Sunday Morning Hunting, Princeton

It’s pouring down something fierce. I just got in from hunting when the drizzle began.  Laura told me she’d read they were having monsoon wind and rain in Vancouver.

The Maverick camper is leaking.  Laura found the pillow and top of the mattress wet when we woke this morning.  My duct tape and gorilla tape patch wasn’t wide enough. I’d planned to fill the hole with silicone putty today but now I can’t with the rain.  When it lets up I’ll do so and reduce the flow of water into the camper.  We worry about mould.  After hunting season I’ll get it in for a proper repair. I don’t know how the front got bashed.  A bird hitting it seems the best explanation. It was old and second hand.

The rain on the roof is really heavy.  It was cold up in the high country on the KTM 690 this morning. Dark clouds.  Sinister.  I was blessed to shoot a rabbit.  It stopped on the side of the road. I was too far away but blasted it with two barrels of 20 gauge 4 shot.  Then I crawled unceremoniously off my too tall motorcycle, my ballet splits getting better by the day.  I missed Gilbert the cockapoo.  I figured the rabbit was wounded and that it had crawled under a wood pile in the ditch.  Gilbert would have found or flushed it. As it was I went over the side and there sitting still a little ways away was the rabbit.  I blasted it, glad to have reloaded the shot gun.  It was smaller like the grouse yesterday was smaller.  The grouse was a good meal.

When I gutted the rabbit I saw that my shot had taken out the centre like a single shot, I was that close. There were pellets in one leg from I figure the first shot. Three legs and 2 shoulders and 2 thighs were in tact still.. . Not bad. I thought. A 22 would have been better but the 20 gauge is best for grouse.  The year I’d shot a lot of rabbits, a couple of years back, I’d made head shots with the Ruger Mini 14 223.  That turned out to be a perfect rifle for the rabbits that sat on the grass roads way up ahead. If I got any closer they’d spook so the 20 gauge and 22 were not nearly as appropriate.

I was up late and only on the back roads at 830.  A downpour had struck at dawn so I went back to sleep.  I was out riding around the back woods for three hours.  It’s incredibly tiring holding oneself upright off road trying not to slip on the wet and bumping along up and down. I almost lost it twice with riding over wet logs.  The  back end of the bike slid out but I recovered.  I was tired and wet and figured I was pretty exhausted so stopped for a Starbucks cold coffee and a can of sardines.  The drizzle had begun and I rode back doing the greasy gravelly downhill in first gear with back and forward breaks at times.  15 km.  My arms are shaking a bit still.  

Yesterday’s barbecue grouse with Canadian back bacon barbecued on aluminum foil and a 6 egg scrambled made on the inside propane stove with barbecued whole wheat buns was delicious.  I gave Gilbert and George tiny pieces of barbecued grouse and they were both in heaven. Gilbert is accommodating well to being blind, a little over zealous in his new job as guard dog but not too disappointed when I go off alone.  He sure lights up when I return and takes an active tail wagging part in my cleaning and cooking game.  He knows he’s still part of the hunt.  He also knows Laura and George couldn’t defend themselves against zombie attacks without him.  

Now I’m loving the heater and Irish Breakfast tea with honey. Life is good.

It’s Sunday and I found myself thinking a lot about God out riding in the beautiful wilderness. God the creator.  Jesus is such a personal and perhaps community God with the churches.   Jesus helped the fishermen with their catch.  He would help hunters and fishermen.  I prayed for his help and safety. Mostly I was thankful I didn’t crash the motorcycle or go over one of the cliffs..  I wasn’t doing anything silly.  Just putting along watching either side of the road for game and keeping down around 15 km/hr though returning I was doing 25 km/hr.  I feel I’m in God’s creation.  Like a dreamer inside a dream.  

The rabbit was surely a gift.

Thank you Lord.  

Lillooet, Gilbert and the Godkids

I just returned on the Sea to Sky Highway, having taken the Duffy Lake Road from Lillooet to Pemberton through Whistler back to Vancouver and Burnaby.
Heading out Friday with the Palomino Maverick truck camper on the Ford F350 with the KTM690 on the front rack for the first time I stopped for the night of a logging road near Lytton.  In the morning I drove onto Lillooet where I hooked up with Kevin and Anna, Kendra, Izek and Alex.  They’d come the other side of the great circle route stopping short of Pemberton.
We arrived simultaneously in town and met at  Cookhouse Restaurant in the Reynold’s Hotel. .  They’d had breakfast but we all had drinks and  I had a perfect bacon and cheese burger.  We also had the delicious home made gravy and fries. The staff were terrific.
Kendra, Izek and Alex really like policemen for some unknown reason.  Kendra even thinks her jacket which has a badge is a police jacket. .  They all jumped up and down on their seats waving and cheering when a somewhat pleasantly surprised RCMP officer came in.  They greeted Gilbert, their friend, the same way. Gilbert couldn't stop his tail wagging and squirmed and licked all of them at once.
The Bustards are fisher folk.  Most every weekend we enjoy Kevin's pictures of them all catching rainbow trout.  This day Kevin caught a lovely rainbow and damned if I didn’t too.  Meanwhile Gilbert, Kendra, Alex and Izek were in heaven messing in the dirt.  It was raining.  So what.  Fish were biting.
We parked by the river and decided rather than going on to a campground just to stay there. It really was a nice wilderness spot a little off the highway.
I’d brought steaks but we had enough rainbow for everyone coupled with the corn, potatoes and herb butter and sour cream I’d brought. Kevin cooked up the fish and beans while I boiled the potatoes and Anna barbecued the corn.  The kids and Gilbert played everywhere in the camper and around the grounds. The meal was heavenly.   We had plums and hot cross buns for dessert.  With kids meals are a more rewarding communal rite especially when we hold hands and say grace at the beginning.
Later while I answered an endless stream of questions from the kids, “what’s this for?’ ‘what’s this.’   Anna and Kevin put up their tent.  The adults had tea and coffee and talked about adult things with the three kids sneaking across from the tent to the trailer to listen at the screen door repeatedly until Kevin finally said a boogeyman would get them if they didn’t stay in the tent. They are afraid of bogeymen.
We had all attended St. James Anglican Church and reminisced about Father Mark and our time there. I told them how Father Mark had welcomed Gilbert to the church but said he wasn’t sure about me. His two big dogs had joined us and  became Gilbert’s church friends.  We discussed the Christian revival all over the world, especially in the former USSR, and Poland,  the persecution of Christians in Islamic nations, especially the Coptics and by the Atheist Communists in China. The place of family and values and challenges to the faith, were all part of the discussion.   Kevin had started as a Pentecostal,   I’d started as a Baptist,  Now we'd all become friends as Anglicans.
Kevin and Anna left to join their kids while I and Gilbert bedded down in the  camper,  During the bouts of rain it had served  as a terrific dry haven with running hot and cold water, a working refrigerator and an indoor toilet Kendra had earlier become enamoured by.  She used so much soap in the sink my grey water was full of bubbles.
The night before had been a full moon but this night was intermittent rain,  a good thing given all the forest fires BC had been plagued by.
In the morning  I awoke and put on the expresso coffee and boiled water for Anna's tea. The three munchkins had slipped out of the tent first and were shortly followed by the parents  thankful for the cups of hot coffee and tea I handed them.   The kids liked the tangerines, plums, ham and cheese croissants and yogurts I thought to bring.
Family and food.  I was surprised 3 adults and 3 kids fit in the camper booth but we did.  Prayers and meals .  Then we were breaking up the camp  to go to another a fishing hole Kevin knew.   I never did get my motorcycle off the rack but we had to shovel away some gravel to get it clearance for it to get back onto the road.
The evergreen scenery, mountains and streams and Duffy Lake, the twisting turning Duffy Lake Road was all such a joy to travel along. Given all the  times I’ve travelled this route, either on motorcycle ,or in car or hunting in a truck, I never tire of it. It’s truly one of my favourite  drives  of all times.
At Pemberton, another favourite town, we all got MacDonald’s Burgers  including an Angus paddy for Gilbert.
The next fishing hole included  quite the climb down to the roaring river.  The kids and 4 wheel drive Gilbert had no difficulty but I had to go down on hands to avoid falling.  Unfortunately I’d broken the tip of my rod so was just along for pictures.  The fisher folk caught more rainbow.  Kendra  was ecstatic when she caught her fish, doing a little dance while Anna extracted the hook and bonked the fish with a rock.
A great family weekend.  I was reminded of fishing with my mom and dad my brother Ron watching Kevin and Anna helping the kids with rods and hooks and worms. I remember Mom and Dad having the patience of saints with the tangles I’d get my line in.  
What a wonderful tradition.  It was  so much fun for me  to be apart of this fisherfolk family weekend.    Gilbert thinks he’s one of the kids. They’re just great with him.