Johannes from Wuerzburg, Germany, sent us an email on June 7th,
saying he was already in Golden at the Backpacker Hostel. It had been raining
so much over the past week, so Loren and I were not working at the woodlot and
as a result Loren was working on the WW Bunkhouse. When I received Johannes’
email on the morning of June 8th I immediately told Loren about
Johannes’ impressive offer for help. Johannes is an experienced Electrical
Engineer who had ww experience and claimed to be very handy (this of course was
very true). I then phoned the hostel and invited Johannes out so he could
decide if he wanted to spend some time at our place. Johannes had his own vehicle (a little white
pick-up he had been given while staying at the hostel in Vancouver), so within
an hour he was at our house. Lucky for us, he decided to stay and that
afternoon he started helping Loren.
Johannes fit right in.
He is very patient and sage, for a man of his age and very handy with
Loren’s new cordless power tools. Johannes
pretty well spent most of his time working with Loren on the bunkhouse,
paneling the ceilings, putting down the floors, hanging doors and putting up
trim, as well he helping with the mowing of the lawn and working on the rock
path in the garden. Needless to say by
the time I had returned from a week away the bunkhouse was close to liveable
and the yard was tidy. And shortly after that Johannes moved into one of the
bunkhouse rooms.
Because the snow was so late staying in the mountains, there
wasn’t much opportunity for Johannes to go hiking, but despite this, he made
the best of it. Barbara from Goldenwood
Lodge had arranged for a ww gathering. And this is how Johannes, Therese and
Isabell met Julia. One day Johannes and Julie rode the bikes all
the way to the washout below Mummery Glacier, almost 80 km return, and while we
were at Susan Lake Johannes, Julie, Isabell and Therese hiked up to the remainso
f the Susan Lake fire watch tower. Of
course Johannes was following the German Football (Soccer) Games, and on two
occasions took Isabell and Therese into town to watch the games.
Late in the afternoon on the last day of his stay, Johannes
installed a bed platform in the box on his truck and fixed up the potential
leaks on the door of the truck canopy.
Then the following morning shortly after Isabell and Therese left,
Johannes departed, driving off in the little white pick-up to meet a friend and
seriously hike the mountains and explore towards the north. Three good-byes a
morning is always a bit much, however because Loren and Johannes got on so
well, I imagine that we will visit with Johannes before he leaves Canada.
Since Johannes left I have had two emails, one said that he
had done plenty of hiking, and made good use of the ‘scrambling’ book Loren had
loaned to him.
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