Monday, May 17, 2010

Adventure from Commercial drive to Horseshoe bay. may 13th

Hello All,

Today was a bit more extreme then yesterday. I woke up a few times last night because jason was vomiting, when he pukes, there’s a deep wretch, a gurgle, then a high pitched scream, like a little girl. It was a disconcerting, but I knew he was alright, Brian and I are (were) lifeguards for heaven sake.

Packing my bag, one of the the small straps attached to a bigger strap, ripped off. I considered using my smaller bag, but it just wasn’t in the cards, I wanted to be comfortable should I have been forced to camp unexpectedly. Examining the broken part, I saw the seam was ripped along the top of it. A stitch in time saves 9 “they” say. After reinforcing the seam, the strap held. All day, and it’s looking good. I started off to cross an easterly bridge that was near brian’s house. It was the first time I’d attempted to go long distances with that backpack and banjo setup. The banjo started out around my neck, smiles were plentiful in the city. But it and the backpack were cumbersome. The pack was dumpster dived 6 years ago, then brought to France and the Netherlands. It’s over sized and the bottom sags, but the framework is steady and the hip, breast and attachment straps are fine. I made the load as light as possible, then took for the road. So, traveling west along the river, breaks were in order to keep up the pace, eventually I made it to the lion’s gate bridge. Upon stepping onto the bridge, a man on the opposite sidewalk was emphatically attempting to get my attention. The cars were too loud for him to yell so he made some quick signs; glasses with his hands then pointing downward. I looked over the bridge, which quickly goes from about three to 7 stories off the water. I saw nothing and kept walking, the fellow and the woman he was with continued to frantically look over the edge. I kept an eye on the water below and strolled to the crest of the bridge. There on the other sidewalk was another woman speaking into a phone attached to a yellow box, the emergency phone. The couple made their way up the bridge and finally there was a lull in traffic, “someone jumped”. Within moments a cop pulled up and stepped out. “Who saw it” he said, looking at me. I pointed across the bridge and they started talking. I kept my eyes trained on the water. Visualization popped into the mind’s eye, immediately I created a look, a figure, a perhaps disenchanted soul that decided to test the limits and boundaries of mortality. As the police boats sped by and the ambulance and fire truck pulled up to the low road, I looked up the number for the local CBC radio station and gave them a call. “Hi, I have a tip, someone just jumped off the lion’s gate bridge” “Did you see it”, “I didn’t see it” “So he hasn’t jumped yet?” “No he’s jumped, the witnesses saw it and told me to look down, there’s cops all over the place” “Oh, thanks”. I stayed a while and tried to see my first corpse. The cop boats were dropping markers and criss crossing the area,
at one point I saw a white and black thing bobbing in the water, then disappearing and coming back near by a few moments later, I think it was an animal.

Im in the woods right now and the light of the screen might be attracting visitors, off for now, more on today tomorrow.

Back, so I turned left after the bridge and commenced my trek to horseshoe bay by longboard with that huge bag on my back. I think it was about 35km or so and I would estimate the bag at 40 or 50lbs, it was a fun challenge. Quite a bit of up hill which got more extreme about three quarters of the way in, however I’ve attempted to employ something I call “ambidextrous pushing”, most people push skateboards with only one leg, balancing on the other; the result is an eventual sharp pain in the balancing leg and a tired pushing leg. Switching legs with each five pushes or so balances out the effort and makes life easier, especially when going up hills. Even then I had to walk up a few hills at the end when my knees started to ache. Going down hills was an entirely different experience. Descending the lion’s gate, I put on a work glove and pressed down on the railing to slow myself down. That combined with the foot drag style breaking offered ample control. With the extra weight, I made sure to stay within a speed that I could control, although when I saw there was a decent runout, I took advantage of the added speed and bombed some hills. When there were no cars about, I could make wide turns, slowing down that way. At one point on a deep frontside turn at a decent speed, the wheel lost traction and began sliding sideways. Normally this is an enjoyable occurrence, I had to hop off and run a bit to regain my balance, that was the only momentary loss of command. The sun was beating down hard as I headed directly into the it’s glare. It shawn beyond quarter to nine when I got to the ferry. Before leaving Van I checked my bank account online and saw in there 14$, the exact amount required to take the ferry. Upon arriving at the terminal, to my dismay they took only cash or credit, no debit. With utter futility I was rejected by the atm then the credit car machine. Thankfully the lady at the desk made a call to the office on the second floor, luckily the secretary was moment away from leaving when she did indeed answer. I dashed upstairs and was able to transfer those 14 electronic bits of digital information necessary to board the ferry. It was a great ride, the powerful engine smoothly shakethe whole boat. I met a fellow named Stewart who was also into longboarding and we went to watch the sunset on the upper deck. We hung out for a while then came across ten twenty year old surfers on their way to tofino. We danced, sang, ran and play like little kids, these folk were packed full of youthful energy, crystal children perhaps. After the ride I rendezvoued with Simon and Bossy, we caught up on old time, I showed off my newest b-boy moves and we talked turkey about the upcoming project. It was great hanging out with my old friends again, they’re working on getting pregnant and they going to name the boy child “Maximus” after me, and another friend of theirs named max. It was deeply touching to have been honored in that way. I recalled the three of us having conversation a year ago when Bossy was still with her husband, I was pointing out that her marriage seemed imbalanced. or unhealthy. Apparently S and B recalled those conversations as well. We hung out at Bossy’s spa with the dogs and talked metaphysics about the direction of the Pirate Yogi Crew, apple computers came up in the conversation, they have a core belief about computers that work well and easy to use, but also offer all the mythology surrounding the tree of knowledge. We were brainstorming what we believed to the core. It came down to expansion and exploration of the soul, universe and dimensions as well as living up to the potential that we know rests inside of us. To deny it would be an act of fear, also something we which to overcome. We hung out at S’s dad’s place for a bit then I went off to the estuary that I lived in on and off for about a month last year. I found my old spot with ease, did some writing and slept extremely well wrapped in my sleeping bag and tarp.

1 comment:

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