Spent Saturday revisiting the abandoned mine out in the mountains along the Coquihalla Highway, first time this year. Both the first and second levels are completely flooded now, the entrance to the lowest level either caved in or was buried by the owners of the land, completely inaccessible now without climbing down the massive caverns in the 3rd level, which would be certain death. Glad I got to explore it before it was blocked off for good. On the way back down the mountain we came across this young native guy with flowers and leaves hanging from behind his ears walking along the service road, which is a bizarre sight in itself, this place is waaaay out in the mountains far from any town, it's a 9 km hike from the side of the highway to the mine, this guy had a LONG road ahead of him.
So I pull over next to him and offer a ride, he glady vaults over the rails into the truck bed where two of my friends are lounging out. They never even got a name out of the guy but he did claim that he's an endurance hunter (meaning he persistently tracks animals through the forest on foot until they're exhausted and then takes them down with his bare hands / melee weapons). He got a real kick out of all of the bones in my truck bed, started waving around my moose antler. Didn't say much at all but stuck around for the entire ride back down to the highway where he hopped out, thanked me, walked across the highway, and entered the forest on the other side.
