WWOOF, World Travel, and Organic Farming

Organic farming – it’s a beautiful thing!

Ever since I started eating more healthy, I wanted to connect more with my food, understand where it comes from, how it’s grown, and the farmers involved. I learned from a friend that there is a program, available all around the world, where people can volunteer on a farm in exchange for food and shelter, and learn about farming, growing food, and more. This program is called WWOOF – World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

Hiking in the North Cascades, Washington

Into the North Cascades

Since July, I’ve been planning a trip with a friend in Washington to hike the North Cascades – which is supposed to be amazingly beautiful. I’ve been communicating with this friend, Matt, and we planned on leaving Seattle early Friday morning, and be back on Monday afternoon. We discussed a few different trips – Mt. Logan, Mt. Goode, Mt. Shuksan, Ragged Ridge, then we decided on Primus Peak.

Decatur Island, Washington

Ride into the sunset

Early last week, Chris (the guy whose house I’m staying in), says his friend on a nearby island is going crab fishing on Sunday morning, and asks me if I want to go and help. Seeing as I’ve never been crab fishing, and am up for an adventure, I happily accept. Pete (the other WWOOFer) declines as he wants some time to himself. Saturday afternoon, Chris and I talk about the island while looking at the satellite view of Google Maps, and he starts talking about “There is my beach house, there is my sailboat, my dinghy, and truck, my friend’s house… ” Then I say, “Wait a minute, why don’t we just take your speedboat out today instead of tomorrow morning, and stay the night on the island? He says, “Oh, okay, let’s do that”.

WWOOFing on a Pumpkin Patch in Washington

Fresh organic vegetables

After cutting my trip short on the last farm, I was ready to move to the next farm. I contacted a farm that was fairly close by and was invited to come by. Their profile on the WWOOF website said they have a large farm with many varieties of organic vegetables, fruit trees, and pumpkins, comfortable accommodations, they will teach about farming, and it had positive reviews. Sounds good to me. I checked the rideshare section on Craigslist, and found someone who would give me a ride 30 miles north to Longview. The girl giving me a ride was also giving a ride to another ridesharer, who was an activist in the tree farming and paper industry, which sounded interesting because it’s hard not to notice all the tree farming and lumber mills in Washington.

Astoria, Oregon

At the Goonies house

This weekend I worked at two farmer’s markets – Saturday in Longview, Washington, and Sunday in Astoria, Oregon, which was especially exciting! I had been wanting to go to Astoria, and this was a great opportunity. I was there as a vendor with the farm I was at, which is always a bonus. The Astoria market is a big market – many arts & crafts vendors along with a few farm stands; though I believe we were the only organic farm stand. There was a live band, a food court, and three blocks of miscellaneous vendors.

WWOOFing on a permaculture farm in Washington

Grass-fed cows on a permaculture farm

After traveling 1,200 miles from California, I made it to my destination in Battle Ground, Washington. I had made arrangements with a permaculture farm to stay for a few weeks, and move to the next farm. This permaculture farm had goats, cows, turkeys, chickens, comfortable accommodations, goat cheese making, fermenting, beekeeping, and an appealing profile. I was very much looking forward to spending time there and learning, but was a bit disappointed by my experience there.

Setting off on my journey around the world

Off I go, backpacking around the world!

Planning this journey for the better part of 6 months, I purchased most everything I would need, and sold, donated, and threw away everything else I owned. I watched many videos on the internet, read many blogs, went camping, hiking, mountain climbing, and many other things to prepare for this journey. Finally ready to go, I said goodbye to my friends, was officially homeless, and with no possessions except the items on my back, I set off to backpack around the world. I started in Orange County, California, went south 100 miles to San Diego to say goodbye to another friend, then headed north to my first destination 1,200 miles away in Washington state.

Hot Air Ballooning Over The Temecula Wine Vineyards

Getting the balloon ready

I got a call from my cousin asking if I’d like to join her and her boyfriend hot air ballooning in Temecula. That’s actually something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, so of course I’m up for the adventure!

We were on our way to Temecula – wine country of Southern California – early in the morning, before sunrise.

Skydiving from 18,000ft

Skydiving from 198,000ft

It’s always seemed to me that one of Man’s greatest thrills and challenges would be to experience the feeling of freefall and flying – maybe there’s something about pushing life to the boundaries to see how far one can go, or feeling the sensation and cheating death. For me, skydiving has been on my Life List for several years, and now I’m finally going to do it.