Journey North 17

8.4.23

That time your homie is glued to the laptop on your departure day and you manage to eke out one last adventure! We went prone paddling. Brian kicked my ass. :-\

Off to Ladner for the night

My Canadian Mom, Lynn! Look at this amazing spread!!! We had a blast.

We met at the beginning of my Journey North in Manning Provincial Park. It was one of my first stops in Canada!

Lynn is incredibly knowledgeable about a lot of things, including environmental and indigenous efforts. Throughout my trip I would tell her my location and she would share really interesting information about the area I was in.

It’s good to have smart friends. :)

8.5.23

Off to Grants Pass, Oregon for some friend time and learning to freshwater kayak on the Rogue River! Getting close to USA….

Big City driving…..

What’s up stranger! Let’s meet in the parking lot and go grocery shopping!

Didn’t realize how much I missed my friends till I gave this one a big ole hug! One of my fave people on the planet! He requested anonymity though.

Also, it’s amazing having friends who love cooking because I can’t feed myself for shit.

8.6.23

Slow morning… Breakfast after hottub…

Making sammies for kayak day 1

Put bottle in, get money. Finicky machine does not like skinny Pellegrino cans..

Off to launch… Don’t think I got any more photos today… It was a really hot day, a good day to be on the river. Probably 105F in the high noon…

I learned several different paddle strokes and how to flip myself back over off of my friends’ bow. Productive day!

Insanely different than ocean kayaking. The ocean kayak in Haida Gwaii was 18’ with a keel, this one is maybe 5’ long and with no keel. Totally different technique needed here! The twitchy, high reaction totally reminds me of my skateboarding days… :)

Toy load up time!

Remember that time in Kluane, where I miss-wrote my ticket and the people from Toronto tried to commandeer my coveted camping spot?

I spent 5 minutes thinking about what to write and ensure I didn’t make any mistakes….. Well, this is what I got. 😂

I think I got only the year right.

Lunchies!

Heading back to the house for dinner and hot tub and beers and so many laughs….

8.7.23

Scouting put in spots for today’s kayaking

Sent this picture to one of my favorite humans, Rand. This is the put in we launched at today. I am obviously really good at modeling. 😅

Post kayak dinner spread courtesy of mystery man

Sup Becs

Knot tying lessons for me!

Woohoo not bad for 2 beers knots

Next activity… Hot tub, mochis, and ‘fuzzy waters’ !

8.8.23

Obligatory pre-breakfast and kayak soak

Today was kayak lesson from the Master day. My mystery friend and the Master were shuttling cars today and I was told the Master said about me, “We have to find her breaking point!”

Later that day he sent me first down a class 3 and I made it until he distracted me by coming up on my down river rail and then I finally flipped. He was impressed that I kept my cool, tapped the bottom of my boat until he put his nose for me to grab on and flip myself upright.

First attempt, I had the paddle in my hand and went back under to switch the paddle to my other hand and then tried again to flip myself over. Success this time.

Master was impressed I didn’t ditch the paddle. Guess the surfing career carries over. :)

Oh, about this picture. This is my mystery friend packing a tuxedo to take down the expert level 5 day river trip tomorrow. I told him he should saran wrap the coat so it doesn’t get wet and if folded properly would minimize wrinkles as well.

Apparently it was a success.

8.9.23

My mystery friend left this morning at the crack of dawn for the expert kayaking portion of his trip. I hang out by myself for a day before heading south again.

Good morning

OK, now it’s getting hot… Time to get up…

Morning soak moon

Yum

Hot out there. Nap indoors with Lily

Porch time

TurkTurks!

8.10.23

This day completes Journey North, as I make my way back to Santa Cruz, CA.

But first… Ritual morning hot tub!

Heading down the secret highways to Ashland, Oregon to see some of my favorite cutie patooties!

Brunch with said cuties… Denise and David! Saw them on the way north, nice to see them on the way south!

Nice flowers at the brunch place

Goodies to go from the garden.. and locally harvested clams for the homemade clam chowder!

Back on the road we goooooo

California traffic, how I missed you

Landed at my favorite sushi spot for a giant box of go… waiting with some Japanese green tea… So happy

Said giant box of go! Can’t wait!

My friends house, that I am staying at while in Santa Cruz, has keypad locks on all of the doors. I was hot tubbing and closed the door behind me. It, of course, locked me out of the house while I was hot tubbing around 10 or 11PM.

Result: B&E into my friends house with only a white towel and no clothes. This window was wide enough for only Diana-no-towel, so a naked B&E it was. I climbed up a ladder on the outside of the house and then I piled the pillows up on the bed to help break my fall into the house.

A minorly bent bug screen and some butt scrapes. A winning welcome back to Santa Cruz!