Keeping the stars apart

The day after giving up paddling out at Cox Bay, I went and checked the surf at North as ULTE1 suggested... there was nothing going on... so I went and checked Cox... it looked exactly as it did the day before... and knowing that it was a southwest swell, I went to check Long Beach. I parked at incinerator, and didn't even bother to get out of my car. I had the car door open, and stared at the surf, which didn't look as if it was offering any rides, never mind good, chill-out, long ones.

Buddy with the skullcap (the one Karen mistook for BNs) walks over to my car and asks why I'm sitting in my car and not surfing when there are the excellent lefts out there for my big blue board. I tell him that I don't see any rides. He tells me I'm jaded. I explain that I am somewhat used up from the evening before at Cox Bay, when I got swept all the way to the land of the lefts without being able to get out. He tells me that he was there with me (in an oddly ominous voice) and that it really was rough out there. The back and forth continues for a bit... and he convinces me to go out, despite that I wasn't really feeling it.

I went out at incinerator, and paddled and paddled and in no time at all, I was right by Lovekin Rock and still five million waves from getting out. Dammit. Two nights in a row. I couldn't give up though... not two nights in a row... not at two different beaches. I kept trying to get out, growing increasingly resentful at buddy with the skullcap who convinced me to go for a surf, thereby putting me in the situation of having to give up two nights in a row. As I got closer and closer to Lovekin and nowhere near being able to get out, I caught a broken wave in and walked into the beach. I was tired... used up... and by then, jaded, in just about every sense of the word. I couldn't give up though... if I gave up two nights in a row suffering such demoralizing defeat, who knew what it would take to get me back out in the surf the next time... so I walked the 50lb Bluepath all the way down past incinerator and tried again.

I got out.

By the time I did though, I was almost too tired to paddle for a wave... which was too bad, because there actually were good rides to be had... I watched a while, went for a few, and when I got a ride that ended on the inside, left-- utterly used up.

That evening, I went home, showered, and made macaroons and cookies to bring to Alec and Darlene in Ahousaht. Laura and I caught a really early water taxi and went for a walk on the Wild Side. I dropped off the cookies and macaroons, along with a thank you card from DCMS (which was odd and a little difficult to wrap my head around... because for reasons that I'm not yet able to understand, it seemed really important to me to somehow convey the fact that DCMS and I are not together... it's a moot point, really... but still... it seems important to me to let these people who do no know me know that I'm not with him. They have no reason to believe that we're not together, and so I have no way of introducing the idea that we aren't, especially since it's a detail of no importance to anyone. And it isn't so much about me not wanting to be associated with DCMS as it is about me not wanting to be associated with anyone. I can't even conjure up an image of someone with whom I would want to be associated...).

We made it to the first open beach past the creek after Kutcous Point. This beach is probably my favourite on the trail. It's the first beach after a long stretch in the woods... it's beautiful when one arrives there... but when one climbs the rock and looks down upon it, it becomes something entirely different again. I don't know what the name of that beach is... but that's where I took the photo from yesterday, and where I took the shoe photo last week.

Hiking with Laura is pretty chilled out... she decided that we should take a nap on that ledge and turn back. Having only had two hours of sleep that night, I quickly fell asleep on that rocky ledge. We got back to the dock before 3PM, leaving plenty of time to catch a water taxi. On our way back through the village, a big black dog fell in love with Laura, and followed her all the way to the dock, and stayed, and looked longingly at her as our water taxi pulled away.

I think I am still too tired today for anything. I shall spend the rest of my day reading my economics textbook... which is a good thing... because I am terribly, terribly behind on my school work.