Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
A few weeks ago I made some travel plan changes. I was planning to travel to Ontario today, but I called friends to let them know I was headed this way and one told me that they had a big party planned for last night, so I moved my plans to a day earlier and joined the celebrations.
I met these friends in 1986, when I went to university… 40 years ago. A few of the couple s there, and their kids, I’ve visited or reconnected with on and off over the years. They are truly awesome friends that I wish I lived closer to. But I moved to BC in ‘93 and visits have been sparse.
Also at the party were some of my friend’s friends whom I haven’t seen since moving. I was catching up with people I haven’t seen in more than 30 years. More grey hair and wrinkles, and whole families of kids to learn about, but still very much the same people.
An experience like last night really puts life in perspective. I’m left wondering how so much time could have passed? This will sound weird, but I wonder how ended up my parent’s age? I say that because the party included a live band, (a friend of the hosts who also met them 40 years ago), and as I looked at my generation and the next generation (my friend’s kids & their friends) dancing to Tragically Hip, the Rolling Stones, and even Led Zeppelin songs, I felt young again. I wasn’t a near 60 year old guy at a friend’s party, I was a kid at a backyard party. No adult supervision in sight.
Will feeling like I’m not old ever get old? Or am I going to forever wonder why I feel younger than I am… asking myself, ‘Where does the time go?’
I just spent three glorious days in Tofino followed by 8 nights on the West Coast Trail (WCT), including a night on the trailhead before we started. When I say the weather could not have been better, I’m not exaggerating. I’m coming home from the wet/west coast of British Columbia looking like I spent a week on a Mexican beach. In 11 days we had 9 days of sun, a semi-cloudy day, and a cloudy day today on our way out. It drizzled one night for 3 minutes, and two nights ago it rained a bit after dinner, downpoured after went to bed, and cleared up for a beautiful sunrise the next morning. The only time we really saw rain was driving to the ferry on our way home.
The Best Laid Plans
Our goal after our night on the trailhead was to do the WCT over 6 nights and seven days. That’s a typical amount of time, but we added a challenge: We wanted to spend one extra night at Tsusiat Falls campsite, a beautiful campsite with a very pretty waterfall. This meant we’d have to push hard one day. Originally we thought this would be the second day, but we woke up excited on the trailhead and decided we’d do the big push day one. The first day was only 5k to the first campsite with a mere maximum elevation of 240 meters. Dave and I had just done our Everest the Crunch challenge less than a month ago, where we did a 241 meter climb 37 times… walking almost 85km up hill in 35 hours. We could easily do the extra 6km to the next campsite on day 1.
We were wrong. After pushing hard and yo-yo-ing up and down a technically challenging hike with over 45lbs on our backs, we were spent. So we got up early and pushed hard the next day. Too hard. We got to the second campsite and again we were exhausted and wanted to stop.
Cost/Benefit
The cost of being the fastest on the trail and getting to the campsites first was that we were not making headway in creating the space for a rest day (for which we had special plans to be shared in a future post). We were arriving 1-2 hours before anyone else, but we didn’t have it in us to keep going. After 2 days failing we decided that we’d have a ‘normal plan’ and a ‘push further plan’, but not beat ourselves up if we just do what was suggested in the WCT app that we were putting our plans into.
The benefit of pushing hard each morning was that we were spending less time on the trail and more time on the beautiful, sunny beaches. We’d have our tent up, water collected, firewood gathered, and be resting and relaxing in the sun… watching the tide come in or go out, while others straggled into the campsite over the next few hours.
Long Beach Wisdom
We arrived at Tsusiat falls on the 5th day, typical for people starting on the south end like us, and planning to spend just one more night on the trail. That’s when we remembered the wise words Kristen shared with us on Long Beach, near Tofino, just a few days before:
“I’ll give you my Retirement speech: Retirement allows you to be in the moment for as long as the moment lasts.”
We are both retired. We don’t have work to get back to. We can stay an extra day.
Creating The Time and Space
While the Tsusiat falls are beautiful, it’s a very busy campsite, and that’s not what we wanted for our day off.
That’s when a fellow hiker gave us some advice, instead of the 13km hike to the next suggested campsite, go an easy 8km to the Tsocowis campsite, which also has a waterfall, and is not very popular because it’s going too far for people starting in the north, and makes the last day too long for people going north like us.
We took her advice, got to Tsocowis earlier than we arrived at any other campsite previously, and only had this hiker and her partner to share the whole campsite with. Dave and I agree that Tsocowis was our absolute favourite day on the WCT. This was the space we created to have a magical trip within our trip… and I’ll dedicate a full post to share more.
Serendipity and Generosity
It wasn’t just our time at Tsocowis that was magical, the whole day was extra special. For five nights we were travelling with a wonderful group of 5 people, sharing a fire with them each night. And now that we added an extra stop, we were going to split up from them. We left Tsusiat Falls early and forgot to say our goodbyes, but that would still happen. Along the trail there are two red Adirondack chairs that look out onto the ocean. Shortly before getting to the chairs, we passed some hikers coming the other way. One of them suggested, “You are about 400 meters from the red chairs and there are whales feeding there, be sure to stop.”
We arrived at the chairs and 3 hikers who stayed at the last few campsites with us and left Tsusiat really early were there.
“We’ve been here over 20 minutes, the two Dave’s can take the seats. You’ll see the whales just over here, right in front of us.”
Thanks!
“We’re making coffee, would you like some?
Yes, please!
“Also, we took some creeper pictures of you on the trail, I hope you don’t mind. We’ll show them to you.”
OK… OMG, those are amazing!
Oh, and it gets better! We explained that we were staying an extra day more than planned, so one of them said, “We are heading out tomorrow and have extra food, do you want a couple freeze dried dinners?”
Yes! We are happy to pay for them.
“No, everyone has been so generous, I want to give back.”
Thank you.
They also shared some snacks.
Thank you again!
“Here, give me your camera, we’ll take a picture of you on the chairs.”
So kind and generous!
After many more thanks and a wonderful conversation they left. Then as we were about to leave our 5 campfire friends showed up! We got to say our goodbyes, and got a photo (one one of their cameras, I don’t have it yet).
They followed us to our campsite and we said our final goodbyes.
More about Tsocowis, friends, and generosity later.
Decompression and Integration
After Tsocowis it was only 5km to the final possible campsite, Dave and I had an intentionally slow morning, and still got to the last campsite before noon. Again the first to arrive, we picked our favourite spot, built a chair near our campfire, and had everything in its place before anyone else arrived.
We didn’t do much the entire day, other than appreciate the fact that we had one more wonderful day to enjoy. The day bounced from very hot to cool depending on the cloud cover, and we spent most of the day enjoying the fact that we were supposed to be home and we still had more time that we created.
No agenda. No rush. Just being in the moment for as look as the moments lasted.
Another Routine Day
After 8 nights camping, Dave and I had tight routines from wake up to trail rest breaks. We were totally in sync. Getting from our final sleep to the trail end was as smooth as could be. We stopped to see a Sea Lion colony on the way, and we had two cold Coke Zeros and some potato chips as a final reward waiting in Dave’s camper Van that we also used in Tofino.
Literally Perfect
I don’t know if I can ever do the West Coast Trail again. The reality is that absolutely nothing went wrong. We had perfect weather. We agreed on every decision. We worked perfectly as a team. We made amazing connections. When our only complaint is that we didn’t have an evening tea, but still had warm drinks 4 of the 8 days, I’d say we pretty much had nothing to complain about. It would be almost impossible to have a repeat of this. The only way I’d do this trail again is with my wife and/or kids, but honestly, I think I’d prefer another trail so I don’t have this experience to compare it to.
I have so much more to share and that’s why this post started with WCT 1… more to come.
I got to go to the Canada vs Switzerland World Cup game today. I went with a high school friend I met in Grade 10, back in 1982.
We joined the parade to the stadium and really embraced the day. Canada lost 2-1, and while it would have been great to see Canada win, or tie, they did make the game extremely exciting in the final minutes.
I’m sure that I’ve shared this before, but as I get older I really want to focus on experiences, not stuff. I don’t need any new toys, I don’t need the newest gadgets. I want to spend time with family and friends doing things… having experiences.
Experiences, not things.
Today was truly a wonderful experience with a longtime friend.
Yesterday I had the first of a few retirement celebrations. What was wonderful about it is that I celebrated with my good friend, mentor, and brother-from-another-mother, Dave Sands. I started my career a few years after Dave and in my first year I was provided the opportunity to co-teach a student leadership class with him. That was the start of an amazing friendship, and although we only worked in the same building for 2 years, we have truly been colleagues who have had opportunities to collaborate and work with each other throughout our careers. As well, we have had countless breakfasts, lunches, and walks up the Coquitlam Crunch.
The retirement event was wonderful. There were a few fun stories…
A meme or two…
And an opportunity to celebrate our careers.
Screenshot
However, what really made this wonderful were the people who joined us. Yes, we’ve both had pretty successful, and as was mentioned, influential careers in the district. And there were jokes about the different superpowers we possess. But if we actually have any superpowers it’s in connecting with some really great people. What made the event special were the people who joined us.
As I reach the end of my career I keep looking back at the wonderful people I’ve worked with, and the way that I’ve been supported by them. With every accomplishment I can think of there have been amazing people that have been part of the team or who have initiated an opportunity for me in some way. When I reflect on the collaborative journey I’ve been on, again and again, I feel blessed.
Celebrating my retirement with the other Dave allowed us both to appreciate the people around us, but also each other. We both had out-of-the-box kind of journeys and our careers for the past decade-plus have run in parallel. Having each other as friends made the journey so much easier, more enjoyable, and less alone. It was totally fitting to have our retirement celebration together.
Facebook reshared a ‘Blast from the past’ post with me, it was a Daily-Ink post titled, ‘I teach leadership not followship’. This title is a quote from friend, and first teaching mentor, Dave Sands. What I enjoyed most about seeing this post again was the Facebook comments on it. Here are 2 from colleagues and one from myself:
Dave MacLean:
l’ve drawn from so many experiences from our days as Lakers. Truly the environment that pushed all of us in such a healthy way. So many strong leaders with such mutual respect for each other. I would be lying if I said there weren’t days where I pang for those days of pedagogical debate and learning. Tha for the trip down memory lane. I was recently at Como for an articulation meeting and our legacies are still present in the culture 15 years later.
David Truss:
Dave MacLean I can’t think of a richer learning environment than what we had. I believe that more than 1/3 of the teachers we worked with in the first 5 years at Como Lake became administrators… yet it was always about collaboration not competition, and servant leadership, by staff as well as students.
Elaan Bauder Gudlaugson:
Dave MacLean, David Truss
Como Lake was my first experience in education that taught me about how I wanted “school” to be. The staff made all the difference.
I’m fortunate to have reunited with Elaan, and we have worked together again at Inquiry Hub for the last 5 years. And she’s right… the staff really does make the difference!
It’s hard not to get a bit nostalgic as I head into retirement. And this is a good thing. To this day my closest friends are still people I connected with in those early years of teaching. We knew we had something special going on. We still see former students in the community who tell us things like, “We could tell you liked each other and that you liked us.” And, “Those were the best years of school for me.”
I entered education with an inspiring group of people who were also amazing educators and leaders. We grew up together as educators and we watched our families and children grow up too. I wish every educator could find a community like this in their early years, because I know I had something special.
There is nothing wrong with being nostalgic when I can frame it as being lucky and blessed to have had the opportunities to learn and grow within the community that I got to. It paved the way to a career I can look back on with love, warmth and fondness.
____
Update: Two more posts where I share this perspective.
The jury is still out on whether my buddy and I are going to ‘Everest the Crunch’ in August, (climb the Coquitlam Crunch trail 37 times in 48 hours, to go up the equivalent height of Mount Everest)… but at least I’ve been back on the trail for the last 4 weekends. Before that I had to take 6 weeks off due to sciatic pain.
A commitment to my physio visits and exercises, regular massage, and of course some extra rest, has all lead to my recovery. Today we did the most we’ve done in a while with 2 trips up, 2 extra loops of the 457 stairs section, and one trip down, (we start by dropping a car off at the top), and seven hours later I feel no pain.
My buddy Dave has taken my injury in stride and isn’t rushing us back to where we were before I had to slow down, and so I don’t feel any pressure to push more than I should. That said, we are just 4 months away from the challenge and if we don’t ramp up soon, our bodies won’t be ready for 37 treks up the hill. I feel ready to push a bit harder, but not ready yet to say this will be a ‘go’ in four months.
Still, the 6 week break was way longer than our previous gap of maybe 2 weeks since we started doing the Crunch in January 2021, and it feels wonderful to be back… and more importantly, pain free. We are crunching again! Whether this leads to the challenge in August or not, this cherished time with my buddy is back on track.
Last night 6 of us went to see Moulin Rouge, and we made a weekend of it downtown. The show was wonderful, and the lead singer was absolutely sensational. There were no weak performances, and yet the lead outshined everyone. It’s just amazing to see someone passionately performing at the top of their game… and she was the player of the night.
On top of that we all stayed downtown for the weekend. A staycation in Vancouver, a little rest & relaxation in an otherwise busy month. Just had a hot tub with the boys, and we’ll all be heading to dinner in a couple hours.
A fun weekend escape… and there’s still more to come.
We’ve fully reached the stage of finding reasons to go rather than finding excuses not to. I’m not available this weekend to do our weekly walk up the Coquitlam Crunch, so Dave and I met in darkness at 6am to start our trek up the hill.
I’d say we reached this stage a full year ago. It was 2025 that we went from our commitment to doing the climb at least 40 times a year, matching the weeks of a school year, to ensuring we never missed a week. This wasn’t a voiced decision, it’s one we just found ourselves doing.
Now it’s something we just do… And yet it’s a lot more than that!
It’s a chance to to talk, to rant, to seek advice, to share, to listen, to connect.
It’s a commitment to a friend.
We now regularly meet at 6am for workouts anyway, and we often do multiple crunches at a time training for Everesting the Crunch, so to meet on a cold Thursday morning and just go up and down the Crunch once, actually feels like a rest day.
I heard this phrase and it really struck a chord with me:
“Accept people as they are, but place them where they belong.”
There are 2 really big ideas here.
First, we are often quick to want people to change, and the disparity between who people are and who we want people to become is often too large of a gap. Step one is accepting people for who they are.
The next step is a bit more challenging. We often spend way too much time on people that are not worth our time. We don’t ‘put people where they belong’. We take amazing people for granted and we focus too much attention on people who aren’t worth our time.
The task sounds simple: accept people for who they are, then place them in your life accordingly.
There are people who would do anything in the world for you. And people who you in turn would do anything for. When that’s the same person, well then you need to prioritize your connection to that person. They deserve a special place in your heart and in your life. They deserve your attention and time. Not the person that cut you off in traffic, not the annoying co-worker, not the friend in need that is never there when you are in need.
“Accept people as they are, but place them where they belong.”
I spent the afternoon with my mom, her sister, my wife and my kids. My aunt had us in stitches. It was wonderful having a good belly laugh. My favourite line from my auntie. “I like living by myself. I’m fine to talk to myself, I don’t need anybody else. It’s only a problem if I hear voices talking back, other than that, I’m good.”
Before this, I spent most of the day with an old friend. I can’t travel back home to my mom and not find time to see my buddy.
It’s just wonderful to realize that what I value most are my family and friends. Give me this, and my health, and I really don’t need much else from this world.
