Today is my final day on Salt Spring Island.
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One of the highlights of my stay was definitely not the four consecutive days picking rocks out of a field. On top of the four mentioned rock-picking days were another three rock-picking days. It’s not a very fun way to spend a day and is only barely tolerable once you’ve drunk a few beers. A close second last was the day I spent picking sticks off a bank. 150 years ago some Scottish bloke brought over three seeds of ‘broom’ to remind him of home. The seeds were so successful that they have spread to southern Alaska and northern California; those three seeds have created well over a week of work for me here on Salt Spring. After a while I became quite narcissistic about it, traveling great distances to kill another plant. Anyway, yesterday was my last day there. I was working there for five weeks, the good part is that I made $80,000. Did I mention what we grow there?
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One day a little while ago I joined the Salt Spring critical mass ride. I was told off in the early stages for cycling too far out in to the road. Then we went down a big hill and had to brake all the way down so as not to come out of single file. People here have to be a little more courteous because the driver behind them is probably a friend or a sister or a wife, or quite plausibly all three. There were about 20 cyclists on the ride, which is a better turn out than on the Tokyo ride. Back when Tom and I were in California we had met a guy called Luke, who gave us a copy of Into the Wild, which I never got to read, which is a good story in itself but wait, there’s more. Luke was on the critical mass ride here on Salt Spring. He told me that after talking to Tom and me in San Fran he decided he wanted to push the limits of human endurance in a similar way and has just bought his bike ready for a year-long trip.
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Last monday was the inaugural swim around the island. It was a swimming event around a small island from one of the beaches on this island. I was the event coordinator as well as the only competitor. It probably says something about the island that my swim was deemed worthy of an article in the local paper (out tomorrow). Other than a couple of swims in lakes on the island and a small amount of cycling that was my only training since Vancouver. The ironman is in 10 weeks now, I am a little nervous.
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Tom and I are finally getting a ferry up to Alaska on the 20th. If all goes well then we will be in Alaska on the 26th and on the road soon after. I’m very excited to get going again, although I really love Salt Spring. Work is work and will never be a passion for me but I have a cool group of friends here now. Tonight is the last supper, I’m going for the arms out pose for photos.