some traps and proceeded to behead them in front of me. We had about 15 prawn and instructions how to cook them (as Jenny was in Victoria for the night). We cooked a couple and liked them, though I had a bit of a hard time getting the image of the beheading out of my head, making it somewhat harder to eat. Don has promised to take us clam digging and crab hunting along the beach one day.
We have been working a lot since we've been here. First at helping my sister, doing odd things for her, but this past week we started "the work" and boy are our bodies feeling it. Neither of us have worked in months and certainly not doing hard labour, up early every day. It has been exhausting! However, it is a fun routine to get up early, head to the Bistro for coffee and breakfast with the morning crew, followed by a full day of work and some beers at someones house and then a good meal. It is a welcome change from our cheap eating and vagabond ways. Did I mention Jenny is paying us in food? We haven't eaten this well in months.
We're staying with Jenny but she has a little cabin 100 feet from the main house, with a bed, some shelving and a wood burning stove. We have been able to move out of the westy and settle a bit, which has been wonderful.
It has been so wonderful being here. Seeing my sister shine, being surrounded by beauty and nature, having a real roof over our heads and lots of great food, feeling useful (or even exhausted) and being in a routine. Almost 2 weeks we have been here and it is flying by.

See some amazing shots of Jenny's life: http://picasaweb.google.ca/tjkuenzli/25DenmanIsland#

Oregon

 
After a month in Cali, we were ready for a change. Though still planning to work our way up the coast, we felt it would be different in Oregon. Well, the first difference was the rain. Pretty much as soon as we hit Oregon, it was cloudy and misty, and rainy. And a bit colder. But beautiful, lush, rocky and emptier of people.
We started with a some beautiful views of beaches, again, and a great hike through the forest that ended on the beach. We realized we were a little tired of travelling and needed a break from maps, so we headed into the national forest in hopes of finding a peaceful place to camp. We did, or so we thought. As we drove down a gravel road, we looked ahead and saw what looked like hard mud. Kim said "Uh oh" (always the more cautious one), Jake said "it will be fine" (the less cautious one) and 2 seconds later, we were sinking into the deep mud. Well, it was messy, and rainy and the sun was starting to go down. 2 hours later after using wood, rocks, ropes and a lot of pushing, we managed to get it out, much to our surprise. We drove back out to a trailhead, without mud, and spent the next 2 nights, doing nothing but reading, playing cards and eating. It was wonderful, quiet and exactly what we needed.
Off again up the coast, we saw some beautiful light houses and the most beautiful beach we've been to, Face Rock Scenic Viewpoint. The lighting was beautiful, there were caves and rocks and we had so much fun playing with the ocean!
Found camping that night just down the road from the dunes on this beautiful lake. The rain kind of dampened the idea of hiking in the sand and after a quick visit and a short walk in the sand, we decided we would have to return another time. We arrived in Portland that night, to visit Jake's friend Jason.
The weekend was wonderful. It was sunny and warm. Jason had organized for us to have bikes and we rode around the city, down by the waterfront, visited the market and Voodoo donuts (yumm) and enjoyed the day. Saw an old friend from the Red and ended the day with a beer. Supper with Jason and his girlfriend Kelly and roommate Matt, we all had a great time. The next day we hiked through the Columbia River Gorge and saw some beautiful waterfalls and wonderful views of snowcapped mountains. The night ended with a bonfire in the backyard, a perfect weekend!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.ca/tjkuenzli

San Fran to Northern California

 
Well, we did leave Truckee as planned, but when arriving in Sacramento, we had the transmission checked out on the van and bad news, needs a rebuild. Yes, we are getting quite used to that word by now.
So, back to Truckee we went with Sarah, leaving the van in Sacramento. We were pretty bummed but managed to get some nice hiking and snowshoeing in as there had been a big storm. Their place is so beautiful, it's a wonderful place to be stuck,
Wednesday, in a rental, we headed back into town, only to find the van not quite ready, so we stayed in a wonderful hotel with a heated outdoor pool and made the best of our situation.
Thursday afternoon, we were off with a new transmission, headed to San Fran. Crossing the bridge, we headed directly to the beach and found a dog friendly one with views of the Golden Gate. San Fran is one of the most dog friendly places we've ever been. Tons of beaches and dog parks, but hard to camp for free. We were parked that night in a parking lot after watching a beautiful sunset, and police came by and said we had to leave. After driving around looking for other places, we finally found a street to park on and spent the night.
We spent the next day driving all around San Fran and loving it. It's a beautiful city with many hills, lots of charm and lots of diversity. Somewhere definately to return without a vehicle and a dog. Back to the beach for a couple of hours and then over to Oakland to visit a friend from Montreal now living there. We had an amazing supper and visit to a bar which boasts being a place where Jack London used to do his homework, and has survived the earthquake and is quite crooked. Finishing the night with some pool playing, it was a great time.
We headed up the coast, drove through Napa, St. Helens and Calistoga, cool towns though somewhat touristy. Drove through a scenic forest and up to Cobb where our wonderful free camping book indicated a cool place. We found Boggs Mountain forest, where a bike race was just finishing and tons of people were camping. We found a quiet place and enjoyed being in the forest again.
Next we drove to Sonoma, a bit more low-key and found a winery where we could taste outside, with beautiful views and Whipper could be with us. Perfect.
Drove up towards Mendocino and through some more beautiful redwood forest where we went for a hike, then, accidentally found a pull off that did not have a "no overnight camping" sign, very rare in Cali, and we watched a beautiful sunset and Jake saw his first sea-lion.
The next morning, we went back down to the water abd saw a pack of sea-lions playing in the water and interacting with us. It was so cool.
Drove North to Arcata and Eureka and did not find the free beach camping we were hoping to find, so another beach sunset and we were off to a rest area, with plans to move on to Oregon the next day.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.ca/tjkuenzli

Going inland, again!

 
From Carmel and a night spent in Walmart (if you ever are driving up through California, no it is the most difficult place we have ever had finding free places to sleep) we headed to Fresno to visit Jake's aunt and uncle Jackie and Mike. It was great getting to know them better and hanging out with them. One of the hightlights was visiting Yosemite! A place every climber dreams of (or has nightmares about). Although it was not quite climbing season, and we couldn't see some of the upper areas, we were able to drive through and see El Cap and Half Dome, often talked about peaks (see pictures). We saw waterfalls, forest, deer (but no bears, sorry Mike), we had lunch at the old lodge and took in the history, we saw camp IV and heard some of the crazy stories of people come and gone.

After a couple of days with them, we drove south just to drive north again to go to Bishop (still winter, passes were closed) to meet up with Jake's cousin Sarah and husband Jimmy (daughter of Jackie and Mike) so we could meet them and spend a couple of days climbing in Bishop. It was beautiful. The sun shone, it was even too hot at times. The hike was epic (i couldn't move for a couple of days after) and the climbing was so fun. We met up with some of their friends, camped on some quiet BLM land, away from the masses, drove near the Happies and the Sads (and saw the mattress people) saw the remnants of a forest fire that we saw at it's beginning, had some stunning views of snow-capped mountains in the distance, while climbing in a gorge with a rushing river. All this finished with an evening in natural hot spring tubs, in the middle of a field, with views of snow capped mountains (see photo with this post). It was one of the best weekends of our trip so far. Jake and I even spent the night at said hot springs (for free) and went in again in the morning (while Jake took some stunning photos).

Then, we drove up through Mammoth (with a quick visit to the infamous Schatd's Bagel, and drove up through Lake Tahoe and north past Truckee (past some stunning scenery) to where Sarah and Jimmy have built a beautiful home in the forest. We went up in elevation, so there was snow and colder weather, but the next morning Jake and I went for a snowshoe just outside their house, and it was so hot, I was in my bra (while we were in the forest). It was so beautiful.

We spent a couple of days with them, enjoying the solitude of their homes, while Whipper played with their dog Kora and we enjoyed wonderful meals and evenings by the fire. It was great! A perfect week. Thanks Sarah and Jimmy.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/tjkuenzli/

California Take II

 
It`s hard to know where to begin given how long it`s been since my last post. I have also noticed that my posts are getting longer and more detail oriented, probably for my own benefit than for my readers. Having said that, I will try to spend more time entertaining and less time writing, or just less time writing.

After leaving the Mojave and the tranquility it brought, we were not quite ready to hit the city. We stopped instead in New Jack City, a small climbing area on BLM land (which means free everything), near Barstow. Having looked at a guidebook in a store, we thought we could easily locate a few crags and have a day of climbing. Wrong. We did do some climbing, and one of the climbs was actually worthwhile, but we definately did not find what we were looking for and ended up leaving a bit early as it was cold and windy and close to rain. A lesson learnt - it`s hard to climb in an area without a guidebook when no one is around. However, the place was beautiful and you will see some of the photos that Jake took which were really cool.

On to L.A. or close to it anyway, to stay with Jake`s cousin in Rancho Cucamanga, 1 hour east of LA. I think we were pretty tired and happy to be in someones house because we didn`t move the first day. Then, we went into LA to do the tourist thing, walking down Hollywood Blvd and looking at the stars (on the street) and driving through Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Blvd. No actual stars were spotted, and we saw what we came for. Then left quickly. Another couple of days with Jake`s cousin, whom I had never met and we were off to work our way up the coast, for some more beach time!

Alas, it was not warm. But, we visited Santa Monica and the Pier, drove up through Malibu (very rocky and beautiful) and stopped in Santa Barbara on some forest service land, just off the road, overlooking the city and the ocean, sweet. The next day was spent in wine country and we even found a free wine tasting, so generous we had to have our sandwiches in the parking lot before leaving. Back to the coast, we drove and ended up in Montana de Oro State Park, just outside of Los Osos. Looking for a free place to spend the night, and having been unsuccessful, decided to stop and watch the sunset. Well, we met Bluehilda`s twin and in it an older couple from Vancouver, who informed us that the Go West store was in Los Osos, where they were spending the night, and that we would fit right in with all the other vans parked there. So sleep there we did, and of course, we ventured into the store in the morning. As the friend we met said, it`s like a candy store for westy owners. Good thing we`re already broke. Back to driving up the coast, we drove through Big Sur, saw elephant seals and Hearsts Castle, had some problems with the van, and were cold. About normal for the trip so far. The day ended with us finding a beautiful beach in Carmel by the Sea, where dogs were allowed off leash, and we spend the sunset walking up and down the beach, one of my favorite nights. And, if ever you plan on spending some time around there, know that Carmel has no sidewalks or streetlamps or house numbers, UPS delivers mail by house color, and the people are really friendly.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/tjkuenzli/