Outside the local small-town library I am poaching the free wifi service. I'm sitting on a wooden bench in the sun as the wind tousles my hair and the potted plants hanging from wooden rafters. The library closed at 3 pm, just as I rolled up on my bike. Small town library hours. I should be used to this.
I'm staying with a friend here, who happens to live a sand dune's climb away from the rushing surf; a pretty nice way to spend the first part of a summer break.
I'm here to surf, as is he, and although the waves have not been great we did manage to trade my short Australian-aquired board in for a summer-worthy long board, and after a single afternoon session on it at Otter Rock I don't think I'll ever go back to a shorty. It's a big one, 9'4", but it's a wave-catching machine, and everything I paddle for takes me sliding into shore with effortless momentum. Now if only there were waves to catch I'd be set!
We wake up at 6 am every morning, hungry like addicts for the sight of sugary waves, and so far, each morning, there is nothing. Flat, closing out, breaking too close to shore, nothing. A few souls are out, dressed in full wetsuits, boots and gloves, paddling through the still surf because they are jonesing harder than we are and probably had to drive much longer than our measly five minute commute to the local surf spot. The couch and bed beckon us back home with a stronger gravitational pull than the flat surf does, and such a short drive makes it easy to turn on heel after watching for the possibility of a ridable set of waves to suddenly crash in.
It has still been wonderful, relaxing, soul-stilling. Long walks on the beach, staring into the surf, reading, writing music late into the evenings with the salt air wind lingering at the lip of his doorstep. I've been here four days and am only starting to relax and unwind, and my god does it ever feel good.
The last week of school was nuts, as it always is, and then my best friend Peter and his wonderful girlfriend came for a visit--my first "city" friend visitors since I have lived in the little mountain nook of Gold Bridge. We went walking with Sanford, I took Peter horseback riding for his first time (he had a great time) and we spent some time up Marshall Lake road with Stacy's Dad and their family friends. I have driven by the turnoff for Marshall Lake a ton of times, always wanting to explore it, and now I finally had reason to.
Up in Bralorne there was a local ball tournament over the July long weekend, and teams from the lower mainland and sea-to-sky corridor came and camped and played ball. And BRALORNE WON!!!! The tourney has been going on for something like thirty years, and for the first time in the history of the thing our little town won! I wasn't there to see it, as I was riding with Peter, but I imagine it was quite an exciting afternoon for our little crew of mountain residents. Go Bralorne GO!
The wind is picking up now, and if there is not any good surf I think I'll read some more and then take out my kite for a little fly. Once my friend gets off work we have decided that we are going out into the surf no matter WHAT, even just to paddle around and get a bit of exercise. The forecast is not looking great, but at least it has been sunny each day since I arrived, which was apparently not the case last week.
It's busy here in Pacific City, much more so than I recall last year when I made my first trip to this state with a girlfriend. The notorious fourth of July holiday saw that sky ablaze with amateur fireworks, residual batches of which alight for a few minutes at dusk each day since, and the fine sand of the beach is littered with spent firework debris, as well as the odd plastic bottle that has waded over from Japan (seriously!). Or perhaps it just seems busy to me now, since I live in a place of such constant peace and tranquillity, where I consider it to be busy when there is a car that I don't know passing on the main street up to Bralorne more than once an hour. I suppose it's all about perspective, and on that note, I'm off to look at the waves once again.
Happy Summer!!!
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