The skies were grey and it looked like rain, despite the forecast stubbornly insisting it would be 24°C. We peered at the sky and allowed for the possibility that we would not be able to go tubing on the Cowichan River today. I messaged Colin about it, and he answered, "Don't worry-- we'll get a house in the Cowichan and you can go tubing all the time!" I couldn't tell how serious he was, but I liked the idea.
We had breakfast in the communal kitchen, beside the man who helped us the previous night, and his young daughter. I laughed when I realized my instant coffee packet was one I had accidentally carried home from the Camino, because it has been hiding in my purse. I laughed even harder when I saw that the other packet I had brought was left over from a trip to China. A truly international decaf collection.
The man asked where we were walking today, and when I said to Cowichan Lake, he was startled. "All the way around the lake?!" He asked with surprise. "No, no," I laughed, "just TO the lake (about 10km). We want to go tubing down to Little Beach, then come back via Skutz Falls Road (about 10km from the beach). I max out at about 28km per day!"
To give you some perspective, here is a map showing the trail both "to" the lake and "around" the lake. You can understand why he was surprised. (Our route for the day was #3 to #6 to #18 and back to #3.)
The little girl played with her "jewels" (a bag of green marbles), and eyed us warily. We could see little bits of sun poking through clouds, and decided to take our stuff for tubing, assume it would clear up by the time we got to the tubing area, but decide on it once we arrived in Cowichan Lake. Either way, we were excited to be walking without our big packs. One benefit of staying at Cobb House for two nights was that we could leave our packs there while walking this portion of the loop.
We did a sage smudge and headed out at 10am. The Cowichan Valley Trail resumed just a couple hundred metres from Cobb House, at Cowichan River Provincial Park. The Skutz Falls trailhead had pit toilets and a fish ladder running next to the falls. This river was full of steelhead trout. (The river remained one of the best fishing streams in the province. Besides the steelhead, it had two species of native trout, the rainbow and the cutthroat, and a non-native species introduced in the 1930s, the brown trout, which was now living wild, plus three species of Pacific salmon: Coho, Chinookand, and Chum.)
While I walked, I drafted my blog about the feeling from yesterday. Nihan worked on the sacred feminine and the mother wound. Although she was too far ahead for me to see, she later told me how she spent the time crying through her grief and doing energy work. I caught up with her as she was building an altar. I passed her, giving her space to do whatever ceremony she needed.
There were farm properties along the edge of the trail, just beyond a row a trees that gave the trail a little privacy. We stopped to admire a trio of horses.
We passed a marsh and the 70 Mile Trestle.
At the end of Pine Street, we turned left onto the railgrade trail again, which took us through town to the lake. The map gave the impression the town had "started" at Pine Street, and we were walking through the "middle" of the town geographically, but it didn't feel like "town" until we reached South Shore Road, at the West end of town, by the lake.
Closer to the lake, we encountered a sign saying "Western Terminus of TCT." We realized that we were almost at the end of the longest trail in the world! It seemed very metaphoric.
Nihan said, "But we didn't start from the beginning!" I replied "Maybe, like the Camino, there's no one single beginning; you start from your home and go to the end?" I almost teared up at that. Then had a massive coughing fit that felt like vomiting. We both recognized that my system was clearing whatever resistance I had to the "endings" I was about to have in life. It was a powerful experience.
Here we are at "the end"! Unlike my experience on the Camino, we arrived at the end of this trail together.
At South Shore Road, we started looking around a place to eat lunch. I had done street view on Google maps and had seen several restaurants along this road. Almost immediately we saw Jake's on the Lake pub, literally overlooking the lake. "How did I not see this on google maps?!" I marvelled. There was no question: it was where we would eat.
We sat on the patio, overlooking the lake. It happened to be $10 beer and burger day, so I got a veggie burger and a Red Arrow Kolsch. Nihan ordered a portobello mushroom burger, stuffed with goat cheese.
We watched people tubing from the dock beneath us, and "Sail Into the Mystic" was playing in the pub. We grinned at each other. We were going tubing!!
Eating her goat cheese stuffed portobello burger, Nihan said she never realized a hiking trip could be like this. The way she saw her friends doing it was all about hardship and suffering. This was really like a relaxing vacation. I said it helped that we were both strong, naturally fast walkers, because it meant that the "walking" portion was only a small part of our day, not "our day" unto itself.
An Amy Winehouse song came on. I didn't know the song but I recognized her distinctive voice. I said that I identified with her in a way: she was good at something, and so people pushed her into doing it more than she wanted to, and in ways she didn't like, because it was easier for them and benefited them. It felt like the story of my teaching life. Nihan started crying. She identified too, as being a child of a Narcissistic parent.
A large group of male and female bikers parked their motorbikes in the parking lot and came into the pub. "Wild women!!" Nihan exclaimed with delight and admiration.
By the time we left, Red Solo Cup was playing ("I fill you up. Let's have a party! Proceed to party!") We knew it was time to hit the water. ;) Nihan was delighting in the lyrics, so I asked her if she knew what a red solo cup was, and proceeded to identify it for her. Nihan said she was getting a crash course on Canadian culture. Then Bare Naked Ladies came on. Lol.
We changed into our bathing suits in the pub washroom, and went downstairs to The Tube Shack to rent tubes to float down Cowichan River. At the rental office, we hit one snag: they would not return our damage deposit if we didn't return on the shuttle. We had planned to just keep walking after we finished tubing, so we had to forfeit our deposit. I thought that was pretty crappy, since we were still meeting the shuttle to give them our tubes when we were done. How hard would it be for the driver to give us a $20 bill? Also seemed like a bit of a scam, because they charged non-renters $5 to ride the shuttle back (furthermore meaning the driver would have cash on hand anyway), but they didn't give a discount to renters who *didn't* ride the shuttle back. Anyway, we took the hit and let it go.
We loaded our running shoes and skirt/shorts into ziploc bags, put them into my fold-up backpack, and used a carabiner to attach it to the tube. Because our tubes had bottoms on them, the bag stayed inside and relatively dry.
I felt right at home in the water. My body knew exactly what to do to manoeuvre the tube, which was really more like a little boat. Nihan struggled to paddle. As I floated towards the river mouth, she turned in circles in the lake. I could see her trying not to panic, and smiled as a turkey vulture circled her. She was certainly integrating some bigger life issue with this struggle.
Eventually, she got close enough to the river mouth that the current caught her, and she was on her way. I waited for her to catch up, then pushed, pulled, and "bumped" her down the river.
The river was clear, shallow and lazy. Canada Geese swam beside us and then sunned themselves on rocks. I dipped myself into the water and it was surprisingly warm!
After pushing and pulling Nihan down the river a ways, she was getting comfortable the water. She was ready try paddling again. She said it brought up childhood issues around being slow to learn at school, watching others get the knack of things before she did. I watched her try to paddle and gave pointers on what needed adjustment. The biggest one was patience. She was digging deep with the paddle, trying to move a lot on every paddle stroke, and steer at the same time. It kept her turning in circles. I told her to forget about steering; just paddle lightly and evenly. It would take 5-6 strokes before she would feel any movement. She needed to relax and let the easy light strokes gather momentum. Not long after that, she was paddling like a pro and feeling very empowered.
Now that Nihan was comfortable and in control of her own tube, I was free to paddle around at my leisure. I zoomed ahead, circled back, floated aimlessly... and occasionally gave her little friendly bumps. I popped in and out of the water.
Houses lined the river. I passed a dock with a sign advertising that house for sale. I sent a photo to Colin.
Just then, Nihan pulled up near me and said, "Wouldn't it be neat if you lived here?" I laughed, "Look, I just found this house for sale!" She laughed, "You're in 'your house!' On the water! Just like in the dance!"
Here is a photo of me beside "my" dock. The house itself was not really visible from the water, due to a row of large trees.
We spoke of me maybe actually moving here, and four turkey vultures circled low above us for ages. I googled turkey vulture totem.
"The vulture represents birth and death as well as new beginnings" (source)
"Their task in life is to clean up the mess, but an even more interesting aspect of the turkey vulture is that it is the only bird (or presumably only animal) whose feces is disease free. So the turkey vulture kindly cleans up dead carcasses or rotting flesh, then purifies them from any bacteria - making them perhaps nature's most perfect cleansing animal... The turkey vulture is symbolic of soulful cleansing, reaching a higher spiritual place...overcoming obstacles that we may encounter when trying to fly, but then soaring like an eagle when we get off the ground..." (source)
As if on cue, we passed floating garbage cans and saw one sign for a washroom, next to steps leading out of the water.
Nihan helped a 10 year old boy who was struggling to get into his tube. He had the blue tube, which had an open bottom and no oars. She "bumped" him back to his parents, who then formed a chain with him. They called, "Thanks girls," and I laughed that I was probably the same age as the parents.
The last section the river before our pullout at Little Beach was very light rapids. Nihan had done a complete turnaround about her comfort level, and was now eager for the rapids. Lol. I taught her the trick of lifting her bum, to avoid banging it on rocks in the shallow rapids.
On the third set of rapids, I passed an elderly lady hung up on rocks at the river's edge. Her husband had gone through already. I looked back from the end the rapids saw she was still hung up, and tipping in a precarious manner. So I beached my tube and walked back to help her. I taught her the "bums up" position, and her tube came free with a tiny push. On the next set of rapids, I looked back to see her using the technique with much success.
I saw a small mink and a large fish. The mink ran straight at me from the shore into the water. It freaked me out a little, but when it just swam along to a spot a little farther down the shore and hopped out again, I relaxed and got a good look at it. I tried to photograph them with my phone camera, but got nothing usable.
Here are some photos of a mink I got off the internet.
Nihan looked up mink totem:
"Mink shows how to walk in the spiritual and physical world with joy and playfulness along with a balance of fighting for just cause. He teaches attention to intuition and timing, keen senses, awareness and how to move in the emotional waters balanced with the mental world. ... He will teach how to remain within, a quiet solitude of personal space for contemplation. Are you completing a life cycle, something that you started long ago? Mink will aid in this returning with understanding and compassion. Perhaps you are ready for a move? Mink will also guide in this direction and will last approximately 2-3 weeks. Allow Mink's wisdom to show you the power of adaptability and balance." (source)
I looked up a little more, and found one description that was rich in keys for me:
"If you have American mink as a guide or animal energy in your life, you'll often find that you require and prefer rich environments in which to live. ... You prefer protected safe places that you can control wherever possible... In addition, you will regularly seek out seclusion in order to find nourishment, wisdom or energy. Conditions are optimum when your safe place is also a space where you are guaranteed seclusion."
and:
"American mink - being one of the world's most desirable and most-farmed animals for its fur - draws one's attention to the pros and cons of being desirable for what you produce and not who you are...."
and:
"Any animal that burrows into the darkness for its food, not knowing exactly what awaits it there, is one that teaches us how to go into the deep and sometimes painful places for wisdom. American mink people tend to be quite self-aware, and as a guide, American mink is unafraid to drag one hunting for nourishment and wisdom in the dark recesses of the unconscious. These journeys are often painful, unfathomable and unknowable. American mink's additional connection to water wisdom means these journeys are often extraordinarily life-changing..."
At Little Beach, the fish were jumping. The beach was clearly marked with signage as the pullout point for tubing and the pickup point for the Tube Shack Shuttle. We considered a last swim there, but then decided against it and got dressed. I realized I had somehow lost my underwear. I figured it must have been when I changed at the pub. We laughed at the image of someone finding them there. It was too bad that they were a brand new pair, worn for the first time that day.
As I walked without a bra or skivvies, I laughed to myself, "There's another thing I didn't necessarily need on the Camino!" Fortunately for this trip, I had packed enough underwear for each day, because it was only four days and I didn't feel like doing laundry. So I had spares waiting for me back at Cobb Cabin.
We walked back in sunshine. About 450m down Greendale Rd was the junction with the railgrade.
The trail was very similar to the trail we took that morning. At one point, I saw a pair of boxer briefs on the side of the trail. "See, you never really lose anything!" Nihan said pragmatically. I declined to pick them up and put them on. ;)
We picked blackberries and filled a ziploc for the next morning 's breakfast. I saw a big frog. The sun came out in full force, and the railgrade alternated between shady woods and open sky.
Along Skutz Falls Road, we talked some more about the mother wound, and about the necessity of cycles of destruction and creation in life. Again, the walk felt sooooo fast.
Arriving back at Cobb House, the little girl had decided she was now our friend, and called hello.
Now that we had the onion and second can of tuna purchased for us by our host, we made Pho soup. We added the kale we picked from the gardens at Akasha Meadows. It turned out delicious! We even found two pairs of chopsticks in the communal kitchen. :D
We had planned to play the Camino board game that I brought, but after the soup, decided on bed instead. I blogged for a while, then, because the skies had finally cleared and we were in rural territory away from city lights, tried to watch the Perseid meteor shower. I didn't see any. Perhaps because it wasn't peak time yet, perhaps becuase my eyes were so tired. I thought about how great it would be to lay out on the trampoline with Nihan and watch the meteor shower, but I was too tired and she was already asleep.
Falling asleep, it came to me: I *did* literally walk "from my home to the end" of the Trans-Canada Trail... because my life began in Duncan! I had walked a metaphor for my own life's journey!! No doubt this journey would bring some incredible transformation for me. Amazed by the realization, I fell to sleep.
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