"You can go a soak in a hot spring
in the forest, on the mountain. With 
candles floating around you, looking
at the stars and tripping out. You 
can then harvest wild mushrooms for
a few months then pick apples and have
enough money to live year round there..."

                   - Yvan, the bus driver
                     An old hippy from a 
                       Rainbow Gathering 

It's with imagery like this that we left
Quebec to hitchhike to British Columbia
in the late '90s

I left with Olivier, a friend of mine from
high school. I wasn't 18 yet, and we went
with barely anything. 

I never wanted to use a tent, so I took a 
tarp, a bit of food, a knife and some clothing. 
I had a Doumbek with me, which was standing
up on top of my backpack. A Mexican blanket,
a lama poncho and some other random trinkets
and that was it for gear. 

Highway #1 from Quebec would lead us directly 
to BC, so who needs a map. We had a ride from 
Montreal to just before Toronto with Olivier's 
Mom's boyfriend. He dropped us off in between 
highways and told us to continue straight 
for a few days, and we'd be there. 

We first got in with a truck driver. I didn't
know they'd stop for you, but  
some of them did. The driver saw a ying yang
logo on my backpack and decided to stop. He 
was learning about Taoism. He was doing a class
with cassettes and working through the module 
on female Taoist healing. I asked him to play 
the tape, which he did reluctantly. After a few
minutes of describing different menstrual
fluids, we all agreed that we had better talk
about something else. 

He then asked about where we were heading. We
proudly answered, "BC." 

- "Oh, so you're going through the state?"
- "No just right accross Canada"
- "But you're on the wrong road."
- "What do you mean there is only 1 highway
that crosses Canada."
- "Yes, but that's not the one; we're heading  
to Toronto here. You should check your map."
- "A map? Yeah, maybe we should get a map..."