How green is my valley (or, I don’t think that’s ACTUALLY a road!)

The guy is a BIG fan of the back road, places with no cell coverage, in particular, places that don’t show up on Google maps. The girl has taken awhile to cotton on to the idea of being somewhere that her friends can’t text her, places that you could disappear and not be found for years, and in particular cliff edges, deep ridges and tree filled valleys with raging rivers at the bottom.

Somehow the guy has influenced the girl to his way of thinking (or rather he’s tricked her a time or two by saying “I’m just going to see what’s up here a ways.”) and she’s learned that sometimes the best roads are indeed the ones less travelled, and it’s always more fun without a map. It’s also quite easy to forget about the minutiae of life like property taxes, school deadlines and board meetings when you’re marvelling at just how many verdant shades of green exist in the world. This week’s drive brought new shades to the spectrum of early summer green.

She arrived Wednesday noonish and he jumped up and said “Come on, let’s go North”. She pretended she knew where north was (she’s clever like that, the girl) and off they went. Apparently Squamish is north and they were on freeway for as short a time as possible before slipping off onto Marine Drive, stopping only once enroute for provisions. If the girl had her way she’d bring a cooler filled with just in case food and drinks, but they’d finished their snacks before they even left paved roads. In the event of disaster they’d have to survive on nuts and berries.

Branching off at Squamish the guy opted for the road less travelled and they both began to decompress to the sounds of Dan Mangan’s Road Regrets. Ahhhhhh. A log bridge built sometime around the renaissance rumbles beneath the tires of Lola, the trusty 4X4 and while her fingers grip the door, the girl watches the river beneath them.

Uphill. Off they go along a creek that they won’t find out till they invoke Google Earth at home later is called Ashura Creek. Amazing waterfalls, incredible rolling creek swollen with the snowmelt that isn’t that far above them. Even a small hydro electric dam to stop and look down at, a chance to step out and relax in a sunbeam for awhile. And green. So very many shades of green. Lush summer foliage, butterflies flitting, leading the way, steep hills, sharp cliffs, deep abysses. No mortgage payments, no credit card bills, no alarm clocks. The true magnificence of a back road in all its summer glory.

Someday he’ll probably take her camping to a forestry campsite on a road just like this. She’ll pack lots of marshmallows and trashy novels. After a day like this such a jaunt sounds like bliss.