(original date June 26, 2026. Still just under a week away from being caught up on this adventure, but I finally got my first rewards so I’m hoping the small amount of HP will allow me to wrap this up with a little bit of RC. Stay safe 🖤)
Finally, the rain is coming. The nice weather has been, well, nice, but I am incapable of mentally handling too long a stretch of time without some real weather. It hasn’t hit yet, but the cloud are darkening, the smell is in the air, and the weather person has superimposed rain clouds on the next six days of the forecast.
Furthermore, I have not experienced rain in the van yet, so I’m anxiously looking forward to figuring out if there are any leaks or spots I need to fix before I get stuck in a soupy situation. I think it should be alright, but the van is just as old as I am, and I read that these models are prone to develop leaks, especially around the windshield.
not a bad office view though
I had to hunt for electricity again today. I have been using my phone more than usual lately, but for objectively necessary things(such as job applications). Still, I definitely need to upgrade my power situation. Ideally, I would like to have a real power station, one that I could run a heater off of in the winter, but that’s far down the line of priorities.
Unrelated but also related. I have gotten in the habit or writing these entries by hand and then later typing them into the phone. It feels more grounded; AuThEnTiC even, and less distracting. When I started doing this, I wasn’t even considering the battery, but I guess that’s a plus as well. Hopefully the days of phone-writing will come to an end soon; yesterday I finally found my computer charger. I was nervous that I had accidentally put it in my storage unit. Now, I just have to figure out where I stashed my computer when I thought I didn’t have a charger 😂 I really need to lock down some organization in this thing.
One thing I’m looking forward to is joining a gym chain. Where I’m currently at, I know how to (sneakily) get a free shower; but I will eventually want a membership. I know a lot of people on the road use them solely for the showers, but I’m also excited about the actual gym aspect. It will be a productive way to occupy time and get myself back to feeling like I did not but a year ago. There seems to be a lot of debate among van dwellers about which chain is the best, so I’m trying to do my research as best I can before pulling the trigger.
Anyways, yes, I climbed the van up the windy access road back up to the lodge. Mainly to charge my shit up. I know I’m gonna be using electricity more than usual with the rainy week coming up. I really gotta start taking the bus; at least until I do the brakes on the van. They’re squealin’. Each time I drive up here, I tell myself it’s because I’ll want my food and belongings up here. Yet, every time, I never actually walk back to the van.
hard to tell from the phone photo, but as the weather rolled in this really cool little cone formed around the summit
As I’m healing, I’m remembering that I’m mainly here to go summer snowboarding, and that’s going to be a reality soon. In which case, I will want the rig up in the lot. Hopefully I secure a job with the mountain so I get a pass- otherwise I’ll be hiking up to the park. It’s gonna be a short summer season here due to lack of snow, and really it’s the main reason I’m here right now. So I gotta make what I can out of it.
My friends continue to elude me. I keep seeing familiar vehicles around, yet their owners are no where in sight. Additionally, no one would recognize my van; the last time anyone around here saw me was in a Subaru with plates from a different state. I also have done Locks of Love and shaved my head within the past month, so I’m especially incognito. It’s kind of become a fun game of car and mouse; how long can people elude each other in such a small and remote setting.
it snows so much here in the winter these signs have to be like 20 feet up
Well, the devices didn’t quite hit full, but they were sufficiently charged and I was over sitting in the lodge. So I packed up my stuff and headed back to town. I did a trash and recycling run over at the rest area, shut all the windows of the van in case the rain came early, and set off for my daily physical rehab hike.
I had planned on just continuing up the trail I had taken the last few days, progressing little by little each day, but the promise of rain made me take the paved route today. I need to get some sort of makeshift washable doormat so I’m not tracking in any mud into the van. I suppose I could use a towel but, I mean, those are sacred. Lmao.
case in point. Thats a lot of fuckin snow
So since the adjacent work road is much less physically challenging, yet much longer, I decided I should go at least 4 miles as opposed to the original goal of 2.5 on the other trail. Next thing I knew, I walked all the way up to the lodge. 12 miles round trip with about a 2000 foot elevation gain. I mean, it’s nothing crazy, and it was honestly alarming how easy it was to make the walk. If you look at the destination from the origin part, you’d think “fuck no”, but it was so mellow.
the first time I saw this I was very not sober and was very confused
This all happened very spontaneously so I had originally planned to be back well before dark. Last minute, I threw my headlamp into my bag. Thank god I did, because it got DARK about a mile into the six mile walk down. And the rain had hit; not heavy- a very pleasant, light rain. Enough to get my shoes and pant legs wet though. Hopefully my shoe goo job on the vans holds up while these dry.
Towards the bottom I almost got hit by someone drifting on a joy ride on the way down. It wasn’t actually anything serious; the guy was in total control and I only almost got hit because my dumb ass thought the tire squeals were coming from the adjacent access road.. that is until they got really loud and headlights lit up my back as I was goofily walking in the middle of the road. They stopped and we laughed about it and had a fist bump, and went out separate ways. Nice dude. Nice car.
I was pretty wet by the time I got back to the van and! No leaks yet. The sound of the rain on the room was insanely relaxing as I had my first doors-shut in-van meal. My meals currently are just various charcuterie boards to be fair, until I get a stove. I put on a horrible, horrible Tubi slasher to fall asleep to, and all is well in my world for the night. Until tomorrow, when I gotta start stressing about nothing again.
Do something, anything that makes you happy today. Praise Scabies :)
