The Othello Tunnels...
So I was a little nervous going into the whole affair seeing as I had been asked only several days before if I would be willing to lead the hike. I went to great lengths to seek out details surrounding the "hike" and the area and weather and history etc. all the things a good guide might find the time to do. During my "research" I discovered that (as Gary was quick to point out) the Othello Tunnels is not really a hike at all but instead an abandoned railway line once connecting Creston to the Coast. As the astute reader will be quick to realize, railway lines are know for fairly unimpressive elevation gains, that is to say I think if I had a three kilometer level to lay across the trail our little bubble would be quite comfortable between the lines.
So the city of surrey kindly hooked me up with this class 4 driver/assistant/sweep who reminded me quite vividly of Jonny Klassen from the 2006 grad class of fvchs. He was great, up until he decided to crank Z 95.3 in a bus full of middle-aged people who were tired and a little annoyed that they just paid $25 a head for a flat 2 and a half hour walk and a guide who wouldn’t shut up about the shrubs and trees and composition of igneous intrusive rock because he was so obviously desperate to eat up the time that their hard-earned money had paid for!
Ok, in reality it wasn’t that bad at all. I did sort of get shafted in terms of a good hike, but I am a fairly interesting person to take walks with… I even had them all using their five senses. Smelling the red elderberry, tasting the red huckleberry, listening for the Swainson’s Thrush, looking at the beautiful burnt orange Aster, and feeling nature’s toilet paper: thimbleberry leaves.
The place really is gorgeous and well worth the two hour drive… but honestly four hours of driving for two hours of hiking? Not the best circumstance for a first guiding experience… or maybe it was?
Either way it went well and this Saturday I continued my stint as lead guide taking eight lovely clients up to the UBC Research Forest beside Golden Ears Park. It was very lovely. The perfect hike for the fitness of those along and we only went the wrong way twice… ouch.
It made me laugh actually… though it did nothing for the confidence of my hikers who towards the end of the hike would very openly voice their opinion about which fork in the trail they thought we should take. It wasn’t really that I didn’t put the effort in to scout the hike or anything ( Ashley accompanied me scouting it out on Wednesday in the pouring rain after a long day of work… wow) but I guess sometimes you just miss little things like how an uprooted tree can fall in just the right way that it blocks your line of sight to the trail marker! Or when you have a fifty-fifty chance at walking the right way up a road to the general area marked on your feeble map as “view point” and you boldly lead your clients one kilometer in the wrong direction. So I discovered today that although things like that could potentially ruin your day and your clients’ day, it’s best to laugh it off because even adults like to follow the leader. I laughed and seeing me laughing they laughed too, and in the end we got to our view point and we found that trail marker hidden by the fallen tree and I got them all home safe and sound and snug as a bug. They all had their share of beautiful scenery and a rather exciting Stewart-esque education on forest ecology.
Sweet deal.
*just re-read that… I sound like a sucky guide. I’m definitely selling myself short though because I love my job and I give’er my all. And I got a tip last week so I can’t be that bad right? ;)
So the city of surrey kindly hooked me up with this class 4 driver/assistant/sweep who reminded me quite vividly of Jonny Klassen from the 2006 grad class of fvchs. He was great, up until he decided to crank Z 95.3 in a bus full of middle-aged people who were tired and a little annoyed that they just paid $25 a head for a flat 2 and a half hour walk and a guide who wouldn’t shut up about the shrubs and trees and composition of igneous intrusive rock because he was so obviously desperate to eat up the time that their hard-earned money had paid for!
Ok, in reality it wasn’t that bad at all. I did sort of get shafted in terms of a good hike, but I am a fairly interesting person to take walks with… I even had them all using their five senses. Smelling the red elderberry, tasting the red huckleberry, listening for the Swainson’s Thrush, looking at the beautiful burnt orange Aster, and feeling nature’s toilet paper: thimbleberry leaves.
The place really is gorgeous and well worth the two hour drive… but honestly four hours of driving for two hours of hiking? Not the best circumstance for a first guiding experience… or maybe it was?
Either way it went well and this Saturday I continued my stint as lead guide taking eight lovely clients up to the UBC Research Forest beside Golden Ears Park. It was very lovely. The perfect hike for the fitness of those along and we only went the wrong way twice… ouch.
It made me laugh actually… though it did nothing for the confidence of my hikers who towards the end of the hike would very openly voice their opinion about which fork in the trail they thought we should take. It wasn’t really that I didn’t put the effort in to scout the hike or anything ( Ashley accompanied me scouting it out on Wednesday in the pouring rain after a long day of work… wow) but I guess sometimes you just miss little things like how an uprooted tree can fall in just the right way that it blocks your line of sight to the trail marker! Or when you have a fifty-fifty chance at walking the right way up a road to the general area marked on your feeble map as “view point” and you boldly lead your clients one kilometer in the wrong direction. So I discovered today that although things like that could potentially ruin your day and your clients’ day, it’s best to laugh it off because even adults like to follow the leader. I laughed and seeing me laughing they laughed too, and in the end we got to our view point and we found that trail marker hidden by the fallen tree and I got them all home safe and sound and snug as a bug. They all had their share of beautiful scenery and a rather exciting Stewart-esque education on forest ecology.
Sweet deal.
*just re-read that… I sound like a sucky guide. I’m definitely selling myself short though because I love my job and I give’er my all. And I got a tip last week so I can’t be that bad right? ;)
posted by Stewart at
11:05 PM
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