2017 Northern Migration - The Canadian part

May 18, 2017 by Catherine Forest in Rock climbing, Camping spots, Hot Springs, British Columbia

Fruit trees in bloom in the Okanagan Valley, 10 km from the US border in Osoyoos.

Rock climbing in Skaha Bluffs Provincial park.

JF showing the girls how to build an anchor.

Stout drinking in the Okanagan Lake at Evely Recreation Site campground, a little gem of a campground. — Stout drinking in the Okanagan Lake at Evely Recreation Site campground, a little gem of a campground.

Such clear water!

Camping by Lodgepole Lake, near Kamloops.

Stout fell through the ice on that lake and gave us quite the scare.

Late spring and very high water levels everywhere (Kerry Lake).

We got completely stuck in mud going to Inga Lake, just before Wonowon. A towing was needed to get us out of there.

There was even snow between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson!

One of many similar gas stations/motels/restaurant along the Alaska Highway. The guy that lives there had grey skin. He says he spends his winters here all by himself. What a life!

I am unclear about how to handle social media right now. It seems like the blog is more and more a rehashing of what I have published on Instagram and Facebook in the last week or so... I am really enjoying the My Story feature on Instagram right now (the bubbles at the top, where you post little blurbs that disappear after 24 hours, yes, a copy of Snapchat) and this is where I feel more compelled to post. I feel like the IG community is more active now than the FB one... So where does the blog fit in that? Not too sure, but I know I want to keep it up and going. Let me know what you think or what you would like to see more on the blog.

This is a text I published on my personal FB page and on Road it up Instagram. You might have read it already.

As we drive through rows of black spruce, the girls fight over iPad charging cables. I put my earphones back on, close my eyes and go back to the Masai Mara in Kenya with Tsh Oxenreider. I'm listening to her latest book, At Home In The World, the retelling of her year abroad with 3 young kids. She discuses with expats she meets along the way about how intense it is to be with her kids 24/7. I've never known anything else. I've been with my girls day in and day out for 13 years straight. As crazy as it may sound to some, I wouldn't want it any other way. Even on hard days. There were hard days when I worked in an office too (many more!). I smile as I now hear the girls laugh in unisson at a movie on which they finally agreed. I am back in Venice, eating gelato twice a day and drinking an afternoon macchiato with Tsh and her family when I spot a black bear scratching his back on a tree on the side of the Alaska Highway. We're home. Or rather, one of our home. But we're always home in our bus. The outside might be less familiar, but we feel home anywhere.

I pause Tsh’s book and look ahead, lost in thoughts. What is home anyways? A familiar bed? A favorite mug? A sense of safety and comfort? A smell we recognize and that makes us smile? The way the light filters through the tall branches of trees at 10:30 pm?

I dig my face into the Yukon moss. Yes, I am home, indeed.

Last days at the Bluffs

October 05, 2015 by Catherine Forest in British Columbia, Rock climbing

Some days we climbed in t-shirts and tank tops, some days, we had four layers on!

Poor Java found an underground wasp nest... and got a taste of their medicine. He was in shock and shaking, and the kids thought that dressing him up would keep him warm...!

I love how her shadow seems to be angry... Her love-hate relationship with rock climbing!

You can see here that Karl is lead climbing and Ellie is top roping (explanations below).

Left: Ellie coming down after having climbed a 5.9. Right: Karl and Jennifer setting up the belay on top of the route.

On the 8 days we were in Pentincton, we spent 6 at the Skaha Bluffs. When you have such an awesome rock climbing spot 5 minutes away, you make the best of it! In times like these, food becomes a mean to an end, and we don't want to lose anytime cooking! We lived on pastas, wraps, Vega bars, fruits, lots of snacks and water!

I know that rock climbing is an unfamiliar world to many and is perceived as an extreme sport. Like any sport, rock climbing can lead to injuries, but when practiced safely the way we do (and at the level we do it), it is a very safe sport with minimal risk, safer than many other sports (like mountain biking!). There are 3 main types of rock climbing: top roping (when you install a belay on top of the route and you are held by the rope from up top - this is the way all of us, except Karl and JF - climb for now), sport climbing (when you clip quick draws in bolts already drilled into the rock wall and clip the rope in them as you go up - this way, if you fall, you fall down to the last bolt you clipped) and trad climbing (when you climb a wall that is not bolted and put your own gear - called cams, nuts, hex, etc. - in cracks and crevises in the rock and then clip your rope to it - if you fall, you have to trust that the protection you installed will hold you!).

When you follow basic safety measures, rock climbing is safe and very enjoyable. It is a great way to work on your fear of heights. Installing top anchors (usually, on top of a route, there are two chains from which you create a belay with slings and locking carabiners - you can reach that anchor by walking up around the cliff in many places or by having someone lead the route and install a belay once he is on top), and knowing the rope tying and belaying techniques are a must before you start climbing outside. I highly recommend anybody that wants to start to take an intro class at a local rock gym.

Rock climbing is a very rewarding full-body workout and it is an incredibly confidence building sport. You learn to trust yourself and your belayer (he/she litterally has your life in his/her hands). Looking at the route, you have to visualize your movements: a great brain exercise. It is fascinating to see how some of our kids stay calm in demanding situations and work extremely hard to get to the top. Seeing them persevere throught tears of frustation and allowing another adult to guide them back to their center when they lose their cool is very heartwarming. And it pushes us to do even better.

The essence of life

September 30, 2015 by Catherine Forest in British Columbia, Rock climbing

As we reached the crag we had chosen to climb that day, we thought we were alone since it was a week day, but noticed a man high up on the wall, auto-belaying himself. The man looked to be around 75 years old. He asked us a few questions with a thick accent and simply could not understand that we were homeschooling. He kept asking us if it was a school group, or if we were volunteers... until I told him we were traveling together and had spent the summer in the Yukon, our home base. That, he seemed to get... and he slowly opened up. He told me that he came from Poland in the 80's and roadtripped all around Canada, all the way up to Dawson City and Alaska. I asked him where he climbed before living in this area and very humbly told me he climbed in many, many places, namely in Afghanistan before the war, in the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Himalayas. He attempted Everest and fell in a crevasse just above Camp 3 and got very injured... He reminded me of a shorter version of Yvon Chouinard (founder of the Patagonia company, you can hear his story in the great movie 180 degrees South - Conquerors of the Useless). He told me he used to ice climb and mountain bike a lot.

Later, he asked me if I knew how the road to the Denali was, if it was doable in a small car... The man still has dreams. At 75. As we parted ways, I told him I admire the fact that he was still out there, rock climbing and mountain biking (although on easier trails, he said, "because the bones are not as solid at my age..."), that so many people who were active like him in their young age, stop being so as they age... He looked at me with his big blue eyes and simply said: But that's the essence of life.

I felt like bowing to this wise master. Instead, I just smiled a warm smile and felt extremely grateful for this beautiful encounter. There are people you cannot forget.

Rock climbing like real dirtbags in Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park

September 28, 2015 by Catherine Forest in British Columbia, Rock climbing

We spent the weekend at the Bluffs and loved every minute of it. Since JF couldn't lead or climb routes because of his broken arm (for non-climbers, leading is going up a route first and clipping the rope as you go, then installing a belay on top), so he taught Karl how to do it, which he did like a pro! Rock climbing routes have the funniest (and sometimes dirtiest) names... We climbed Lick it in your panties and Hair on a G string...! I've seen routes called Your Mom's Crack (so you could say: I climbed your mom's crack... And bike trails called My girlfriend and Your girlfriend (So you can say I rode your girlfriend or I ripped your girlfriend...! Ahem!).

We met lots of climbers that live in their vans or their old cars and travel from one climbing spot to the next. These guys live for climbing! They are the ones that are commonly called "dirtbags". I love their laid back vibe, friendliness and carefree attitude.

On Sunday night, everybody was exhausted and we cracked beers and ciders along the still warm rock walls away from the wind, watching the sunset on Skaha Lake. We came back to our cars as night was falling, feeling our tired bodies, smiling from cheek to cheek, feeling so very alive.

**If you want to learn more about the fascinating history of rock climbing (and dirtbags!), I highly recommend you watch the awesome movie Valley Uprising. We watched it (again!) with our friends on Saturday night and they loved it!