A-Hunting We Will Go

Winter is drawing to a close, and our little home is beginning to turn its mind again to the outside time of year, when we exchange the fireplace for the barbecue, fabrics for seeds, weekends curled up with a movie for weekends camping and hiking. Last night, Meg sketched out the route for an April roadtrip to Death Valley for some desert-hiking – a place that attracts enough to get me to enter the United States for a significant period of time, which doesn’t happen all that often or all that easy. And we are talking much these days about gardens – what to plant this year and where, how precisely to set a bathtub in the soil to hold some bamboo for privacy screening, where to establish a bee-hive, how to proceed with the digging up of the front yard for a pond, berries and other exciting things, and what neighbourhood projects we can get going over the next few months. So much to think off, as we shake off hibernation and get ready to step out once again.

Read Full Post »

Miracle Adventure Camping with Anarchists and Grizzly Bears

So, we had planned a week long kayak trip in Desolation sound, and were super-excited about it. For a number of reasons, that ended up needing to be re-thought, and we prepped instead for a few days paddle-camping around Rum and Portland Islands, off Victoria. However, date of departure saw crazy-ass fog, winds and rain, and Meg and I bailed on the trip and the friends who were to guide us – this being our first kayak adventure, and we feeling that we were not up to the challenges of the weather this first time out. Just as well, since be eyesight had so drastically deteriorated by that point that I couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of me in the best of conditions.

(Oh yes, for those unaware – I have discovered I have super-bad cataracts that have been stealing my vision. Went in last week to have one lens removed and replaced with an artificial one, and will have the second eye done sometime this fall. Sight is certanly welcome back into my life, as it’s been incredibly hard living near-blind these past months.)

So, back to it. we ditch the kayak plan, hop in the car and head for the mainland, and decide – what the hell, let’s drie to Manning Park, camp, paddle about the lake in canoes, and spent a day in the interior buying fruit for canning. And so we did, and so I decided in  flash of genius that we should spend this Thanksgiving with as many people as possible camping on Lightning Lake in the cold and dreary fall, and making out Thanksgiving feast on the campfire.

Well, Meg got excited. So far, though, we have not had much in the way of enthusiastic response.

And so, let me toss it out here once again, less because it is going to generate response – indeed I think we are now resigned to the fact this trip will not happen, as we won’t have the 20 or so people we need for a group site – and more just to have somewhere to store this little idea so that we might come back and revisit it again sometime in the future.

Miracle Adventure Camping with Anarchists and Grizzly Bears – a fast-fading dream….

The Event:
Miracle Adventure Camping with Anarchists and Grizzly Bears

The Dates: October 9-12
Thanksgiving, indeed. But a Thanksgiving dinner cooked on open flame at lakeside.

The details:
Carloads of East Van radicals descend upon a group campground at Manning Park on Friday, October 9th. Saturday we canoe, fish, play music, sing songs, hike, drink beer, eat well, and complain about the cold and probable rain.
Sunday we do more of the same, but devote some portion of our day to preparation of a Thanksgiving dinner on Lightning Lake. We eat too much, we drink too much, we laugh loudly and often. We are likely cursed by the children we send to bed and then keep awake with our carryings-on.

The location:
Manning Park, of course, is a short three hour drive – far enough to ditch the city, not so far that it can’t be easily achieved on a Friday after work or with any children who might be coming along.
Lone Duck Campground on Lightning Lake. This is a gorgeous spot, flanked by mountains. Group campsites include a large covered area, several picnic tables, and a woodstove, all of which make it possible to have a big-ass outdoor party even in the middle of October.

The commitment:
If this is going to happen, we need to book a site, and that means we have enough committed participants to make it happen. So, let us know as soon as possible if you are in for sure, or in possibly, or simply not in at all.

Ooooh yeah.

Well, that was the idea anyway.

Read Full Post »