Day 2: Bear Beach (km 9) to Chin Beach (km 21)
Read about Day 1 here.
The 12 kilometres between Bear and Chin beaches are some of the hardest on the Juan de Fuca trail; almost the entire section is a series of steep ups and downs! We started out early, after filling our bellies with oatmeal and chocolate.
Continue reading “Juan de Fuca Trail Day 2: Bear Beach to Chin Beach”
Kyla and I recently spent 4 days hiking the Juan de Fuca trail, a 47km coastal rainforest hike on Vancouver Island’s southwest coast. It was really hard! (Especially for an inexperienced hiker with minimal training, oops!) Lots of steep ups and downs, muddy sections, and tricky creek crossings which required creative, acrobatic moves while wearing a gigantic backpack! That said, it was absolutely achievable, and SO worth it! The trail offered spectacular ocean views and wildlife sightings, great nights of camping on beaches, and lots of hilarity. It was exhilarating to finish, and I’m still riding that high, feeling proud of what we accomplished. (Proud enough to earn a break from multi-day hiking for a while!)
Here’s the first post from my rundown of the trail (with occasional comments from Kyla!), with lots of pictures. Continue reading “Juan de Fuca Trail Day 1: China Beach to Bear Beach”
Updated July 2020. This post started out as lesbian-specific and has since evolved, but you may find some of the info to be a little lesbionic.
The thing about Victoria is that regardless of whether you hit up any gay events while you’re in town, it’s a beautiful, safe city* to explore with your same-sex partner, or to meet up with a group of queer locals. It’s also a great jumping off point for exploring this magical island, and a short ferry ride to both Seattle and Vancouver. There’s a lot to be proud of in Victoria! Victoria’s public school board recently passed a thorough new gender identity policy, the city explodes with rainbows during Pride, and hey – our mayor is an openly gay woman! Tourism Victoria even created an awesome map of all-gender/gender neutral washrooms in the city and surrounding area, with accessibility information.
Hold on, you might be thinking, I heard that Victoria is a small city with a disproportionately high retiree population?!? You heard right! But there are way more people living here who are below retirement age! It might seem quiet at first, but have no fear if you’re young and queer: there’s lots to do in this city, if you know where to look!
Lez Go to Victoria:
I turned 30 last month; a lot has changed in the past 10 years! Here’s the TL; DR of the longer intro I’m not going to write: I turned 30; here are some ways that I’ve changed and some things that I’ve learned along the way about travel, sexuality, introversion, and wisdom teeth.
Since moving out west, my life just seems to be getting gayer and gayer! That has a lot to do with the ways I’ve changed since coming out, having some great queer friends and social outlets, and having a partner who has no qualms about wearing rainbow in public, which makes me feel comfortable doing the same. With my newfound queer confidence, I’ve been integrating that part of my identity into everyday life – not just socially but also through volunteer experience and research projects at school.
However, one of the most fun aspects of my increasingly supergay identity has been West Coast Pride festivals! I was lucky enough to attend a bunch of events this summer in both Victoria and Vancouver. It was exciting to do more than just watch the parades, which, although enjoyable, is all I’ve really done at the handful of Pride festivals I’ve been to in the past. This year, I got to coordinate multiple rainbow and unicorn outfits.
These were some of the highlights: Continue reading “Rainbow Summer: West Coast Pride”
Note: this story takes place on First Nations traditional territory. It’s a fun one about a recent overnight trip, written in response to the prompt: “How did I end up here?”
“What should I name my pee-zee?”
We were a group of mostly lesbians, gathered around a campfire at our campsite on Vancouver Island’s southwest coast. My friend was obsessed with her new toy: a device that allowed her to pee standing up. Every so often she’d gleefully shout: “Be right back!”, and frolic off into the woods. We were excited about it too; a little jealous, even. We were also a little buzzed. Naming it only seemed natural.
Continue reading “Vancouver Island Camping: How Did I End up Here?”
Last month I joined a group of friends for a week-long trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico! The 12 of us rented an AMAZING Airbnb house and spent a week in the sun exploring, relaxing, eating, drinking, and perfecting our burns!
I really liked my friend Katrina’s post about the trip, so in the spirit of imitation as flattery (we had similar highlights!), here are my favourite things about the trip.
Les Talk, More Travel 