Lakes, Coastlines, and Asking the Right Questions
(written July 12)
Solutions and answers are more accessible than ever before now. A quick google search or YouTube video and you can learn about almost anything.
Finding the answer is often not the problem, it’s asking the right questions.
Our travels have taken us from Elk Bay to Powell River, then to the Sunshine Coast and finally back to the mainland.
(elk bay, vancouver island)
Powell River was a quick stop. It was one night up a logging road to Khartoum Lake, where the sun peeked out after some heavy rain, and we swam with tadpoles and made a big fire with the driftwood. lying around on the beach
Dinner was grilled longanisa sausage and cabbage with rice made with broth from Taiwan chicken bones.
The next morning, we had an early start so that we could catch the ferry at Saltery Bay, and once we arrived on the Sunshine Coast, we explored around. We went to Smugglers Cove and camped just outside Mt. Elphinstone Provincial Park. We found some yellowfoot chanterelles on our walk around. Another early start the next morning to get back on the mainland, and it was nice to be back in familiar territory.
(khartoum lake, powell river)
After a beautiful drive up the Sea to Sky highway, we stopped off at Shannon Falls for a quick walk, then went into Squamish. The farmer’s market was on, and it was nice to walk around and check out some produce, pottery, and fresh fruit and seafood.
It was rainy so we made it quick, but we found some beautiful apricots, and Annika had her first taste of BC spot prawns, which we simply ate live.
It’s interesting how the rain quickens your pace and also sort of leaves you feeling helpless in the van. Sitting there, deciding where we are going to go, it dawned on me that this van was our only real source of shelter from the wet outside.
(cleaning, downsizing, reorganizing . . . a seemingly endless task)
As we drove around Mamquam forest service road, looking for a campsite, I grew more and more frustrated.
We finally found a spot where we could park and we could hike into some campgrounds. As we didn’t pack a tent, we just set up a simple tarp shelter, cooked dinner and built a small fire just so that we could spend the late afternoon and evening outside before going back to the parking lot to sleep. As we were both tired, we went back to the van relatively early, and ended up playing cards and drinking rum for the rest of the evening. We even made popcorn inside the van, which luckily didn’t set anything on fire.
(our cozy little set up in the rain in squamish)
As I was reflecting on the day, I kept replaying the types of questions I was asking myself.
“Why does it have to be such bad weather?”
“Why does it make sense to open up a gondola and yet close a hiking trail because of COVID?”
Questions where even finding out the answer wouldn’t change the outcome of the situation.
Instead, I should have been asking,
“What are some fun things we could do when the weather is bad, since it’s inevitable we will run into some very bad weather?”
“Where are the hidden gems that we can find as the obvious sites we want to see are closed?”
It made me realize the negative types of questions I was asking during this trip and it made me realize, I think it’s time to start asking the right questions.
A few days later, I asked Annika what her favorite memory of the trip so far has been, and surprisingly, it was that night where we sat in the van, listening to the rain and playing cards.
