Zero Day

June 27, 2019   from Beaumont Provincial Campground, Lake Fraser, BC

June 26 was a “zero day.”  (Lingo from Judd’s time on the AT when you did zero miles hiking for a day and just resupplied, replenished or rested.) We did all three.  We slept in past 7:00.  We read books in the sun until elevensies.  We walked the 15 minutes into town for KJ Caffe (about the only place we could walk to.) We were surprised to be on the Corkscrew Wine Trail.  Everyone is growing grapes or cherries like where we just left Washington.  We toured the visitor center for brochures. (We wondered that little Okanagan Falls has a visitor center!) We observed a bird attacking a squirrel, really swooping down on the squirrel running zig-zag, hither and yon, over and over to get the squirrel away from her tree (presumably a nest somewhere.) We heard an exotic-sounding bird call and recorded it via smart phone for our birder friends, Bill and Denise.  They worked on ID-ing the sound from Maine—quite a feat!

June 27, 2019   We had a 9 hour drive scheduled on Mapquest to Beaumont Provincial Campground, Lake Fraser, BC . With our breaks every 2 hours, it took us 12 hours. We drove in and out of rain and thunderstorms but they bypassed our campground. We arrived right in time for dinner and actually a little early for sunset which doesn't happen until about 9:30 now. Our campsite is surrounded by birch and aspens.  The aspen leaves shimmy in the wind and make a lovely whispering sound. Camp Host Tim says to be bear aware--he's got a little 2 year old Cinnamon Bear around the site. We haven't seen him yet but we'd like to.

Sunset on Fraser Lake at Beaumont Provincial Park

And then there is the telogen effluvium. I have been pulling my hair out for a couple weeks.  I mean literally, pulling handfuls of hair out of a brush or a hair elastic or a bathrobe or fleece, for weeks.  Sure, I know you can lose 100 strands a day normally.  THIS is Abnormally. It isn’t obvious in my everyday hair styling and Judd totally denies it’s a thing. But it was brought to my stand-still attention on Sunday. I was vacuuming to clear quarters before we needed to put the Kirby in the U-Box for Maine.  You know when your carpet-beater-roller gets stuck, i.e. when it’s sucked up a piece of yarn that spins around the roller and won’t beat anymore?  Well, I finally turned the vacuum upside down to see why it was stuck…. And it wasn’t yarn.  It was more long silver hair than you’ve ever seen.  It was like a Gandalf beard stuck in your vacuum.  I had to get out the new super scissors to cut strands away before I could free the roller enough to spin again.

It’s happened before, once or twice in my life:  after a pregnancy during medical school; during residency.  Perhaps I can chalk this one up to summer shedding?—it was 94 degrees for several days my last week at work… OR…… Could it be a stressful life event:  happily retiring, getting everything packed in a day and leaving for the east coast via Alaska and Canada for 2 months camping?  Even a good life event can be stressful.

I am able to post the last two spots because Judd figured out how to make a hot spot from my phone to my computer.  Computer is charging on his portable battery.  Gotta go unplug now.