Of course no plan goes perfectly and true to form my friend
was not on the first ferry. Which was a good thing in that I got to meet a
really interesting guy waiting for the ferry going the other way. It turned out
that we had all kinds of things to talk about including climate change (he knew
a lot about the science etc. and in fact had done some work in the Andes in
terms of glaciers), the fact that mercury, because coal fired power plants, is in
the BC watershed, that there was no significant moisture going to come to the
west coast for at least the next 10 days (he had just looked at the Pacific
Ocean's weather maps) and post-polio syndrome (he had it). At one point he
asked if I was a doctor or a scientist. I think that was because I knew what
post-polio syndrome was and not many people do.
It was a great twenty minute conversation and like so many
of the ones that I have when I am travelling, I really wished we could have
talked for another hour or two. However the ferry came in and he was off to
Denman Island. He gave me his business card. Maybe one day I will reach out to
him, but probably not. Those fleeting conversations that I have, those brief
chats that pop out of nowhere and are almost as quickly gone are, I think, best
left to the traveller on the road.
When my ride came off the ferry, I quickly threw my pack
into the back and we were off. Our first stop was Courtney both to pick up
another traveller and then to buy a few supplies for the kitchen (and perhaps a
few treats for ourselves). It was a happy trip. All three of us had been to a
number of Gatherings and were excited to be on our way. The roads were great,
there was not much traffic and before I knew it we were in Gold River. Gold
River is a small town which is about three hours north of Nanaimo. It roots are
in logging and mining and while those industries have either disappeared or
significantly declined, it still looks like a healthy town. We stopped at a
small restaurant/coffee shop because it was reputed to have the best muffins on
the island. The single staff person was an absolute delight. Chatty, informative
and just plain friendly. It was worth the stop.
Forty or so kilometers later we left the gravel road and
turned on to a surprisingly well maintain and high passable logging road. At
the corner, sitting on his comfortable camp chair was a hitchhiker waiting for
a ride to the Gathering. I knew this
person well as we had met at the 2004 Quebec Gathering and I had driven him
back to Peterborough. We had run into each other a few times in Victoria and
once even in Peterborough. More recently we had both been at the pot luck
supper in Coombs to discuss the Gathering. It was going to be more than a bit
crowded inside the Jeep so we took some of the stuff out of the back and tied
it to the roof.
We stopped a few time to build some small rock cairns, the
traditional Rainbow sign that one is on the right road. In what felt like just
a few minutes (although I assume the two guys in the back were a bit more
uncomfortable) we came to a section of the road where there were cars parked.
We assumed we were home.
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