Have a look before it's too late

Bensch Blaser's travelling blog.

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Good old Lillooet and Van city

We got to Lillooet after a quick stop at Marble Canyon sometime in the mid-afternoon. As we pulled into the site at the Seton Dam campground, Barry greeted us happily and Hans and Ruth where already waiting there in front of their Fiat Ducato based motorhome. We then drove back to town and had some tasty Chinese food from the all you can eat buffet. The evening was quite cool, so we didn‘t sit outside for too long before going to bed.

The next day we got into town for some grocery shopping and a quick shower in the fifthwheel at Hans‘ and Ruth‘s home (there are no showers at the free BC hydro campsite). Then Tizi and I took the bikes to Seton Lake beach and dipped our feet in the cold water and laid in the sun for a while. Later, Sheri, Ted, Armand and Ida dropped by as we returned from an unsuccessful attempt at finding some gold in the Cayoosh creek (with just a pan). We did find some firewood though.

Seeing the six friends poke fun at each other as wine was tasted and stories were shared, was a blast. And it was good to see Armand and Ida again after several years!

Nice steaks were had and salads and just a blast of an evening all round. That campsite has yielded so much fun over the years, it‘s always good to come back.

The next morning we took it easy getting up and getting ready to take Geoff to Vancouver as he needed to catch a flight to Ohio for work. After vacating the camp and saying goodbye to everyone, we thought the drive down to Van city would take us about 4 hours. With traffic jams starting already in Chiliwack, it eventually took us 5.5 hours before we dropped Geoff off at the airport. Another half hour later we checked into the hotel and went to have a later dinner at a very nice sushi place in downtown Vancouver.

The following morning we explored Vancouver on foot, Yaletown, Gastown, Chinatown, before we had to get the car out of the parking at 2pm. All that worked out well and it was a beautiful and sunny day, very warm, too.

We then set up camp at the Capilano RV Campground next to Lionsgate bridge and walked across the bridge to Prospect Point and a bit further down into Stanley Park.

We had icecream and walked all the way back to cook a simple meal of leftovers and canned foods, but it was a tasty rice/pasta salad. Then our campsite neighbor came over and asked if I had a working lighterm, which I didn‘t, but I had some matches Nicole had given me, so I gave him a pack and he was very happy about that.

Half an hour later he came back with a big slice of Spring Salmon, fresh from the barbeque, for us to enjoy. Gotta love the friendly Canadians! No friendly gesture ever goes unnoticed. We got into talking of course and it turns out his wife is originally German and has 200 years of blacksmithing tradition in her family and is actually looking for a successor for the family business back in Germany (run by her sister). I‘m sure we can do something for her at the hammer-in.de that I am going to attend at the end of July. The world is such a small place!

They also gave us a lot of good tips on what to do in Vancouver over the coming two days, so now we need to do some scheduling:)

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Heading west

After staying in Golden for the night, we headed towards Revelstoke, stopping here and there to do some of the walks in the various National Parks on the way.

In Revelstoke we had icecream before heading south to Shelter Bay, were we spent the night in the Provincial Park campground. The Arrow Lakes were quite cold, but the weather was warm and nice for a change and I took a short swim anyway.

The next morning it was raining again and the trip over to Galena Bay by ferry was a bit drizzly, so we decided to warm up at Halcyon Hotsprings over on the other coast. A lovely, not too buy place, far nicer (and warmer) than Miette. A couple more miles south there‘s the turnof for the Halfway Hotsprings, which we hesitantly decided to skip in spite of them being highly recommended by Kevin. It‘s a 11km rough gravel track drive there and it was raining and we had already been to the Halcyon Hotsprings, so that one remains on the bucket list.

Going through Nakusp, we eventually took the ferry again to the other side in Fauquier and travelled all the way to Lumby. The weather was bad all along, so we didn‘t see much. In Lumby we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Sisters restaurant. Huge Poutine and a nice soup and battered-fried mushrooms. That‘ll cover the junk food needs for a while.

Eventually stayed in a hotel in Vernon that we got a very good rate on, as it was still raining hard in the evening.

The next day we continued on towards Sorrento, to meet my Meyer relatives there. Before we got there, we turned off at the R.J. Haney Heritage Village just outside of Salmon Arm. A very nicely done open air museum kind of thing that reminded me of „Ballenberg“ in Switzerland, only a fair bit smaller. They did of course have a blacksmith shop there though, with a fantastic set up machines set up to be driven by an overhead transmission. Like in the old days, lovely stuff. Unfortunately the blacksmith wasn‘t in that day, but we did get the tour of the Haney House. Apprently there is a really good halloween thing to be seen there, too.

As we finally got into Sorrento, we quickly met up with Geoff, Nicole and the kids, went grocery shopping and had a lovely barbeque out on the deck. Sitting by the fire we chatted away into the night.

The next day, today, we‘ve been on the lake with the boat and in a tube, which was good fun. The water in the lake here is 21°C and inviting for a nice swim, before doing a short walk on Copper Island with Oscar, the dog, in tow. Or rather the other way around, actually.

Tonight, Jacqueline is coming for dinner, so I should finally meet her again. I think the last time I met her I was like 2 years old and I have absolutely no recollection of it.

Tomorrow we‘re off for Lillooet to catch up with Hans and Ruth and maybe some fishing on Seton Lake.

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Days 11 to 16 or whatever it is

I‘ve completely lost track of time, so I guess that is a good sign. So after recovering from that wrecked tire, I slept at Devon Lions Campground to be close to the airport for the following day, when Tiziana would arrive.

Of course the drive to the airport only took like 20 minutes and she only arrived at 15.30, so I had a lot of time to spare. After making pancakes in the morning and taking my sweet time, I eventually mosied over to the airport, thinking that Edmonton International Airport surely had something to offer. Well, it doesn‘t, as I had to find out soon after arriving. There‘s a Tim Horton‘s there and that‘s about it. So I spent about 4 hours in the observation deck, mostly researching stuff about gas torches. Yes, I was inspired by Al Bakke‘s little one brick gas forge, so I will have to imitate that at home. Of course all the fittings for propane are vastly different here than then ones at home, so that will need some adapting. Hence the research. Fascinating stuff, innit?

Tizi‘s plane arrived on time and it sure was nice to see her again after being apart for two weeks. I had reserved a hotel in downtown Edmonton so we drove there and despite the cold weather and the jetlag, decided to stroll through town to find a place to eat. Bad idea. It may have been a Thursday, but half the restaurants were closed and the others didn‘t seem particularly appealing. Eventually we opted for a Korean one no 100m from the hotel. It was good, but someones was very tired by now:).

The next day, after a good long sleep, we headed for the Royal Albert Museum to see an exhibition on the Vikings, including a fascinating collection of artefacts from that time. The forgework was interesting, especially because in some pieces you could tell that they really wanted to save material wherever they could. The tongs were particularly interesting, as they forged the boss very differently to how we normally forge it today, at least in one of the examples. I will have to experiment for myself.

After the museum, we met Kevin again for a round of drinks and a whole lot of good tips on where we should go. He‘s such a friendly chap and I‘m almost glad I had that tire blow up, for I would have never made his acquaintance without it.

After talking for quite some time, we eventually headed west towards Jasper. By now the weather was dreadful, cold and rainy and it was getting really late. We just so managed to get one of the last spots at the KOA near Hinton and cooked some pasta. Tizi was not too happy, it was definitely no mediterrainean weather. Luckily we had enough blankets to be warm at night.

The next day we had a nice breakfast, but the weather was still bad, so we drove directly to Miette Hotsprings to warm up. It took some convincing to get my better half to expose herself to the cold, with promise of lovely 36°C water. But we both enjoyed it a lot until they closed the pool because apparently, someone had had some kind of accident in the water. Eww.

We headed into Jasper to do some grocery shopping and finally, the sun poked through and it actually got warm. We headed further south, but eventually decided to turn around and check-in with a little chalet just outside jasper, as it was cold and rainy, still and the outlook to find an empty campspot was dim.

The next morning, the weather was supposed to be even worse, but instead it was actually quite friendly. We drove up to Lake Edith Cavell to see the glacier and the lake. The forests around Jasper have been heavily hit by some kind of pine beetle and half or more of it is dead or dying. But other than that, the landscape is gorgeous. As it cleared up further, we came into Athabasca Falls and back onto Highway 93 and did a lot of stops along the way. We had a superb icecream at Saskatchewan River Crossing and headed further south still, in the hope of finding a camp spot near Lake Louise. Turns out half the campgrounds are closed for renovation though, so all the other are super packed. We drove until after 9 pm, saw a bunch of black bears but couldn‘t find a single available campsite. So eventually, we gave up and stayed in a hotel in Banff, after travelling through Bow Valley in search of a campsite in vain. To make up for yet another non-camping night, we had a nice dinner at Earl‘s.

The next day, the gas station was closed in Banff, so we needed to find another one before heading back to Lake Louise in the absurd hope of getting to Lake Moraine. Well, Lake Louise was always a busy tourist hotspot, but now, it‘s like a suburb of Beijing. So. Many. Chinese. Tourists. Needless to say the parkings lots were all full and Lake Moraine was closed because of the onslaught. So we headed on towards Golden to try Emerald Lake. We found it and even got a parking spot right at the end of the road and thus had a great start for our little hike around the lake. It was a bit drizzly at first, but warm and the sun eventually came through. A beautiful lake. Also a lot of tourists, but at least the less trodden shadowy side of the lake is beautiful.

We spent several hours exploring the place and eventually headed on towards Golden. The well-known municipal campground will be our base for the night, before we head on towards Revelstoke and then south again.

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Day 10, a bit of rock‘n‘roll

On paper, today‘s task was simple: Head from Lloydminster to the vicinity of Edmonton, maybe pay a quick visit to #frontstepforge, and set up camp somewhere not too far from Edmonton Airport, so I can pick up Tizi tomorrow.

So far for the plan. I was just cruising along the highway after a quick stopover in Vegreville for some gas, when suddenly the road felt rougher than usual, like there was washboard. Before I could spent much more time contemplating the possible reasons for this unusual pavement, even for canadian standards, the rear right tire ripped off its entire thread in one loud bang. Luckily the tire itself held, so no wild steering action was required and I could just pull over to the hard shoulder. The damage was extensive. The tire was clearly beyond repair and it had ripped the rear plastic bumper halfway off, too. Otherwise everything was fine. Put on the hazards and the road triangle and was about to google for some assistance, when a truck pulled over and the guy in it asked if he could help.

As a CAT technician, he clearly knew his way around cars better than I do and even though the spare tire is really hidden away neatly on the Dodge Grand Caravan, we managed to get it off its bracket underneath the cabin and put it on. Kevin insisted he would escort me into town to a tire shop and so we hobbled the remaining 40 or so kilometers into Edmonton, not exceeding 80km/h, of course.

There, the good folks at #tirecraft had both old rear tires (the front ones are new) changed in less time than it took me to eat a burger and an icecream at McDo and to wait for the thunderstorm to pass. We‘ve been getting these almost every day now.

With my new tires fitted, I was rolling again. It was too late for a visit to Frontstep Forge now, but not too late to buy a few screws and washers to get the bumper back on solidly again. On recommendation by the staff, I then drove to Devon to camp at Devon Lions Campground. But before that, I did a quick walk along the North Saskatchewan river, which is big and muddy at the moment.

As if the tire breaking at 110km/h wasn‘t enough of a nuisance, my #postfinance card seems to have decided I am no longer worthy of receiving cash from an ATM, so I‘ll have to look into that too. Thank god for VISA.

Now Kevin knows his Canada very well and is full of useful tips and insider knowledge on where we could go, once Tizi is here. I suspect there will be a follow up meeting with beers and maps.

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Days 6 to 9, CanIron and Canada Day

After a first day of setting up followed by a second half day of getting some things into place, #CanIron XII was ready to kick off. About 100 Blacksmiths and their companions came to Ness Creek, must from Canada, some a far as Nova Scotia, and some daring individuals even came from as far as Tennessee, Switzerland (😉) and the Czech Republic.

The specifics of what the conference was all about and how much I learned from talking to some of the best blacksmiths on the north american continent would fill volumes, so I‘m not going to dive too deeply into that. Demonstrators were Rick Marchand from Nova Scotia, John Little, also from NS, Ethan Harty and Mark Ling from Alberta and Texas, respectively, Shaun Cunningham from Edmonton, AB, and Mike Armstrong and Megan Carter from Ontario. They all showed different aspects of the trade and I didn‘t manage to see them all in action, as all the demonstrations took place in parallel. Needless to say, as a bladesmith, I spent most time watching fellow bladesmith Rick Marchand and learning a few very neat tricks from him.

There was also a big open forging area, where everyone could have a go at shaping some hot metal. I forged a little neck knife from a piece of spring steel and donated it for the auction. It sold for 55$ in favor of CanIron, so that was a pretty good result.

I also met a bunch of smiths from all over Canada there and we exchanged ideas and worked together on refining techniques and learning new ones. On Saturday evening I showed Hayden Varley, a very talented young bladesmith and bronze artist how I forge bolt-jaw tongs. We forged until way past midnight.

As I said, the many experienced, big and small, I had in these past few days are too numerous to mention all, but I’m thankful of all the encounters I had with everybody I can’t mention peronally, but I‘d like to extend a special thanks to Rick, Mike, Shaun, Megan, Hayden, Tyler, Ben, Al, Randy, Jan, Sam, Frans, Brett and Franz and of course Craig, Mark and Daryl for making CanIron XII a reality. An extra special thanks goes to Gord Olson for his tremendous hospitality at Ness Creek. I had a very, very good time with you all and I‘m looking forward to the next opportunity to see you again!

The weather was generally very changeable and varied from hot and sunny to freezing cold, torrential rainstorms and a hailstorm with ice-cube sized hail. We really had it all. Because the weather was so cold and the company so good, I spent all but one night at Ness Creek, instead of Nesslin Lake.

And on Canada Day, so yesterday, a group of stragglers remained at Ness Creek, most of them to continue with a course on blacksmithing with either Mike&Megan or Shaun, some just to spend some more time there. Thank you Wanda for feeding us so well over these past few days!

Today, I departed Ness Creek after saying goodbye to everybody left on site and drove several hundred kilometers to the outskirts of Lloydminster, AB. On the way, the car suddenly wouldn‘t start up anymore, so I checked the wiring an sure enough, the battery terminals were loose and ragged. After some searching around, I finally bought a new set at Canadian Tyre and replaced it with a Swiss army knife (and a lot of swearing). All good now.

At my campsite for the night, it‘s my first time doing laundry this holiday and I had a nice chat with my neighbor, Ray, who‘s a telecomms engineer. He kindly let me use his spanner to tighten the nuts on the terminals up properly.

Tomorrow I will likely set up camp somewhere near Edmonton airport to pick up Tiziana when she arrives on July 4.

Pictures are on Facebook.

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Day 5, the early bird

I left Spiritwood in the morning and drove the last ca. 120 kilometers to Big River. My satnav kindly decided to take me there over the shortest route, as opposed to the fastest or easiest. Consequently, I ended up driving about 60km over gravel and dirt road. Now the car looks like a tractor. No rain either, instead bright sunshine and a few clouds, just how we like it. Temperatures around 20°C, much more pleasant than the 35°+ they have back home.

In Big River I did some shopping before continuing on to Ness Creek Site, where #CanIron XII will take place. On the way there, I saw my first bear on this trip, very close to the road too. Arriving on the compound, a bunch of blacksmiths where already busy setting up the various workstations for the demonstrators. Lended a few helping hands and contributed most of my food to the potlatch and we had a nice lunch and dinner all together.

Ness Creek site is home to a numer of music festivals, arts & crafts get-togethers etc. and is basically already set up to handle up to 3000 people. For CanIron only about 100 are expected though, so I don‘t think they‘ll run into any trouble.

I spent the night here on the parking lot, as my campground site at Nesslin Lake is only reserved for me from the 27th on. That will be a 13km drive every day, something I did not take into account too well, but shouldn‘t be a problem either. You get used to those gravel roads eventually.

Pics will follow asap.

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Day 4, Saskatchewan at last

After successfully hunting for some bird pics in the afternoon, I fell asleep in the van during another downpour and slept for almost 12 hours straight. Hopefully the adjusting is done now.

In the morning I had a simple breakfast (bread and jam, gotta do with what‘s there, and some tea) and a very nice, non-coin-limited shower at the Arm Lake Campground facilities.

Then I drove to North Battleford. 170km of almost entirely straight road. The landscape is flat and consists of mostly fields, bush and wetlands. The sky is huge and the clouds were beautiful (whenever they weren‘t releasing some torrential rainshowers).

Eventually got into Saskatchewan and North Battleford. An uninspiring albeit rather large city for SK. Only did some quick shopping (breakfast cereal, among others) and had a burger at A&W (hands down the best burgers of any of the major franchises, even better than Wendy‘s).

So instead, I continued north-east and came across Meeting Lake, a pretty big holiday resort kind of thing in the middle of nowhere. That was a very strange experience. There‘s a gate there, much like for a military installation, but it was open and unmanned. There are trailers and mobile homes etc dotted along the shoreline, but as I came in, not a single soul was to be seen. Not one. I parked my car and got out, only to be greeted by a swarm of really big flies. Hundreds of them, everywhere. I may have seen a few zombie movies too many, but at this point I was kind of expecting to find a bunch of floating bodies in the lake. No such thing though, it must just be off-season and eventually a few people did show up. Quite a surreal experience anyway. The flies, as it turned out, seemed to be attracted by pelican poop. I took pictures of the birds, but not the poop, this time.

Then I continued on to Spirit Wood, not wanting to stay there, considering everything was still closed. After another 80 or so kilometers from North Battleford, I have arrived here in this farming town and settled down on another cheap but handy Lions Campground, complete with free firewood. Weather is looking up and I‘m pretty close to my eastern-most destination already. Pictures on Facebook.

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Day 3, Arm Lake

On Monday I woke up early still (hello timeshift) and left my campsite at around 7:30 already. My goal for the day was Arm Lake Recreation site, a big campground in eastern Alberta by the equally named Arm Lake, a shallow and very clear lake that you can swim in.

After a quick stop in Wainwright for a refuel (both me and the car) I reached the site at around 11am. The day had started with clear blue skies but quickly became overcast and with a slight breeze. My plan to go for a swim was challenged by the fact that the air was 15°C before windchill factor and the water, while it seemed quite warm, was arguably not much more than 15°C itself. But you know how it is, I plan something, I gotta finish it. So while I don‘t have a picture to prove it, I did actually go for a quick swim. It was refreshing. Very.

Then just as I got out, it started to drizzle so now I‘m sitting in my car, listening to the rain and typing this post. It‘s only just 12:35 now, so I hope the rain will stop again so I can go and hunt for some photos of the many birds that reside in the trees around the site.

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Days 1 and 2, Calgary to Castor

Arrived in Calgary 20 minutes late, but no complaints. Fair weather on arrival. Hans kindly picked me up with the Dodge and took me to the Mountain View Calgary Campground.

Hans, Ruth and I spent a nice evening there, did some shopping and had steak and salad on the barbie outside . Barry is on a new arthritis medicine and is like a new dog, he recognized me immediately and rolled over for some rubs. Adorable!

The next morning we headed off early after having breakfast together. The Meyers headed back to Lillooet and I headed for southwest Calgary to meet up with Jeff and Jess for a quick catchup. I was there way too early so went for a stroll in Fish Creek Provincial Park. It was raining a bit, but stopped soon. At noon I bought some supplies and then met them in their garden. Good times and fabulous donuts were had and old memories shared. (See the NZ&AU chapters of this blog from 2012).

I ten took off for Castor, AB, about 300km from Calgary. Torrential rain and hailstorm as I left the city, road where flooding and I just managed to get out in time. The weather then improved over time. Coming into Castor I came across the mile long tanker trains for the oil industry. One tank car after another, hundreds of them. Impressive.

At the Castor Lions campground I found myself completely alone, with the exception of dozens of very hungry mosquitoes. But I was hungry too, so made pasta on the gas stove. Turned out very good with minimal ingredients.

Next up is probably Arms Lake.

See my facebook for more pictures.

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Canada, again

This is my third attempt at getting this shitty Tumblr app to post this text. Let’s see if it manages this time.

It’s been some time since my last long trip. 2018 was difficult personally and professionally and no noteworthy holidays were had. This year that should change. Four weeks of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, partly alone to go to #caniron and partly with Tiziana, all in the newly remodeled Dodge Gran Caravan, with an actual bed this time. If the weather plays along, it should be splendid. Join me here for sort of regular updates, pictures and whatnot.

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Day 20: CanIron XI day four and packing up

Yesterday we drive to the KPU one last time to watch farrier Iain Ritchie shoe a horse with handmade horseshoes. I've seen that many times on screen, but never actually live. It's fascinating to watch how fast and accurate an experienced farrier will turn a shoe, cut the groves, punch the holes and pull the clips. It's not terribly complicated forging per se, but each shoe is a custom fit for each horse and small details can have a tremendous influence on the horses sensitive stance. Thank you Iain for showing us live. Then we got some last minute memorabilia (caps) and a beautiful handcrafted bick for the hardy. It's got a very fine tip, so I'll be able to draw out round holes/rings on it much sooner than so far. We then decided to check out Princess Auto, a hardware store that is like a wet dream for anyone mechanically inclined and omg it's great. You wouldn't believd the stuff they have. You could almost build a whole car from the parts they have. Or a hydraulic press or a power hammer. Then followed an odyssey through the suburbs of Vancouver to get to the last hotel we would stay at with the Meyers. We eventually got there after some swearing at the outdated satnav. Cleared out the van for handover and went to the nearby Casino to have dinner together and bet 5$ on some slot machines. We won nothing of course, but Hans took home a few dollars more than he put in. About enough to cover the fuel costs:) Lastly we got two lovely craft beers at the Liquor Store and had a nice evening chat in the hotel. Hans is a gifted storyteller so you can listen to him for hours. Our last day will consist mainly of three things: waiting for the shuttle, waiting for the flight, waiting for the food.

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Day 19: CanIron XI day three

Another day another series of demonstrations at the KPU in Surrey for #CanIron XI. We watched Douglas Pryor advance into the chasing aspect of his snail. Benoit showed me his home built rolling mill (I had a go myself) and just before lunch time I watched Glenn Moon forge a little damascus ring from mild and bandsaw blade steel (I believe it was). They lost the little billet several times in the fire, so it was good entertainment to warch two grown men (the other was Kelly) dig in a burning firepit frantically trying to find a thumb sized piece of glowing steel in equally sized pieces of glowing coke. We then had a lovely Poutine (last one, promise) at the KPU canteen and I spent the afternoon watching Gennadii Boyarskyi forge/weld a wheat ary for a truly stunning bouquet of flowers made out of steel. Glenn Moon showed us how to create a very simple oil burner forge with a gravity feed to burn diesel, cooking oil or whathaveyou. Gets super hot this stuff, too! Kerry Neilson showed some more file cutting and rasp making and finally Benoit Laurent finished his bracket for the auction later that day. The evening banquet was lovely salads followed by roast beef, Yorkshire puddings and potato mash and sweet desserts with chocolate fudge cake and a kind of Nanaimo bar. Then followed the auction where all the things made were auctioned off and the proceeds will be used for the next #CanIron. My reverse bottle opener sold (phew!) for 20$, not too bad. I got a little Victoria Blacksmiths organization aluminium anvil as a souvenir. We met more people and had some good discussions about technical issues and worldly things and good times were had by all. Today will be the last half day of demonstrations and then we'll have to start packing and getting the car ready for handover. We're going to meet Hans and Ruth again in the afternoon.

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Day 18: CanIron XI day two

After a first hot then cold night (the temperature difference between night and day is significant here) and a hearty breakfast to warm up again, we watched Matt Jenkins from Winnipeg demonstrate a couple of techniques for making hooks, or rather how to use special texturing tricks to make otherwise boring hooks look interesting. He also showed us how to make the tools for it. He mixes in funny stories and silly jokes with the highly skilled forging (he never misses a blow) and so was excellent entertainment. We had lunch at Taco Bell/KFC and then watched Benoit Laurent work on his bracket including some waterleaves and penny end scrolls. Forging with coke and that in a bottom blast forge was new to him though, so he struggled a bit with the firewelds. To his aid then came Glenn Moon from Australia who proved it was doable and proceeded making a special tool for the powerhammer under the powerhammer for Dorothy Stiegler. Bec also saw Douglas Pryor continue working on his snail, but I missed out on that one. The comedy moment was apparently when, in the attempt of rapidly cooling off the vessel filled with pitch, he opened a freezer in the farrier school building only to find it full of frozen horse legs that are used for training purposes. The Canadians are funny like that. They'd rather donate their meat to a school than throw it on a barbeque. Hardly anyone eats horse meat here. After dinner at Wendy's (their salads are amazing), we then watched power point presentations both by Dorothy and Glenn about their past work and life. Interesting stuff to say the least. Who else owns a dozen or more powerhammers off the grid somewhere in the bush of Australia and runs a big forge off tge countryside? And I thought I had a remote workshop. Tomorrow will be more presentations and the banquet in the evening.

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Day 17: CanIronXI day one

After we had a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus on 180 street and joined CanIronXI. Because the campus was closed yesterday, the smiths still had to set up the worksites, so we started with a bit of a delay, but eventually everything turned out alright. We watched Douglas Prior demonstrate some raising and chasing in copper. A very time consuming process by any standard, but magical as a flat sheet of metal turns into very intricate hollow shapes without welding, soldering or riveting, just pushing the material around in the right way as if it were clay. We had a quick Sushi lunch at King of Sushi and I had my first BC roll, a futomaki with grilled salmon skin in it. Sounds disgusting but tastes amazing! In the afternoon we watched Dorothy Stiegler forge some flowers and hummingbirds as well as a hummingbird based on a Friedrich's cross or blacksmith's cross or split cross, as it is also sometimes referred to. Apparently it was invented by Christoph Friedrich from Switzerland. Who knew?! We both didn't feel very hungry after just sitting around all day watching others, so we only had a small sandwich and an icecream for dessert. We had a little chat with our blacksmith camping neighbors from Ontario and are now listening to the booms of the US independence day fireworks over the nearby border.

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Day 16: Arriving in Surrey

We got up early to the chatter of some ravens on our picnic table and after a quick breakfast, left Manning Park for Surrey. About 225km later we arrived at the church next to the ground where #CanIronXI will be held as of tomorrow. We already met a bunch of the organizers and some other early arrival blacksmiths. It sure looks like it’s going to be a blast!

We then had lunch and checked into the hotel for the night, before we’ll be camping out at Hazelmere with some of the other attendants. We checked out the campground and made sure there was going to be enough space for us. All seems to work out.

We then did some shopping and ran a few errands before chilling out with a cold beer at the hotel. A quiet day with great weather again. I am greatly looking forward to the start of the demonstrations tomorrow.

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Here's one of the more likeable thieves in the country.

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Day 15: Manning Park and more thieves

We travelled from Kelowna to the Manning Provincial Park, the Cold Springs Campground, to be exact, and saw a moose on the way, crossing the road right before us. Neither we nor the moose (female) were hurt. On that note, I find it interesting that the road signs always depict the male variants of an animal (with the exception of the bear, which is often shown with a cub, indicating a female), if there are visual differences. In my experience it is much more common to see female deer than bucks, so a bit more diversity might be a good idea;)

We shopped for some food in Princeton and had a quick walk through town. There’s a big copper/silver/gold mine closeby, that we got a glimpse of on the way forward. Immense effects on the landscape.

Anyhow. We reserved a campsite at Cold Springs with a written note, a piece of firewood, a gallon of drinking water and a cardboard box containing a small tarp. From past experience, that is more than enough to keep people from taking your spot.

With that done, we drove a short ways back and hiked around Lightning Lake for a total of about 13km today. The lake is beautiful as are the mountains around it, but there are so many people on the water and the beaches, it almost puts you off.

As we returned to the campsite, it was not taken, but our firewood and water sure was gone. Turns out another family of towel thieving chinese set up camp nearby and were simply taking stuff from other campgrounds. I guess growing up in a communist country really does leave you with no sense of property. Or maybe they’re just cunts. Luckily we had a few containers left, so we could make do. Still, water, jug and wood were gone. No point in confronting them either as they had poured the water out (it was a tap refill) and the wood was already burned. No way to prove their wrongdoing in case they didn’t admit it right away.

Needless to say both Bec and I and the Park operator were rather upset about such unfriendly behavior.

I believe in Karma though and hope they get the shits from drinking off that jug.