Throw four nuts into a 4×4 to go camping and what do you get? No, not Nutella. A hell of a ride! At about 12pm on Thursday (not “around 8″ as we had planned – this can be blamed on me – indeed, at 8 am on a national holiday I received an e-mail informing me that I had to fix up an assignment I handed in weeks ago…so awesome.) we got on the highway and headed for British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, and one of the 195 lakes that it is home to. In hand, we had a book that was actually called 195 Lakes of the Fraser Valley. This book is enthralling – it gives the locations of lakes that are hidden in the valley, by telling you, “set your odometer to zero at _____ landmark and drive __ km until you see the barely-there washed out access road. You will need a 4X4 or to hike for 1.2 km.” An adventurer’s dream!
Unfortunately, our copy of the book was published in the mid-1990s. Although many of the instructions (for example, distances between landmarks – yes, exactly 5.4 km!) were amazingly accurate, new forks in the road had arisen over the past 15 years. Instead of there being two possible routes up – to Sunset Lake, where we hoped to arrive – there were three. We tried the third first, and found ourselves driving up a cliff. When the vehicle nearly rolled over into the surrounding forest, we tried the other two. Dead ends. Later a park ranger would tell us our instincts had been right to begin with! If we had just managed to scale that cliff…”it’s easy!”
No, Ranger Bob, it is not. And cheers for charging us $14/night for a campsite deep in the wilderness with no facilities! No free lunches in British Columbia now that the Olympics are over, and bankrupted the province, as expected.
It was supposed to take us about an hour and a half to reach our campsite. It took six. We got lost on the winding gravel roads that lead to different lakes in an area called “Mystery Valley”. Biggest understatement ever. Arguments ensued, as they often do on the first day of a road trip. When Alarryyk didn’t want to pull over to look at the map once again – which we later realized was a map of the creeks in the area, not the roads! 
– I attempted to grab hold of the wheel to get his attention. I was losing it. I could have hurled the vehicle off a cliff. It was time to find a spot, somewhere, anywhere. Insults were uttered by both of us. Below-the-belt.
We found a spot at 20-mile lake. I love how locations in this province are named by mileage from some destination long-forgotten, remnants of the First Nations Peoples’ maps, the people who settled this land thousands of years ago. The lake was surrounded by some slippery looking rocks, but it was a lake! After throwing up the tent, Alarryyk, our driver, passed out immediately (quite a natural reaction!), missing our first campfire.
I think having a fire at the end of the day is magickal therapy. You can throw all of the things you wish you hadn’t said or done during the day into the fire, watch the flames burn them as they take on a life of their own, and enjoy the simple pleasure of getting warm with your nearest and dearest. So I threw the madness of the last four and a half unexpected hours into the fire. Only Alarryyk wasn’t there to witness this, to talk, to throw his own regrets in the fire. By the time he woke up, the rest of us were packing it in for the night. The clouds were not moving – stars were not going to be seen, and the fantasy I had of walking around the lake looking at stars from a location where you can actually see them, unlike in the city, was not moving past the fantasy-level. I wanted to join him by the fire, but the tent and thoughts of sleep were too tempting. Our sleep schedules were officially opposed – godamnit!
The next day was cloudy and cold. Laara and I went exploring for driftwood, walking over logs meant for an experienced voyageur. But we felt like little kids and giggled like little girls when we inevitably fell into knee deep lake water. The fun was commencing. We went back to sit at the fire to dry off, and I spent the next several hours whittling away at a piece of driftwood – I realized how amazing it felt to be away from phones, Internet access, television sets, and all of the other distractions of daily life. You see, I have a bit of a problem relaxing. In the city, I will lie in the sun or a bed to meditate or take a nap, and get up every two minutes – “I forgot my phone!”, “I need more water!”, “No, not this book, I need to grab three others!” Last summer, a counsellor suggested I stop this by “grounding myself” – listening to the sounds around me, the smells of nature, the feeling of the Earth. I could never quite get it down, and here it came naturally.
The men went for a beer and hot dog bun run. When they hadn’t returned for several hours, Laara and I started to worry. Did they attempt that cliff again? As we passed sights like these on the main road, there was cause for concern.
However, they returned safely. It turned out that Alarryyk just happened to run into his best friend from high school, whom he had not seen for 18 years, at the “Sasquatch Inn”, when he went in to use the washroom. It was one of those mind-blowing coincidences that is “too much of a coincidence to just be a coincidence”. Thus, my greeting with angry eyes, “Where the hell were you guys?!?”, was not appropriate. Tempers got hot, and another cloudy night was spent by the campfire. My love was missing once again, but this time because I had pushed him away, and hadn’t given him time to tell this amazing story, distracted by irrational worry and annoyance. I woke up realizing how horrible I would have felt in his shoes, and we decided to go for a drive – more beer was needed again – to be alone together and make amends. It worked like a charm, as this happened:
No, I’m serious. The flat tire was a blessing. I learned that I intuitively knew how to change a flat, and our teamwork, as usual, was amazing. I think putting together IKEA furniture has actually given me a basic understanding of “nuts and bolts” that is very useful at times like this. We drove into town – it must have only taken us 15 minutes to change the flat! Now we not only had to go beer-fetching, but vehicle-fixing. I did a little exploring in the town of Agassiz, loving the warmth of the locals. Even when I went to Shopper’s Drug Mart to buy some Aleve and elastic headbands, the staff treated me like gold. I think they should give the pharmacists at the Commercial/Broadway Station Shopper’s Drug Mart – the one I got “banned” from for crying when a pharmacist refused to fill my prescription – a seminar on people skills.
We left to go back to the lake in high spirits. I bought a tank top for $3 because it felt like it was starting to finally warm up – swimming and stars were around the corner! We felt gross about having left our friends at the campsite for three hours longer than they expected, but surely the evening would make up for it. Then, Chris’s long lost friend appeared at the side of the road! He would be joining us to top it all off, as would his incredibly drunk and endlessly amusing buddy. Yes, good times were ahead, and I snapped some shots of the beautiful creek under a bridge built in 1950.
(this one will forever remind me of Ani Difranco’s song “Studying Stones”
The slight period of warmth was…slight. When we finally reached our temporary home, it was cloudy and windy once again. “Tomorrow it will be sunny! The wind is pushing the clouds away!” – I said this every day, Thursday through Sunday. The sun came out on Monday, as we returned to work and school.
We had one last beautiful night by the fire. This time, everyone was there. Stories were shared, music was played, and sparks drifted into the air, pretending to be stars.
I also got to see the largest insect I have ever seen in the wild – the “Banana Slug”. Half-awed, and half-disgusted, I managed to get close enough to one to take this shot:
The things look like rotten bananas with little antennae and eyes!
When we awoke the next morning, we said goodbye to our new friends – Alarryyk’s old friends – hoping that we would see each other again sooner than in 18 years. We begrudgingly packed everything back up in the car. Unread books, unused fishing rods, a half-finished wood carving. There is never enough time! Unspoken words also floated over the mountains. Amongst the revelries, feelings had been hurt.
But the next day, Laara, her man and mine, planned a potluck dinner while I was at school. We cooked up delicious recipes passed down from grandparents and friends. The presence of appliances and lack of fire made no difference – as soon as we reconnected, all hard feelings disappeared.
We realized what great friends we are and will continue to be, and that there will be many more adventures. They will not be difficulty-free – life never is – but we will get through, and laughter and hugs will always be the conclusion. My and Alarryyk’s bickering and shouting of quite “crazy” things at one another did not scare our lovely compatriots – it only made us all realize just how similar we are. We are passionate people, and passion manifests in many forms, including shouting and frustration. It’s other positive manifestations make the unsavoury ones seem to be of little importance in comparison.
In the end, it was a lovely weekend with the people I love. And all’s well that ends well. 
Kudos