From sunrise to sunset...

So... the last two weeks have been composed of some of the most crazy times ever! The first Saturday of the trip I got to explore the Salt Spring Island market and watch an epic water bottle chase through the harbour. Then, after church the next day we went climbing on Mount Maxwell. It was pretty sweet. I had never been climbing before, but soon discovered that it was an amazing way to spend Sunday afternoon, even though the rocks were pretty cold.



The weekend that followed was truly the definition of craziness. We kicked of Friday night by watching Avatar since the prof had decided that it would make an awesome transition from the marine course to botany. The next morning we went to town, most to the market and a few of us to play Frisbee golf. After lunch, we headed up Mount Maxwell again to climb. We were going to try a 25m rock face near the end of the trip, but it started to rain pretty hard so we headed down into Ganges to have dinner. Sunday was yet another crazy extension of the weekend. After church I picked up my sister and a friend and had a great three hours with them catching up on all I had missed back home. It was really nice to see them again since I had missed them a lot (and still do). The rainy day gave way to milder weather soon after they left and after supper the class made a sauna (or, as the guys would rather call it, the "man sauna/ mauna"). Everything that they deem epic seems to have that prefix attached to it. It is actually rather hilarious.




On Monday we got to explore the Crow's Nest and on the way back the car in which I was in ended up spontaneously swimming in a lake on the side of the road. It started out just testing the water temperature for another day, progressed to the TA daring one of the guys to swim out to the dock, then ended up with the TA and I jumping in before the guys (perhaps to prove a point :P). The water was a little chilly, but it was definitely worth it in the end! We went swimming in the same lake yesterday when it was nice and sunny.



Tuesday involved a hike up a mountain with little gnome homes randomly set along the trail. The view from the top over the Gulf Islands was breath taking, and we walked along several cliff faces before trekking back down the mountain.



I saw the Pacific Swift sail by the house we are staying at, which reminded me again just what an amazing summer is to come. Thursday we went on a field trip to Pacific Rim National Park. Though we were mostly in the rainforest and looking at bogs, we did hike to Long Beach for lunch. I love the sound of the pounding surf on the beach and the weather was perfect. I hadn't been there for a few years so it was nice to once again be able to soak in this part of God's beautiful creation.



The last few nights I have tried slack-lining a few times (which is a very addicting pastime). I think it will take a bit of practice before I can walk all the way across, since this line is about three times as long as the ones I have seen set up at TWU (or perhaps even longer). Now it is Saturday, and I am sitting in a local coffee shop with a multitude of other working on journals and studying. It seems crazy that three weeks have gone by so fast! Monday is midterm day so there is a lot to do before then. Thanks for all the prayers! Hopefully I will be able to get a picture or two up soon.



~ Fair Winds

Bioluminescent Jellyfish and Puget Sound King Crab!

Yes... I am two days into the trip and already I have seen some amazing things. Tonight, some of the class took a journey down to the docks to watch all the crazy bioluminescent creatures in the water! It was crazy :) There were no big fish to disturb large patches of the water and make them glow, but the jellies were out in force and there were hundreds of small shrimp mixed among them. Last night we saw some massive polychaete worms swimming around in the water by the transient docks.

There have been many other great surprises on this trip. Today we met a research team from the University of New Brunswick who were diving to collect seaweed samples and logging the diversity of species found in B.C. waters. They collected some neat organisms for us on their second dive including Puget Sound King Crab, many beautiful subtidal nudibranch, a blood star, and a plethora of other species. These we took back with us to study in the wet lab.



The roads on this island are pretty crazy :) Pictures of species will follow soon, but it is time to catch some sleep before being woken up by the prof running around shouting the random Latin species name of the day to wake us up. I would write more, but unfortunately time will not allow for that at the moment. We have our first paper due tomorrow and are going to try and net some different fish species to study!

Fair Winds

Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean...

Even though exams finished yesterday, there seems no time stop and catch up on missed sleep as new courses are already underway. To be honest, I am utterly exhausted and looking forwards to the weekend for a bit of a break before travelling to the Gulf Islands. The last few days have been pretty intense in terms of the volume of things I am trying to check off my list before Monday. However, I know the adventure is just beginning...

A few nights ago I was looking through some of the quotes and stories I've collected over the years, when I stumbled upon the poem called The Ragman. The story takes me back several years to memories of eating breakfast early one morning in the hold of the Pacific Swift sheltered just behind Rugged Point (that was the first time I heard the story of The Ragman). One thing I love about being in the wilderness is that often coincides with a time of reflection. Life is so busy during the school year that it is all too easy to get caught up in the swirling rapids and completely forget how amazing God is and how powerful His love for us. Sometimes it takes an escape from reality to remember! Had I read this poem without having the time to properly reflect on it I may have missed the point. Perhaps it simply would have been a retelling of the Easter story... but in that moment, it was so powerful.

Here I am, two years of university behind me and a world of adventure unfolding before my eyes. Time to raise sail and catch the tide :)

Fair Winds!

Another end, another beginning...

It seems odd that a week from today I will be studying for my last exam of the semester. The past two years have raced by insanely fast, yet as I look back on them I find that they hold so many awesome memories. As I was thinking about the adventures to come, I remembered a quote that seems relevant to the challenges this summer may bring:

"Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up, as did men of another age, to the challenge of nature. Modern man lives in a highly synthetic kind of existence. He specializes in this and that. Rarely does he test all his powers or find himself whole. But in the hills and on the water the character of a man comes out."

~Henry David Thoreau

I have not spent nearly as much time climbing mountains as I have out at sea. Even so, I have done enough to know that the feeling one gets as they reach the peak is akin to the emotions that course through a sailor making a glorious run under full sail. The shear beauty of being surrounded by nothing but wilderness is an experience never to be forgotten. Personally, it is often out in nature that I feel the closest to God.

I would like to ask for prayer over the summer: for my time at orcalab, for my interactions with the youth on SALTS, and for the strength to do what I hear God calling me to do.

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth."

~ Psalm 121:1-2

Fair Winds!