29 JUN 98

I forgot to mention something exciting from the last time I was in Banff. One evening, when we returned to camp, there was a large bird of prey on our picnic table. He left a small dropping on the table and luckily, thanks to some previous passengers, I had a book for identifying birds by their droppings. It is a joke book, but nobody knew that. They all thought I had a bird dropping identification book, complete with pictures, measurements, and descriptions.

Then, the best part of the whole bird experience, we looked under the picnic table and there was a dead squirrel. It had been ripped open and there were easily identifiable organs littering the area. It was gross. Before I had a chance to clean it up, another squirrel came and stole the dead one, just dragged it away. I guess for a decent burial.

After I left here last week, I went to the Gaslight District and took a chess lesson from the guy on the street. For the first time in my life, I have a strategy when I play chess. I can't wait to play someone else and try it.

Last Wednesday, I drove back to Seattle and the trip ended. My friend Gillian, who was a passenger on one of my trips back in November, was in town for a few days. We went to the cool beach area in West Seattle to hang out. It was great to see her again. She brought me a CD from England that I had asked for. Now I can listen to my new music, a mix of rap and classical. Unfortunately, I had to work on Thursday and then she left on Friday.

Saturday night, Sue and I went to an Alpine Luau. Her old boss had a party at his house and I ate very well. It was a nice big suburban home with lots of families running around. They roasted a pig on a spit and had coconut-shrimp. It was probably one of the best feeds I have had all year.

Sunday I watched a little World Cup Soccer on TV and prepared for my next trip.

For years I have been expecting to meet somebody I know by random chance while I travel. It finally happened. One of my passengers on this trip, Trev, was my tent mate for ten weeks when I travelled through East Africa in 95/96. It was quite a shock and we have spent most of today catching up.

We finally have nice weather up here, so all my new passengers are enjoying a bike ride in the park. Tomorrow we leave Vancouver and start heading north. We don't stop until we get to Alaska. My current trip is called 'The Klondike'. We will take 22 days to drive up to and around Alaska. Then we will take the four day inside passage boat trip back to Seattle. It should be a lot of fun, although I don't expect to find very much Internet access to tell everyone about it.

23 JUN 98

Hello from the cheap Internet place in Vancouver. I am waiting for the rain to stop.

After my last update, I went to the bar at noon and watched Brazil beat Morocco in the World Cup of Soccer.

The next day we drove up the Icefields Parkway and looked at some not so blue lakes and played on a glacier. I brought the garbage bags this time so we could slide down the toe of the glacier. I was racing Takuya down the snow and I was winning, but he his so competitive that he had to get up and run down. Naturally, when he got to the bottom he could not stop and tripped and fell onto the rocks. He cut his hands a little bit and announced that he had won.

Takuya, a passenger from Japan has been a lot of fun this trip. He told us he is the greatest chess player and early in the game he said "Come on Baby" to me. He speaks very little english, but we have been having a lot of fun together.

In Jasper it was raining, so nobody wanted to hike. I knew how boring Jasper was, so I gave them the morning free to shop and then took them for a walk in the drizzle up a canyon in the afternoon. Then we played in the pool and I worked on my one and a half flip. The lifeguard said my flips looked pretty good.

The next day we drove and looked at some waterfalls and then had a really nice night with no rain. The following morning we left for our overnight canoe trip. We had perfect weather and even did a small hike up to a viewpoint. I spent the afternoon floating in a canoe and reading a book. It was very relaxing. That night, since my van was across the lake, I slept outside again.

The next morning we canoed out of there and drove up to a campground that was very secluded. We had to drive three miles up a mountain on a dirt road to get there. We were the only ones around and it was very nice.

Yesterday, we went rafting on the Thompson river with a guy named Herbie. He has been taking Trek groups on his motorized raft for 17 years and gave us a good ride.

Today we are hanging out in Vancouver. I helped Takuya buy his train and bus tickets, so he took me out for Sushi to say thanks. I have learned a bunch of new Japanese words this trip, thanks to him.

I bought a few new CD's today, so I am going to go listen to them now. Bye.

16 JUN 98

Hello from Banff, Alberta, Canada.

After my last update, the weather finally cleared up enough for seven of my passengers to skydive. As they were supposed to, they enjoyed it completely. After the skydive we went out for dinner and dancing in Vancouver.

The next day we came back to Seattle and finished the trip. They were one of the nicest groups ever. They bought a box of thank you cards and each filled out a whole card for me. One of them also made a small painting of me in my Drizabone riding coat, by blue wool hat, my sandals, and my bag of trial mix.

Then, to top it all off, the four crazy British women gave me a little package with small mementos of the whole trip and some hair nets. They called themselves the "Flying Foxettes" and they were "inFOXicated" with me and the trip. It was nice to be with a group that was so appreciative.

Hanging out in the hotel, after the trip, was one of my favorite people in the whole world. My friend Suzie was in Seattle for a few days before she headed up to Alaska with her boyfriend to lead tours for another company. We ate Japanese food one night and Indian the next. Seattle is great for Asian foods.

The next day, John, my former roommate from college showed up. He and his new wife were in town for a day. I enjoyed meeting Cathy and look forward to meeting their son when he pops out in September.

There were also a few other tour leaders I like in Seattle, so I barely had time to do my work in the office between all of my visiting friends.

I did manage to plan a trip, so I picked up a new group last Thursday and started the same two week trip over again. We drove through the cloudy North Cascades National Park, camped by a lake, crossed into Canada, went wine tasting, camped by a lake, walked around a lake, camped by a river, walked to a waterfall, and camped in the woods.

Yesterday, we went to Lake Louise and hiked for about ten miles up to some glaciers. They had a tea house near the top and we ate hot soup and bread before hiking down. Today is free day in Banff and I will watch some World Cup soccer later. It is very hard to follow soccer in France while camping in the middle of the Rockies.

Did I say it rained on my last trip here? Actually we a little rain most days, but it was never really bad. This trip we have had a light rain every day, all day since we got to Canada. We had to hike in the rain yesterday and my group is hiking in the rain right now.

One other thing I really like about Canada - There are tons of young backpackers hitch-hiking around the country. It is nice to see that.

5 JUN 98

I am at the Internet Cafe in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They only charge six Canadian dollars for an hour of computer use. After the exchange rate, they are practically giving away computer time. I had a chance to answer all my old e-mails and even surf the net a bit.

I was informed by my group that I was mistaken in my last update. Up until my last update, we actually had not had a single day without rain.

After we left Jasper we went to Maligne Lake. It is a very nice lake, but of course, it was raining and we were not very enthusiastic. Then we went to see two water falls. Even in the rain, they looked nice. We also drove by the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. Mt. Robson was covered in clouds and we didn't see a thing. That night we stayed at the Buffalo ranch and saw American Bison.

The next day we saw some very large and impressive waterfalls in Wells Gray Provincial Park. We also saw a Mama Bear eating roughage to clear out its butt plug after the long winter and her cub. After lunch we loaded up a small fleet of canoes and headed out onto Clearwater Lake. Wells Gray PP has only one long dirt road into it, and after we paddled away from the end of the road we saw very few people.

We paddled for about three hours and then set up camp on the side of the river. It was one of those perfect spots. A lake with water so clean you could drink it, surrounded by pine tree covered hills, with snow capped peaks in the background.

Some of us went out for a paddle again, and naturally, some canoes were overturned and a few people went swimming. After we warmed up, we had a bar-b-que and my passengers drank the nine bottles of wine they had purchased in Okanagan. Luckily, we actually did not have a single drop of rain this day.

We went for a mid-night paddle on the lake and then I took my sleeping bag for a hike until I found a nice place to sleep. I slept so well that I did not get back to camp until 10am the next morning. Breakfast was over and the canoes were already loaded. All I had to do was hop in and start paddling.

After our wilderness adventure we headed over here to Vancouver, in the rain. We took a little tour of the city yesterday and today is a free day for all of us. I have been trying to take six of them skydiving, but it has been rainy and cloudy. I hope this is the last trip I ever do with eight British people. They brought the weather from London.

I have learned a lot about Canada in the last two weeks. It turns out that they are, technically speaking, not the 51st state of America. They have a much larger British influence than I had previously thought. They are also as ignorant about America as we are about them. That leads me to believe that it is a separate country.

In Jasper, the sun set after nine pm, but it did not get dark until well after 11pm. Also, to make matters worse, the sun rose at around 4 am, but it got light well before that. They have less than 5 hours of darkness every night, and it is not even the solstice yet. I generally need eight hour of sleep each night, in the dark. I have been having a hard time getting enough sleep. I usually wake up when it gets light and cover my head with the sleeping bag.

At least it is easy to get to camp before sunset every day.

It is amazing how high the north star, Polaris is. I got used to seeing it on the horizon in Mexico. It it well over 50 degrees over the horizon now. I can't wait to see it from Alaska next month.

While I was in Mexico last winter, I read a really bad Clive Cussler book. From the book I learned that the Southern Cross constellation is about 30 degrees away from true south. That means that it can be seen from as far north as northern Mexico. Amazingly it was true, I could see the Southern Cross from the beaches of Mexico.

Well, that is all that is on my mind for now.