I awoke before Nihan, made some hot chocolate and blogged. She was up not long after, and did some morning yoga. It struck me how different this trip felt from the Camino with Cathleen. No alarms, no rushing, no pace issues. Yet we were doing quite a lot, and whenever felt like it, with plenty of breaks. It was the trip Cathleen and I had planned on doing, but yet somehow could not manage to pull off.
We sat ate our breakfast and I brought it up to Nihan. I realized that because Cathleen did everything so slowly, there was not really any time left to do anything else, or to rest. For example, if you have half an hour, and take 5 minutes to put on suntan lotion, you have 25 minutes left to rest or do other things. If you take 30 minutes to put on suntan lotion, you have no minutes left to do anything else. Nihan mentioned how she noticed that right before she moved out of her home, she began taking more and more time in the bathroom each morning, dragging out her morning routine. It did include self-care, but it was mainly because it was the only way to get privacy in her home. We talked about "filling time" with meaningless things: how I get very "busy" with many activities to slow myself down; how the women in her family did it to justify private "alone" time (eg Don't bother me, I'm very busy polishing the silverware!).
We ended up with a morning therapy session, just like Cathleen and I did on the Camino. ;)
The water was hot, but smelled like sulphates. Since I was allergic, and had had bad reactions to overly sulphated hot springs in the past, I decided shouldn't risk a shower. We struck upon the genius idea to go to the swimming hole instead. Even though it looked like rain, it didn't rain, and the air was not too cold. So we decided to go see it at least, and decide about swimming when we got there.
We took the trail that started behind the barn on the property, which led to John's Rd.
It was about 400m to the end of the road, where a dirt path led to the river. Our host had given us some pretty detailed instructions about the swimming hole: take the left fork, then crawl down the roots ("Don't worry, my three year old can do it!").
She had also assured us that her three year old could handle the current: that it looked swifter than it was. Eyeing the rippling water, we kept repeating those words to ourselves. I surveyed the shore, figuring out where the rock outcroppings and gaps were. I picked the spot that I thought would work best, and decided to launch myself there. Then I sat there waiting for my body to follow my perfectly laid plans. "Jump in!" Nihan urged. "After you," I replied with a wink. Nihan laughed, "I never go in first!" Well, there is always a first time: Nihan ended up jumping in before me. I executed my plan and it worked out well. I noticed how methodically I went about getting in, and also how I didn't have to know EVERY detail about the river, I just needed "the lay of the land" and then let my heart get ready. It seemed very symbolic for my life's journey.
We swam around, across to the other shore, which was a "beach" of smooth river rocks. Parts of the bottom were sandy. It was glorious. :D What a great decision to come there!!
We felt like wild women: climbing down a root ladder, forging out into the depths of the river, and bathing out in nature.
On the way back to Akasha Meadows, I counted the types of berry bushes on the property. I encountered thimbleberries, salmon berries, huckleberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and salal.
The day's walk was along the Cowichan Valley Trail to Skutz Falls. It is part of the Trans Canada Trail, the longest recreational trail network in the world, which spans all of Canada, East-West and North-South.
(photo source: http://thegreattrail.ca)
After backtracking 1.7km from Akasha Meadows to where the Cowichan Valley Trail crossed Vaux Rd, it would be about 17.5km on railgrade or about 20km on the winding Cowichan River footpath.
HERE MAP
We saw that the eggs had been replenished in the egg cart, but decided against packing them 20km with us that day.
I told Nihan that I couldn't handle another "social" day like yesterday, and would need a lot more quiet today. She agreed. We walked mostly in silence, except when we stopped to eat berries, which was often in the first few kilometres! ;) We ate our way down the road. The blackberries were perfectly ripe. The huckleberries a little past their prime, but still tasty.
I felt surprisingly calm about the road, our abilities, our safety, even with the various wild pheasants, rabbits, and deer suddenly popping in and out of the trail, and the barking dogs we passed (in Canada, all behind fences).
At one point, Nihan stopped walking to run through her kickboxing routine. I passed her, letting her process. Afterwards, she caught up to me and asked if she could share what she went through. She was struggling with anger over childhood patterns, where her mother told her "No one would care if I killed you. Even God would support it and be pleased." Nihan's childhood prayers to God were all along the lines of, "I'll be good --don't let her kill me!" I instantly saw the control value this provided to a mother with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but it was still painful to hear about.
I still get shocked every time I hear about Nihan's childhood. I guess I'm here to help her get shocked at it too. At least in the last couple years, Nihan had come to see that it was not "normal"... and that many of the "truths" she was told were not actually Truth. I told her she had a right to feel angry and sad about how she was treated, and how proud I was that she was facing these feelings now, so she could heal from it.
By the time we reached Glenora Park, it was time for lunch. I expected to go to the washroom there, then find a picnic table, and make our sandwiches. But we got distracted by the maps and interesting trail info posted there. we ended up chosing our route from the many options, and then taking off down the trail towards Holt Creek Trestle, forgetting about the rest.
After the trestle, we easily located the footpath that would lead us across the park's width to the river. Realizing we forgot to stop for lunch, we reasoned we'd eat at the advertised swimming hole at the river.
After we had been walking much longer than expected, I pulled out HERE maps, which told me we had somehow turned off too early, and were traversing the park legthwise through the centre of the forest! "Maybe it's so that we maximize the variety of trails we are walking on this trip?" I offered (un)helpfully. "We didn't have any 'footpath in the middle of the forest' on our itinerary."
The footpath was narrow, uneven, and filled with large spiders. One even landed on my mouth. We supposed it was perhaps because not many people walked this trail. After each taking several spiderwebs to the face, we took turns being the leader and waving the "spider stick" in front of us (I'm holding it in the following photo).
A few different signs tantalized us with pronouncements such as "picnic area" and "parking lot," but included no distances. We found none of these promised areas. (I later discovered that some of them were on the other side of the river. Not sure how putting a sign on *this* side of the river helped...)
We passed a "historic" bridge dated 1982. It was very unclear why it was labeled as "historic."
At a rain drain stamped 1936 (notably NOT marked as "historic"), I saw a steep rough trail people had obviously climbed, leading to an abnormally flat area. I climbed up to investigate, hoping it was a parking lot or a picnic area. It was the railgrade. We walked a little farther down the footpath (unseen, to the right of the rain drain in the photo below), convinced ourselves it would not change --or deliver us a rest area-- any time soon, and returned to the steep trail to clamber up to the railgrade.
Once up there, we both agreed the railgrade was a nicer walk. With many fewer spiders. About 100 feet down the railgrade, the footpath joined it on a level keel. There was also a park sign with a few distances marked on it. Sonofabitch.
Several people on bicycles passed us. It struck us that all day, we had only seen cyclists and no hikers. Every time it happened, I resisted the urge to call out, "Buen Camino!"
I saw a gigantic mushroom that reminded me of a stack of LP records... like the cosmic space I had described to Nihan in Duncan.
The railgrade ran straight, with nowhere to stop and rest. Finally, we decided to spread out our Tyvex sitting mats and picnic right on the trail. We made tuna baguette sandwiches with lemon pepper tuna and coconut cheese (a strange taste that reminded Nihan of Turkey and went surprisingly well with tuna!) We added the remainder of my salad from the brewpub in Duncan, which had mixed greens, bell pepper, and carrots. Refreshed, we continued on.
As we walked, I practiced calling in the energy Nihan and I had discussed on the ferry. I could hear her sighing behind me. Finally, she caught up to me and asked, "Were you doing energy work? I got it, thanks!! It felt like the energy we were talking about before..." I grinned. Yep on all counts!
I was fascinated with the way the railgrade kept changing: wide and clear, more narrow and bushy, dirt, gravel, mud, dried needles...
At one point, it started to drizzle, but it never rained harder, and then it stopped. We didn't even pull out our umbrellas. We crossed over a small trestle, cradled by the forest.
Finally we reached the Mile 66 Trestle, over Marie Canyon. We were really ready for a rest, and loved the energy of the river so much that we simply lay down right on the trestle! Nihan did some yoga stretches, but I simply lay flat on my back. The sun had come out and we both relaxed so completely that we dozed off.
After our break, we only had a short stretch of railgrade and a few hundred metres on the road to get to Cobb Cabin.
We had gone all day without cell service, but at one point Nihan said she got an email notification that simply said our host would be back at 7:30pm. We arrived at 5:30pm. There were several yurts and cabins on the property, and we quickly realized was a cooperative of some kind, with a common garden and kitchen. It appeared no-one was around, so we stretched out for a nap on the trampoline.
Around 6:30pm, a man arrived with his young daughter, and told us we could go into our cabin, and pointed it out to us (it was the white and brown cabin with the owls on the side -- I thought I had taken a good photo of it, but I didn't). He lived in the red cabin next door.
The cabin was really nice. My room had a bas relief of a dragon that encircled the whole room. I liked it, being born in the year of the dragon. :D Nihan's had a dragonfly and a swirl.
Our host had still not arrived. We wondered what we should do about supper, since the host had volunteered to buy us a couple items from the grocery when she went on her regular shopping, and we needed those groceries for the dinner we planned. At 8pm, we still saw no sign of her, so we decided to make the next day's supper instead, since we already had all of those ingredients with us.
The common kitchen was the building with the feathers on the front, situated between our cabin and the outdoor showers. It was really nice and large inside, with gas stove and all the equipment we would need.
We made mashed potatoes with pan fried dried sausage I had bought at Jackson's meats, and sauteed chard that we were invited to pick from the gardens at Akasha Meadows. The meal was fast, easy, delicious, and homey feeling. Thank you to Erik the Black, for the inspiration!
Of course, as we finished making our meal, I found our groceries, already in the fridge and marked "guests." >.< As we sat down to eat, our host arrived. >.< >.< We told her our story of not knowing which cabin to go to.
After she left, we ate at one of the long wooden tables in the kitchen. It was a really nice environment. The meal was so good that we both became members of "the clean plate club." ;)
I found a Year of the Dragon mug in the dish drainer. :D We sat sipping tea and talking about our personal journeys until nearly 11pm, at which time we were both fried, and stumbled into bed.
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