Julie
wanted to come with me on my first road trip that I planned alone, so I invited
her. On the first day we drove to Revelstoke B.C., a cozy town at the
foothills of the Canadian Rockies. I've always wanted to see these
mountains, they are some of the most beautiful in the world. I can't
believe nobody ever took me there. Judging from all the pictures I've
seen, it should be a prime destination for everyone, even if it is outside the
U.S.
Before getting to Banff, I scared my aunt half to death. A truck was
slowing us down as were coming over a pass. I decided to pass it right as
the road started going downhill. Julie said, "I don't know!",
as she saw the headlights of a massive truck coming the other way. Flooring
the accelerator, I made it by the truck just in time. It was a close
call, definitely a mistake in judgment on my part. Usually you expect the
person being passed to be aware of the situation, and to slow down once they
see you. But this was one of those times it didn't happen. It made
us so tense that I had to pull over for a break, apologizing to Julie for my
indiscretion.
Banff is an even cozier town that rests in the heart of the Rockies. The
hotel was expensive, but worth it. I chose it for the proximity to Lake
Louise, a place so beautiful it defies comprehension. From its shores,
Julie and I started a 2,000 foot hike up to Lake Agnes. It was a tough
climb for her; she was really laboring to keep up, even though I was going
slow. She was determined to make it, and she did! The lake had a
nice tea house she could rest in.
It's the first hike I've done in years, and it was great. There's nothing
like scaling a mountain with the fresh wilderness around you. There must
be a lot of antioxidants in nature that help balance all the free radicals in
the body. Trees, water, the soil... All these things have a way of
returning the body to its natural state, figuratively as well as physically.
We got back on the road, winding up the Continental Divide, which in Canada
separates the border between British Columbia and Alberta. We went over
Sunwapta Pass, which took us into Jasper National Park, right where the biggest
glacier I've ever seen nests in the cradle of two mountains. It then
followed a valley laden by a sea of wildflowers. That's one of the most
scenic highways I've ever been on.
British Columbia is nothing but mountains, a geologic anomaly. There must
have been a lot of seismic activity in these lands to cause so much folding of
continental crust. Normally mountains come in ranges, but in B.C they
come in random pockets. We drove south from Jasper through these
mountains, eventually making it to the Okanogan Valley, where we had the best
breakfast of our lives.
After that, Rhonda picked up Julie in Wenatchee to take her home, because I was
scheduled to see a Tool show at the Gorge. I didn't get a ticket for
Julie because I don't think Tool is her kind of music, even though we'd seen
them together five years ago. It was my second concert at the Gorge- a
natural amphitheater set inside the Columbia River, right in the middle of
Washington. It’s the greatest natural setting for a concert that I
know. Here you never have to stay in the same place. There's no assigned
seating, so you can get up and rock out with random people all around the
venue. I imagine the sun often sets behind the Cascade Mountains as the
opening act starts performing. Then when the main act comes on stage,
there's still the distant glow of sunlight illuminating it, just the way it had
that night.
Maynard James Keenan was his iconic self. He wore a cowboy hat as that
imposing shadow of his was projected onto a screen behind the stage, wailing
into the microphone like an angry ghost. One of the reasons I like Tool
so much is because of the combination of intelligence and raw emotion that
Maynard uses in his lyrics and singing. Most of his songs have layers of
meaning; they can be cryptic and clinical at the same time. His voice is so
therapeutic because it expresses a lot of pain, which gives me solace in times
of depression or anger.
When the show was over, I tried to leave a few minutes early to beat the
traffic, but unfortunately I couldn’t remember where my car was. I literally
had to wait all night for everyone else to leave so I could find my car.
I’ve never seen so many drunk and stoned people wasted on music (no pun
intended). And the outhouses were all piled up with shit, I shit you
not. To pass the time I just wrote in my journal.
