Back to Nature

I woke up in the morning and embraced the laundry situation. With one washer in the building and my own morning fog, this took about 3 hours. I am a gifted domestic engineer to be sure :) In the meantime, I reviewed my travel books, took some notes, and tried to figure out what to do with my week that wouldn't be terribly redundant once my sister arrives. In packing for Pemberton, Jen had realized she needed some things from her kayak at Jericho Beach, so I decided to walk over there and fish them out. Not my favourite beach walk in the world, but I have since discovered that a bigger, more populated chunk of Jericho lies on the other side of where Ecomarines is located. Plus, the area I walked through was where the Folk Festival had been, and it's hard to look as festive when you're tent and people free and the grass needs a drink. At any rate, a nice guy helped me get what I needed from the hatch and I trucked it back to Jen's. After that, I decided was famished and walked up to Vera's Burgers. It's a popular local burger chain, where there claim is "You can't beat Vera's Meat." You can't make this stuff up.Next thing you know, Joerg picks us up for the trip up to Narin Falls, where our Pemberton camping sites would be. Joerg had quite smartly discovered that the Falls are only 3.5 km from the Festival Site and significantly cheaper to stay at. As an additional bonus, the grounds only have 100 nicely spaced sites vs the sardine can camping for thousands at the Festival. Downside? A deep fear of bears, some apprehension about no running water for three days, and a vague confusion on how we'd actually get to the Festival. (Did I mention the bear thing?)

The trip up went quite well, without any of the massive traffic jams I had anticipated. Jen set up our tents while Joerg arranged for an extended gate time for our co-campers, and I attempted to be useful. I haven't camped in a decade and technology has changed significantly for the better in those years!

We snacked on fine cheeses, drank beer, and greeted our co-campers as they arrived. I think I can dig "car camping."