To jump out of a perfectly serviceable airplane!

So last time I walked all the way to Vernon to go sky-diving but had to turn back because the Solo Jump Course was only on Sundays.
I hitchhiked my way back to Kelowna and there decided to drop by a Wendy's to make use of the internet, and here I met my co-worker from the berry farm I worked at for six weeks, purely by luck.
He had moved on to a new farm and proposed to take me along to his new place, and so I did. I stayed on the farm for a few days, but left on Saturday to hitchhike back to Vernon for the skydive on Sunday. Right before leaving I walked up to the boss to ask if he could maybe use me to work for a week or so, and he said he would find a spot for me. Which is great, because this allows me to get some money back that I will spend on skydiving, and will keep me going a little bit longer when I move down into the U.S later on!
And as a bonus, he gave me a ride downtown as well, from where I started my hitch to Vernon.

It took me a little while to walk to the edge of town and then a bit longer to get a ride, but when I got one it was a car with three nice guys inside, two of them of around my own age, the third one an older man who I think might have been the father of one of the two other guys.
On the way to Vernon we had a pleasant conversation which I really enjoyed, and they dropped me off in Vernon at the intersection toward the airport.
I had decided I did not want to take another motelroom because it is expensive and I want to save some money, and so I walked down to a McDonalds and spent a few hours playing a game (I have finally found an old game that will actually run well on my little netbook haha! Knights and Merchants to the rescue!)

When the McDonalds was about to close I had to get out, and so I resumed my walk toward the airport. I got to the sky-diving company office and found a little river nearby which was conveniently out of sight, and it had a little wooden platform to keep me off of the grass too!
So I plopped down my inflatable matress and my sleeping back and settled down for a night underneath the stars, which shone quite brightly on this side of town.

The little river with the wooden platform

Early next morning I got up freezing cold. Apparently the temperature had gone down to around 2 degrees in the morning, and my sleeping bag had gotten a little wet due to the morning dew.
I packed up my stuff and climbed up the little hill and to the skydiving office, where people were looking at me a little bit weirdly (I guess they are not used to people sleeping out like this haha, and I can't blame them). I introduced myself and met the three other guys who were going to do the Solo Jump Course with me. Then the course started.

It lasted about 5 hours I think, and we were taught the basics of the equipment, what they looked like and what they were used for, and practiced getting out of the plane, the arch one has to be in when sky-diving (a large hard X-shape, which I failed miserably to maintain during the actual jumps), and also what to do should the parachute happen to falter in some way.
They taught us the signs of each possible problem and how to proceed should it occur, and how to fly and steer the parachute, and just as important: how to land. And after all this there was a test to see if we remembered all of this stuff well.

Calm and ready to go!

By now everybody except one was pretty confident in our ability to safely come down back to the ground. I was feeling excited but calm, and to be honest not very scared. I have some experience with dangerous situations in outdoor sports like rockclimbing and though it is not exactly the same thing, it is reasonably similar. I have learned to trust equipment and instructors and not doubt too much, and hence I was able to keep calm and look forward to my first ever skydive with excitement instead of fear.

Now ofcourse, it was time for the jump!
And though it usually isn't available for people in the Solo Jump Course for fear of them getting too distracted from their duties during the jump, my jumpmaster had a GoPro camera on his helmet which he uses to coach sky-divers in training and thus was filming my exit and freefall.
Thus I have a video to show you, which is awesome!

After that first jump I had the opportunity to go for a second jump, which I decided I would do because why the hell not? I am here now, and what better opportunity will I get? Let's go again!

After this second jump I had nothing else to do and was trying to make up my mind about what to do next. I was figuring I could best sleep by the creek another night before trying to go back to Kelowna, but then I learned that my jumpmaster actually lived in Kelowna, and he was able to give me a ride back that same day. And so I waited for him to finish his workday, and being a cool guy, he drove me all the way back to the apple orchard where I now work.
And as it happened, he lived in Holland for 18 years and so I was able to talk with him in Dutch, which I have not done for a pretty long time unless it was on the phone, so that was cool.
Though he spoke English with no recognizeable accent and my first instinct was to speak English to him, which we did for a little while untill I thought "Why the hell am I speaking in English? We're both Dutch!" and resumed the conversation in Dutch. It was an awesome day to be sure!

Now though I am at an apple orchard and I will stay here for around a week or maybe a bit longer before moving on. Internet is sporadic there so I fill my time watching movies and playing Knights and Merchants, and reading books as well. Which is a nice pass-time from all the work.
I will make another post when I have moved on and have something else to talk about! But to close things off, I decided to make a couple of screenshots of the video's just for fun.

Looking down at my landingzone

Calm and ready to go!

Climbing out

About to let go! And despite my expression I quite enjoyed all of this lol.

And off I go!

Moving on...

So after six weeks of work the time to move on had finally come.
During my time in Kelowna I met several nice people, at work and outside of it too, which I am really happy about! But I also got itchy feet again, and so I was feeling kind of happy and sad at the same time. Nothing to do about it but simply move on, though!
But first I'll show you a little bit of the place I was staying for so long. The first video is an overview of Kelowna by evening. The second video is me showing off my home!

So the plan I had made for myself was to go sky-diving in Vernon, where you can do a solo jump course, even if you have never done a skydive before.
The idea of a tandem jump annoyed me and is almost enough for me not to want to go skydiving at all, so I was really happy about finding out about this!
The reason I dislike the idea of a tandem jump is that you don't really have to do anything. You are strapped to an instructor who does everything for you, and you are just there to enjoy the view. In another post I think I mentioned something about outdoor sports not really being an adventure because they were guided activities. They were simply adventurous, not an adventure.
And this applies to skydiving for me as well. "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all!"
Hence the reason I want to do my first skydive solo.

The second part of this plan concerned getting to Vernon.
Up till now I have been hitchhiking pretty much everywhere, and I decided I needed a bit more exercise! So I thought I would walk to Vernon, about 50 kilometers north of Kelowna.
Which I did! I now have a sore back and sorer feet, but I did it! It took me about three days, walking 20k on the first and last day, and around 10 on the second.

Before the walk. Put on some Creedence and I'm good to go!

On the first day I managed to get to Winfield. On the way there a total of 6 (!) cars pulled over to offer me a ride, without me doing anything for it! This was on a back-road from Glenmore though, and not on the major highway (the 97), and as such I walked between a lot of farms and woods, and there were plenty of opportunities to pull over.
When I got to Winfield I decided to get a motel for the night. While finding a wifi spot to look at motel rates in town the sixth car pulled over to offer me a ride. After I explained what I was doing he turned his car around to get back on the road, stopped again and called out to me a second time.
I didn't understand what he was saying due to the noise and so I walked over to him, and he handed me a can of Heineken! Now that was a treat after a long day of walking haha!
After he drove off it turned out that none of the nearby motels had a room available because there was some kind of Art Walk in town, and so I had to walk a bit further untill I found a motel with rooms available at last. By then it was already completely dark, but that didn't matter.
After checking in I had the first hot shower in six weeks! No longer did I have to use a garden hose to shower, and boy did I enjoy it! And as an extra bonus, a real bed with a real pillow!
Needless to say I slept extremely well that night haha.

When I woke up the next day I went to the desk to check out, and found the owner with two friends sitting at a table talking and making jokes, and he offered me some coffee. I took tea instead, because I don't like coffee. I sat around for about an hour talking with them, and in this time I got the first offer of a ride for the day, which I again declined.
I started feeling as if I should start wearing a sign on my backpack that said "NOT HITCHING!"
On this day I had a choice between following the main highway 97, or take another back-route which was a bit of a detour, but taking the advice of the three men I was sitting with I dediced to follow the 97.
Regardless of following a major highway another two cars pulled over for me, one of them actually quite a bit ahead because there was no room where I was walking! So he found a spot further down the road (which I couldn't even see yet) and he waited there untill I reached him. I felt bad for declining his offer, but I had made up my mind. I shook his hand and thanked him a lot for pulling over, because needless to say I did really appreciate it.

On my way to Oyama at one of the resting places by the side of the highway.

This is Woods lake.

On this second day I reached Oyama, where I sat down at the beach for a while to enjoy the view and relax my feet and back. I bought some icecream and a new pair of sunglasses which broke the very same day and I dumped them. I apparently have no luck with sunglasses, because this is the third pair that either got lost or broke.

Oyama Beach overlooking Woods lake.

After that I walked out of Oyama and followed the highway. The view was great, and Oyama is a nice place. It is situated between Woods lake and Kalamalka lake (in the native tongue 'the lake of many colours'), which are both huge and I followed them for the second and third day of my walk!
Between Oyama and Vernon there is nothing however, just some farms and lakeside houses, and so I had to improvise a place to sleep for the night.
First I cooked some noodles by the side of an old highway a bit further down the hill which had almost no traffic while running parallel to the new highway, and after packing up again and walking further I finally found a reasonably hidden spot to pitch my tent. I actually wanted to sleep under the open sky but in my infinite wisdom I had checked the weather report and saw there was rain forecasted, and so I pitched my tent in a place that didn't actually have room for it at all.
The tent was deformed and I ended up sliding down the hill and off to the left side of my matress during the night, BUT I was dry and safe from rain!

Can you see my tent? :)

Thankfully this side had some good foliage.

Early next morning with an overcast sky, overlooking Lake Kalamalka.

I planned on getting up early the next day to pack up my stuff before it was too light and people could see my tent relatively easily, but it was still raining at 5 in the morning and so I decided to wait it out and sleep some more. I turned off my alarm clock and got out of bed at 9, having slept terribly but feeling somewhat rested regardless.
I packed up all my stuff and resumed my walk. I had a new difficulty however, as I had ran out of water and I was really thirsty. I encountered a man on a walk in the first five minutes of my own though, and he asked me where I was going. During the conversation I mentioned I ran out of water and wondered where I could get some more, and the man pointed me to a house at the bottom of the hill where some of his friends lived. So I thanked him and walked down, and rang the doorbell.
Now I don't do this stuff really easily and I was feeling kind of awkward, but I explained myself reasonably well and got some water for my troubles! I filled my Camelbak and an old Pepsi bottle I still had with me, and walked back to the highway. The old highway ran out and so I had to get back on the new one.
After a long walk I finally reached the Vernon outskirts and found a great vantage point with an amazing view, where I talked with some really nice elderly people, and where I had a nice break.
As an added bonus I found some rope lying around, so I took that with me as well.

The vantage point on the Vernon outskirts, still Lake Kalamalka.

When Vernon finally came into view I was happy and walked into a tourist information centre to inquire about motel rates, but that didn't come up with much.
But I had a back-up plan, or so I thought. See, before I left Kelowna I sent out a few requests on Couchsurfing.org, and I was hoping somebody had replied positively. I needed to find some wifi spot though, and there was none around. So in my infinite wisdom (which failed me this time) I decided to walk to the Vernon airport, to ask about the skydiving course and hopefully find a spot.
There was a Tim Hortons nearby which I would use for the wifi. The road there ended up being longer than I expected though, it was around 5 kilometers. My feet already hurt terribly from the walk to Vernon, so I didn't really need that walk.
When I did finally reach a wifispot it turned out that only one request had found it's user, and unfortunately they didnt have a place for me. And to top things off, I first walked to the wrong side of the airport, and after reaching the correct place it turned out the office was closed.
Great!

Not wanting to walk the entire way back (I had reached Vernon after all, my walk was done!) I found a piece of cardboard in a container and wrote 'downtown' on it with a marker which I keep with me for the occasion, and thankfully within nine cars somebody pulled over and drove me back to where I came from. There I found a motel and booked a room for two nights, hoping to go skydiving tomorrow (wednesday).
But to further prove my luck, it turned out that the first jump solo course is only taught on sundays.
Guess I should have called first, eh? So now I will hitch my way back to Kelowna tomorrow (a mere one hour by car, as opposed to around three days on foot) and come back on saturday.
But the walk was worth it, so I can't say I'm terribly annoyed haha. I can still laugh!

Inspirations Part 2 - Everett Ruess

"As to when I shall visit civilization, it will not be soon, I think. I have not tired of the wilderness; rather I enjoy its beauty and the vagrand life I lead, more keenly all the time. I prefer the saddle to the streetcar and star-sprinkled sky to a roof, the obscure and difficult trail, leading to the unknown, to any paved highway, and the deep peace of the wild to the discontent bred by cities. Do you blame me then for staying here, where I feel that I belong and am one with the world around me? It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty....

From your scant description, I know that I could not bear the routine and humdrum of the life that you are forced to lead. I don't think I could ever settle down. I have known too much of the depths of life already, and I would prefer anything to an anticlimax."

- Everett Ruess

Considering that I have been static for the past four weeks I thought it was a nice time for another post about a person that has inspired me greatly.

Unfortuntely, this guy is presumed to be dead. This is starting to form a pattern, but don't worry, I have no intention of dying haha. Though as I said, he is presumed to be dead, because nobody really knows what happened to Everett Ruess. There are tons of rumors and possibilities on offer, but by now I think it's safe to assume he's dead. And that is because his story takes place in the 30's... 

Everett started wandering by himself in 1930, at the age of 16. His journeys took him through a large part of the American South-West, sticking to the deserts he loved so well: the High Sierras, Utah, the Grand Canyon, and a lot of other different places.

He traveled in different ways, sometimes being on foot for a while, but he is best known for the two burros he used for most of his travels: one as a pack animal, the other to ride.

In 1934 however, Ruess mysteriously disappeared in Davis Gulch, near the Escalante river in Utah, and has not been found since, though there have been occassions where people thought to have found his remains.

Speculations ran wild after news of his disappearance. Some thought he got killed by robbers, or maybe a mountain cat, or maybe even by Indians. Others thought he drowned in a river, or that he fell to his death while climbing one of the many cliffs in Utah. Some others even suggested that he got taken in by an Indian tribe in one of the reserves, where he supposedly married a young girl and all the Natives were in on a plot to hide him from the world so that they might live in peace.

And though there have been many search parties, nobody ever got any closer to the truth.

“I have been thinking more and more that I shall always be a lone wanderer of the wilderness. God, how the trail lures me. You cannot comprehend its resistless fascination for me. After all, the lone trail is best…I’ll never stop wandering. And when the time comes to die, I’ll find the wildest, loneliest, most desolate spot there is.”

- Everett Ruess

While traveling he would spend his time composing poetry, making paintings, and cutting linoleum prints, which he would often sell for food so he could keep going.
Everett was gifted with the ability to see beauty in such a way that, in his own words, it was almost painful and too much to bear. He struggled with portraying his feelings through his art, but a clear idea of how he felt can be found by reading his many letters to friends and family, many of which have been saved and used in several books about him. I personally own a copy of 'Everett Ruess: A vagabond for beauty', which is a collection of all the letters the auther could find.

In these letters Ruess would describe his lifestyle, his surroundings and the way he felt about them: he was in love with the desert.

(I could quote the largest part of his letters because they are so well-written, but unfortunately I don't have the book with me and the internet doesn't come up with much other than the quotes above and below! But it's definitely a recommended read for all those who are interested in Everett's story.)

He loathed the big cities and stayed out of them as much as he could, though he has tried to reintegrate into 'civilised life' several times, attending school but dropping out after a few months, and all the while he tried to meet as many people as possible to improve his art.

"I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly. Why muck and conceal one's true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover oneself?"

- Everett Ruess

During his travels he was well-known by a lot of people. 

People at outposts referred to him as that 'weird painter kid', travelling by himself with two burros for company. A lot of the Natives in the reserves knew him as well, because he would sometimes run into them or even visit them. He even knew some famous artists who's names I can't quite remember (I never had a big interest in art). Whenever Everett wanted to meet someone, he just walked up to their door and rang the bell. His ways may have been blunt but they did work a lot of times. He always kept true to his family motto: "Eternity is made of todays. Glorify the hour."

Though he spent most of his travels by himself, he was a very social person and he talked to pretty much anybody he came across, but never found a person with the same interests to join him.

The following bit Everett called 'The Lone Trail'.

"Three or four years ago I came to the conclusion that for me, at least, the lone trail was the best, and the years that have followed strenghtened my belief.

It is not that I am unable to enjoy companionship or unable to adapt myself to other people. But I dislike to bring into play the agressiveness of spirit which is necessary with an assertive companion, and I have found it easier and more adventurous to face situations alone. There is a splendid freedom in solitude, and after all, it is for solitude that I go to the mountains and deserts, not for companionship. In solitude I can bare my soul to the mountains unabashed. I can work or think, act or recline at my whim, and nothing stands between me and the Wild.

Then, on occasion, I am grateful for what unusual and fine personality I may encounter by chance, but I have learned not to look too avidly for them. I delve into myself, into abstractions and ideas, trying to arrange the other things harmoniously, but after that, taking them as they come."

Everett could make friends well enough, but never found a true companion.

He was however one of the first people to be allowed to witness a Hopi ritual, and he was friendly and sang songs with the Navajo and other Native tribes. He felt a close bond with the Native way of life, preferring to live in and with Nature, instead of simply keep taking from it.

As such he preferred the Natives over the white traders in the area. Though he was eager enough to help out an expedition uncovering some Anasazi ruins, where the team members often feared for his life as he climbed dangerous cliffs to paint an amazing view.

In this period of time a large part of the ruins and other places of the area were largely unknown and uncovered, and Everett would take off on his own for weeks or months, often finding these old places where he would sometimes spend the night.

Such were the views Everett was treated to, and I hope to see these places myself soon.

An Anasazi ruin at Mesa Verde

The inside of a Kiva

And in this way he wandered for four years, before becoming lost forever. But let it be said that he did not die in an anti-climax!

His story has inspired a lot of people, and I think we can all learn something from people like Christopher McCandless and Everett Ruess. Most people seemingly wait to follow their dreams, 'untill the time is right'. But "...while I am alive, I intend to live." 

"Say that I starved, that I was lost and weary 

That I was burned and blinded by the desert sun 

footsore, thirsty, sick with strange diseases, 

lonely and wet and cold, but that I kept my dream!"

Getting out of the Rockies and into B.C.

So last time I was still in Lake Louise and hoping to make it to Kelowna the following day.
That's not entirely what happened, but traveling by hitchhiking means that your plans mean nothing and you have to adapt to how situations evolve. Simply put, you might not make it, you might make it, or you might overshoot your target by far! In this case, I didn't make it.
Unfortunately I have forsaken the duty of writing in my journal and the blog for a little while already, and I forgot pretty much all the names of people giving me rides considering most of them were short.

When I set back out onto the road I had to wait for nearly an hour before I got my first ride.
Somebody else did pull over before, but they were heading to Jasper up north, while I was trying to go further west and then south. The people who picked me up were an American couple on a holiday trip.
During the ride through the mountains we saw really long trains going up the mountain to our right and going into a tunnel. The American couple pulled over to take pictures of the train (which are truely long in these parts, some of the ones I saw later on took several minutes to pass me!) driving into the tunnel. I was told that there is some sort of spiral tunnel inside the mountain, made specifically to stop the trains from derailing and crashing. Previously they just rode down the mountains but in doing so they gained too much speed and crashes were very common.
Now though there was a solution cut out on the inside of the mountain, like long rounding mining tunnels. Amazing!

They drove me a little bit further but had to turn off somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and so they dropped me off at the side of the highway. I stood for half an hour or so in the valley before I got my next ride.
Inside the car were a man and a woman, he from Calgary, she from Germany. They had met eachother on that very same day through www.couchsurfing.org, and they planned on doing some hiking in the Glacier National Park. I wanted to get to Revelstoke, from where I needed to turn sout h to Kelowna. Glacier lay before Revelstoke, and so I was offered the choice: they could either drop me off in Golden, or they could take me along into Glacier National Park, where I would be in the middle of nowhere with Golden 75 kilometers behind me and Revelstoke 75 kilometers ahead of me.
I figured the chances of me getting a ride from Golden all the way to Revelstoke were slim, so I decided to join them untill we got to the National Park. We had a very pleasant conversation along the way, and when we found a good parking spot for them to hike from we said goodbye. They walked off to climb a mountain and I stepped back on the road to stick out my thumb again.

The next ride I got took me just a little bit farther, but on this road there was nowhere else to go but to Revelstoke, and I decided to take every ride I could get, no matter how far they went.
The closer I made it toward Revelstoke, the higher the chance I would get there. The man who gave me a ride turned out to be a park ranger. His job consisted solely of attracting bears for studies, both black bears and Grizzlies. The car smelled really bad, and he told me the reason of the smell as we drove off: the back of the truck was filled with rotting meat, as smelly as possible to attract more bears. Great, I caught a ride in a snacktruck for bears! Thankfully the roads are pretty safe and I suppose the bears stay away from them. I got dropped off at another parking spot at the side of the road with a few shacks I could use for shelter should it start to rain. Clouds were forming overhead and they were looking pretty grim.

I managed to evade the rain though, as my next ride pulled out of the parking spot maybe 5 minutes after I set up there. Inside was a woman somewhere in her forties, and she drove me out to Revelstoke. We had a nice conversation on the way there, talking about books. She showed me around downtown for a bit and bought me a tea, and afterwards helped me to find a motel for the night. This motel was recommended to me by the German woman from Couchsurfing, who had stayed there a few days earlier because it was a really cheap place: just 50 dollars or so.
There was a slight mix-up with the room assignments it turned out later in the evening as another family tried to get into my room. Apparently there are multiple keys for rooms, and I was given the wrong one. They headed back to the front office and got a different room from the clerk, so all was well in the end. I got out when it was dark in search of a wifi spot and found one at the restaurant tied to the motel and the gas station (they were all part of eachother).

The next morning I decided to have a slow start and so I sat down outside of the restaurant after getting something to eat at the gas station, and started reading a book.
After maybe ten minutes a man walked up to me who must have been in his forties somewhere as well, and started talking to me. He asked me if I was a hitchhiker, and after I said yes he said he was hitchhiking around B.C as well. He could show me a got spot to get a ride he said.
Now, I have read stories of people being lured off to be robbed this way, but he looked friendly enough and at any rate, I have the means to defend myself if need be. More importantly, I set out hitchhiking because I wanted to learn to trust people more again, and as such I joined him for a walk across town. We crossed a bridge over a river that ran along the town and found ourselves on the edge of it when we reached the other side. This was a good spot for hitchhiking indeed.

We stood there for quite a while however. At first he seemed pleasant enough but he talked a little bit too much for my liking, and after a while he started to become more and more racist.
Thankfully that's when he announced he was going back to town to get something to drink. He asked me to come along but I said I would try to get a ride for a little bit longer.
So he walked back, and I was left alone by the side of the road, and within 5 minutes another car pulled over with a young man inside, around my own age I guess.
He took me farther down the road and dropped me off outside of another town which I can't recall the name off. The road stretched on and disappeared from view a bit further down the road as it bended around a mountain. The other road, the one I actually needed to follow, was closed off for construction and as such I had to make a detour around another town further up ahead.

It took me about half an hour or so before I got another ride from another young men, somewhere in his late twenties. He was very friendly, and he told me about his work planting trees and maintaining the woods of the area. He wanted to become a forest firefighter, and that's why he did the job he was doing now: to better understand the woods and gain some needed experience.
The job he wanted to do sounded extremely risky. In his description it would be required of him to be dropped off at the top of a hill or mountain to fight the fire from there, sort of like a paratrooper.
Ofcourse, on top of a mountain there is no where else to go as the fire creeps up on your position, and the chance of being burned to a crisp are pretty high haha. In essence, they were the 'firefighting special forces'.
He wanted to drop me off at another town, from where I could get on the road toward Kelowna, but as he turned we saw two other hitchhikers standing by the side of the road, so I asked him to let me out a bit farther down the road. I didn't want to get out in front of the other two and perhaps 'steal' a ride they might have been waiting on for hours. My driver understood and ended up driving me quite a bit out of town to make sure I was in a good spot. I thanked him for his troubles and he swung his car around to drive back and resume his own path.

From here it took maybe another half hour before getting a ride. It was a slow day getting rides!
As my new ride pulled over and I ran up I saw the other two hitchhikers I had seen earlier sitting in the back, and after I had gotten in we had a nice conversation while the driver kept pretty quiet in front. One of the hitchhikers was of an Asian descent, while the other was Native-American, with long hear, a throat-beard and feathers in his cap. He was a very charismatic guy, talking like a philosopher. I got along well with both of them. All of us got dropped off at the same spot, some very small village that happened to have a small market going on at the moment, and so we looked around there for a bit before moving on.
When we did, the other two decided to split up as their destination wasn't the same. The Asian fellow (unfortunately I forgot his name because I've known him for only half an hour or so) wanted to go to a different town ahead of us, while me and the Native guy who had introduced himself as Iji-Tada (not sure of the spelling at all haha), "Little Wisdom", wanted to get to Kelowna, and it's really hard to get a ride as a group of three!

So the two of us walked further down the road and stuck our thumbs out.
Fortunately it didn't take long to get a ride which took us down to the next big town which I can't recall the name off. We were well within the city limits however, and it took us a bit of a walk uphill to get to a suitable hitching spot. We stopped at a store to get something to eat and I bought my fellow hitchhiker an iced drink. As we sat down we started talking about nature, philosophy and I ended up talking about Walden by Thoreau, which he had heard of but never read.
So I dug into my backpack and fished out my copy and let him read a few passages, which he seemed to like very much.
As we prepared to leave we met another traveler walking past. Iji-Tada had a habit of calling out to pretty much everybody, especially people who seemed to be traveling like us, or those who were Native as well. "Brother!" he would call out, and he'd run over to them for a chat. A little bit earlier we chatted to an elderly Native woman who asked him if he needed some money, and she dug out all her small change and poured them into his hands. He had a high regard for the elderly like most Natives seem to do, and he was very respectful and thankful. Quite the social fellow haha!

When we got back on the road we managed to get another ride, this time from an older woman somewhere in her sixties or thereabouts, who drove us to another small town just a bit north of Kelowna. She told us there were cherry orchards here as well and since both of us were looking for a job, we wrote down the adress and the phone number of one of the orchards.
Both of us had somebody to meet in Kelowna though. Iji-Tada had to meet up with his uncle, and earlier on the day I had phoned to an acquaintance of Leigh that had answered to her plea on Facebook to find me some possible places to stay for a few days during my travels.
So we got out on the road once more, and after just a few minutes we managed to get our last ride of the day who took us the rest of the way to Kelowna and dropped us off at a university.
We both called our contacts and waited. Iji-Tada's uncle got there sooner and so we said goodbye and wished eachother good luck with the rest of our adventures. I remained seated at the bus-stop and started reading from my book again, untill I was asked if the seat next to me was available by a girl with a French accent. It was, and so she sat down next to me and I started a conversation.
She had been in B.C for a few months and was now waiting on the bus to the airport, to head back to Quebec and her family.
Soon after my contact, Tim, showed up with his wife Luzia (I'm afraid I don't quite know how to spell the name!), and considering the airport was just down the road Tim offered to drive her there.
She seemed a bit reluctant at first, not used to getting rides from strangers, but accepted the ride.
When we had brought her to her destination and saving her some time, we now drove to Tim's house where I could stay for a few days as I looked for a job.

There house was beautiful and the air-conditioning felt great after a long day out in the sun.
The next few days I spent exploring downtown Kelowna, and Tim and Luzia showed me a local winery, a really fance place with it's own clocktower.

The entrance to the winery

The tower

This area is sometimes used as an outdoor theatre

The view from right next to the tower

Inside the winery

I had a few very pleasant days this way, and eventually I found a job picking fruit.

When I called I got told I could go there the next day, and I could camp out on the farm. 

The same day I found a job I requested a SIN (Social Insurance Number) card at Service Canada, and was able to use Tim's adress for this. No adress, no card, and you need to have one though you can use the number straight away.

The next day I got a bus to the farm as far as I could, but ended up climbing the hill up which took me nearly an hour with my heavy backpack. As a Dutchman I am not used to anything more than a bump in the road so this walk was quite hellish haha. I've been to the French Pyrenees and the Belgian Ardennes though, but that has been quite a while ago and I'm not accustomed to walking up a slope anymore! 

I settled at the farm after meeting the raspberry farmer called Dan, who is a very nice man who looks after his workers really well. He came back from town after picking up another person who wanted to work, and she was walking to the area where we could pitch our tent.

She was from France, and after we had set up our tents we walked down the other side of the big hill we are on to get some food from one of the stores there. When we got back the other people camping at the farm had returned from downtown. They were all from Quebec.

The next day another two girls from Quebec arrived. I was surrounded by French-speaking people, but furtonately they tried their best to speak English when I was around even though they occasionally fall back (understandably) to their native tongue.

In the next few days three people of the existing camping party left, a guy and two girls, leaving me with one other guy and three girls. They are all really nice and at this point the amount of English spoken increased dramatically haha.

I spent the past week working in the morning and relaxing or walking to town in the afternoon with my new friends at the farm, and that's what I will continue to do for the coming week.

Unfortunately two of the girls on this picture (the two in the centre, Catherine and Chai) have continued on. We are now with the three of us, Anne-Sophie on the right and Olivier, not on the photo.

The trek across Canada

Guess where I am!

So it's been a while again! The last post was made in Thunder Bay, and I made it quite far in the mean time.
After a resting day we drove on to Brandon, according to Fred's car a whopping 950 km!
The day after that we got to Saskatoon where there was a little incident, and the day after we reached Edmonton. All in all Fred and I drove together for some 3000 kilometers. He was a great guy and I cannot thank him enough.

As to the little incident in Saskatoon, it involved three guys and a woman in a really big fight, about what I do not know. As soon as I  checked into the motel and went upstairs to my room I was greeted with really loud screams. At first I thought somebody had his TV on too loud, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
The closer I got to my room the louder the screaming became, and for a moment I was convinced it was a rape in progress. I turned around and ran back down to the lobby to inform the guy behind the counter. At first he didn't seem to take me seriously and continued helping some other people standing at the counter, but a few seconds later there were people running into the motel from outside reporting the same fight, which by now had moved outside onto the shared balcony. Apparently, one of the guys slammed the head of another into the iron railings. So the police was called, and ofcourse they only showed up after two guys already had fled the scene, leaving behind a third man and the woman. I stayed out of their business so I still don't know what went down in there, and that is probably for the best. Apart from alarming people and getting help, there wasn't anything else I could do.

Anyways, back to the good stuff. I spent a last night at a motel in Edmonton after having said goodbye to Fred, and set back out on the road the following morning.
It took about an hour before I got a ride from a somewhat short guy of Indian descent who was returning from fitness. He drove me to Red Deer, though it was out of his way. He didn't have anything to do though and seemed glad to have found a distraction. It set the tone for the rest of the day.

After being let out on the highway past Red Deer I spent some 5 minutes sticking out my thumb before catching another ride from an older gentleman who stopped at a truckstop so I could fill up my Kamelbak with water, because it was really hot and humid. He helped me get halfway to Calgary, which I had set as my goal for the day.  He too let me out on the highway.

The third person to pick me up was Mo, short for Mohammed. A guy in his fifties I think, who came from Pakistan and worked in the oilfields of Alberta after doing the same work in his home country for quite a while. He was a really nice man, keeping high his principles and wanting to help out in the interest of humanity. The day was still pretty young and I now set my sights on Banff instead of Calgary. Mohammed had to go left in front of Calgary, heading east, but instead he took the exit on the right and drove me all the way around Calgary and dropped me off on the Cross-Canada highway, highway 1. It was around 5 o'clock and the road back into Calgary was absolutely stuffed with cars, so I think it might have taken him quite a while before getting home. He said he didn't mind, because it gave him a lot of satisfaction being able to help someone out, and he gave me two bottles of water too.

Another few minutes passed as I again stuck out my thumb, and after a short while (shorter than I expected, considering I was near a really big city of around a million people!) I got a ride from Tracy.
She was heading out to the mountains to walk her dog, a trip that took her at least half an hour or more out of the city! To me that said a lot about her, as a lot of people seem to think it's a big chore to walk their dogs all the time, and most of them just stay in their general vicinity. But Tracy took her dog out to the mountains where he could run free, and she took me beyond the point she had initially intended to go and into Banff.
Awesome stuff! She was the last ride of the day, but each and every one had gone out of their way to get me somewhere. All in all a great day!

I stayed in Banff for three nights in a newly opened hostel, where I met Dominick from Germany and Paul from England who had been traveling together for a little while and now started sharing my room after the first night. They were really nice and social guys, and that afternoon I joined them for a walk downtown and an attempt at getting a much needed sun tan.

Me on the bridge outside of downtown Banff.

The Bow River.

After my third night I decided to move on. I decided to walk for a while instead of trying to get a ride, but got misdirected. I did end up on the road to Highway 1, but it was heading eastward, not westward.

So I walked the same half hour to get back into town, missed another road and spent another hour or so walking the wrong road and back. At this point I was sweating badly and decided to get a cold Coke at the local McDonalds. I whipped out my iPod and checked my location on the map app, and let it calculate the proper route. 

So I started back out again after having a nice cold drink and found highway 1, and it was heading in the right direction too! Wonderful! 

However, I can't say I regret having walked down so many detours, because I ended up getting a ride from a pretty girl who took me to Lake Louise, where I decided to stay for another few nights. I had heard a lot about Lake Louise and I definitely wanted to check it out. And, she might come back later that evening to the bar attached to the hostel. Unfortunately it seems she got sidetracked at some point or I must have simply missed her (though I definitely have been looking! haha).

So I had to switch out one beauty for another one: Lake Louise.

After a refreshing night of sleep I caught a ride up to the actual lake yesterday from a nice man who turned out to be helping out a German hitchhiker as well, who had been staying with him for a few days, and whom he was now taking out to see the mountains and Lake Louise. His name was Doug, the fellow hitchhiker's Daniel. We parted ways at the lake, and I set out to get the best view of the lake. Ofcourse I first walked up to the base of the lake.

As you can see it is an insanely beautiful place, unfortunately somebody decided to build a massive hotel right at the lakeside to capitalize on it. It's a good-looking building for sure but to me still felt like a whart on the face of beauty.

The first route I decided to walk led me to an overview from the left side of the lake called Fairview Lookout.

It was about 1,5 km of walking through the woods. It would have been a nice walk if it wasn't for the swarm of mosquitoes that were after me. If I stopped for just a second I had at least three of the buggers on my legs. Despite that, the walk was worth it.

I decided to not walk any further down this route on account of the mosquitoes though, and so I walked back down as fast as I could and decided to walk around the right side of the lake which fortunately had a lot less mosquitoes flying around. I guess that is partly because the route I took there didn't go through the woods but led me along the lakeshore, and in the end led up the mountain past most of the woods, to the glacier behind it.

The side of the lake.

Made from the same position, looking to the back of the lake.

There were some beautiful sights along the way up the mountain.

And it had some nice climbing spots too!

From the back of the lake. Note that the greyish area is still water. This is where a small river flows into the lake from up above.

Another shot of the back of the lake, this time without my mug blocking the view.

The river flowing into Lake Louise.

A closer look.

Me at the river.

And because I don't want to repeat myself too much, here are some more pictures of the trail leading up the mountain.

And now a really cool part: one of the little streams coming down the sides of the mountain in waterfalls had a roof of ice! The water had simply excavated a way through, and it ended up forming a really neat tunnel.

Ofcourse I had to investigate and cool myself down at the base of the waterfall. I might have taken a shower if I hadn't had sensitive equipment on me that really shouldn't get wet, and I took enough risks with those as it  is. First in the upcoming video, a nice overview of the area. Right after that I move through the tunnel!

Aaaand back to pictures of the rest of the trail up!

And finally, the path leading to the teahouse at the end, one of two in the area, and the farthest.

At the teahouse I got something to drink as I had run out of water, and decided to get something to eat as well. There are a few people who stay up here throughout the season. They stay there for five days and head back down for two days. They carry back down the trash they accumulate throughout the week and hike new supplies back up when they return!

One of the girls working there was really nice and we had an interesting conversation for as long as the rest of the clientele permitted it, as it was quite busy up there.

After having sat down there for a while two new guys came walking in: Doug and Daniel!

A nice surprise, as both of them are really nice. Clouds had set in and so I waited a while longer as Doug and Daniel had a rest and something to eat and drink, and we walked back down the trail together.

Also, squirrel. Cheeky buggers try to enter the teahouse to steal some food constantly! :D

I shot nearly 70 pictures, of which the above are just a few. You can see all of them here: http://s1048.photobucket.com/albums/s367/AWanderersSoul/Lake%20Louise/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ16 

Today I took a day off and washed my clothes, and bought two new books: Congo and The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.

Tomorrow I will move on again, hopefully getting to Kelowna or it's vicinity!

A week in Ottawa

My last post was made from Barrie, the day before I moved back down to Whitby, the place I started hitchhiking a few days earlier. After staying for about 3 nights in Barrie it was time to return so I could get a ride back to Ottawa for Canada Day!
So early in the day I tried to find the highway I came in on. I ended up walking through the entirety of Barrie and a little further down the road for nearly two solid hours. I found the highway I needed and started hitching. This highway was a large one and I was under the impression I could get into trouble for trying to get a ride here but I wasn't sure. I sincerely hoped I would get a ride before a cop would show up and fine me, and thankfully I did.

The first ride of the day was given to me by a couple by the names of Mike and Krista, who took me to Orillia. They were very nice though I thought that my presence made Krista uncomfortable at first, so I asked her a few questions and she started to open up a bit more.
They drove me down to Orillia, where I needed to get onto another highway that could take me down to Whitby. Unfortunately Mike didn't drop me off on the right side of town, and so I had another walk across a whole other town ahead of me. After another hour and a half or so of walking my feet and shoulders started to ache but managed to get to the edge of town and stuck my thumb out again.
After a little while I got a ride from Jake, a guy that seemed to be younger than me, and a big metalhead. He was returning from work and got me down to Brechin. I had not gotten as far as I wanted and I didnt want to stop to cook something, so I bought two bananas for dinner.

After getting a ride out of Brechin by a guy somewhere in his fifties I found myself on the wrong road. He told me he knew of a better way to get down to Port Perry, my goal for the day, but I ended up in 'the middle of nowhere', so to speak. The road was not a main road and thus had very little traffic, and it meandered off into the countryside. So I turned around and got a ride back toward the proper highway. Thankfully it didnt take long before I got another ride who got me there, and thankfully it was just a few minutes away too. As I walked back onto that highway cars were passing me, and after a while of standing there a big truck pulled over. I haven't had much luck with trucks so far and considering I didnt go a long distance I didnt try to get a ride from the big trucks, and I hadn't tried with this one, but it pulled over for me anyway.
Inside was sitting Don, a pleasant man somewhere in his forties, who turned out to be only driving trucks part-time, two days a week. The rest of the time he was working in real estate! Go figure. I almost got sidetracked again when I misunderstood Don's intentions, and I had to ask him for a quick stop before we were down the road toward Lindsey in the east too far. I thanked him for the ride and wished him good luck with the rest of the trip.

On the proper highway again I once more stuck out my thumb, and after a while another older man nearing his fifties pulled over. He was a real workaholic, working a regular job and maintaining a big animal farm on the side all on his own. I wouldnt want to be him, despite having a couple of cool Lama's!
The sun was now going down fast and it bathed the horizon in rich colours, but I had no proper camping site or motel in sight, and so I started walking down the road. Time was running out to find a sleeping spot before dark, so I didnt want to stay in one spot too long. After having walked a kilometer or two I got another ride.
When I said I wanted to find a motel he told me there was one just down the road. I could have made it on foot! Nonetheless he drove me there and dropped me off.
Now a problem arose: I couldn't pay for the room. My creditcard still has that same problem where it blocks the PIN, and this man either didnt know or pretended not to know how to manually authorise the card, and thus I found myself on the road again. After looking around for a place to pitch my tent and not finding any suitable spot, I tried to get another ride further down the road. However, by now it was pitch black and I didnt hold much hope of getting a ride now. But wonders never cease to happen and somebody pulled over, giving me a ride to Whitby! I got so many rides today that I forgot a lot of names.
In Whitby I found a motel that did accept my creditcard, and I had actually passed my goal for the day! All I had to do now was sit and wait to be picked up in the morning by Leigh and her sister.

I staid in Ottawa for a week. My days were spent in leisure. The first day I borrowed a mountainbike and drove into Gatineau Park, which is absolutely huge. I drove 7 km's into the park to visit Lake Pink, biking down dirt tracks and going up and down large hills. I had to be careful here, because an accident was not too far off with all the rocks and tree roots sticking out on the path!
The other days I spent reading, finishing the second season of Game of Thrones, and walking around and helping out a bit around the house.

Leigh and I also visited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Musical Ride, which was a really cool event where the mounted police performed a show on horseback (obviously), showing off several drills and executing some brilliant patterns that made you wonder how it is possible for them not to run into eachother constantly. The training must be quite something!
But before the actual RCMP show started we were treated to a different show entirely: the official Canadian sky-diving team, the Sky Hawks, jumped out of their airplane right above us, and after several awesome tricks landed on the RCMP Musical Ride grounds!

Balls of steel are required!

After that the actual Musical Ride started with an intro of their own: the marching band.

And then, ofcourse, the show by the men on horseback! I did record pretty much all of it, but uploaded only the latter part, still quite long! The entire show must have taken somewhere around 40 minutes!

On show: lance drills, some really cool patterns on horseback, and a charge across the field!

Some pictures of the event:

After the show you could walk to the edge of the field, where officers allowed their horse to be petted by the children, and other people a nice close up look!

And ofcourse I had to get a picture of me and an RCMP officer!

The rest of the pictures can be found here: http://s1048.photobucket.com/albums/s367/AWanderersSoul/RCMP/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ16

On sunday it was Canada Day, the event that I had come for. The streets were absolutely packed with people. The day was hot and sunny, but thankfully it wasn't too humid. We went down to the Parliament building in downtown Ottawa and were in time for the official opening, though we were standing somewhere in the back. The official opening started with the national anthem, Oh Canada! and was accompanied by a group of airplanes flying right over the Parliament building!

To illustrate the amount of people walking around, here's some pictures too!

It would have been one hell of a time for a zombie outbreak!

All the pictures of Canada Day 2012 can be found here: http://s1048.photobucket.com/albums/s367/AWanderersSoul/Canada%20Day%202012/

After walking around for the better part of the day, we drove out of downtown to visit a marina on the Ottawa River, from where we could properly watch the fireworks. And it was quite the epic show with a fantastic finale!

After this week it was time to move on once again. I really enjoyed the hospitality of Tracey and it was really nice to see Leigh again too! It might take quite a while before I get back to these parts though, so it might have been the last time. I'm heading out West now, to British Columbia, where I hope to get a temporary job and earn some money back.

On July the third Tracey dropped me off outside of a place called Arnprior. It was around 10 or 11 in the morning. Right after I said goodbye and she had driven off and I had walked onto the road a car stopped on the other side. The man inside asked me where I was going, and after telling him he turned his car around to give me a ride. He had passed me when I stepped onto the road and stopped and turned around to ask me what I was up to, so he was actually heading in the right direction! ;-)

At first he was going to drop me off outside of a town in front of North Bay called Mattawa, but he ended up driving me past North Bay instead. I have his wife to thank for that! He had introduced himself as Jason, a military man, and a great person to talk to. We had a nice conversation the entire drive, which took me some 300 kilometers farther! That was farther than I had thought to get that day already, but the day wasn't over yet!

Outside of North Bay I resumed hitching under an overcast sky which threatened with rain. I stood on that side of the road for at least 2 hours I think before finally getting a ride, but I hit the jackpot with that one!
Inside the car I found a guy called Fred, another military man from Quebec, who is heading toward Edmonton, Alberta! So that day I managed to get all the way to Sault. Ste. Marie, quite the achievement I would say!

After spending a night in a motel there we drove on, and yesterday we made it to Thunder Bay! Today he's taking a day off, but tomorrow we will drive on again, who knows how far! He mentioned we might do 700 or maybe even 800 kilometres. I'll have to wait and see!