It was mid-afternoon on a recent Saturday and it was raining, hard. The kind of rain that comes down sideways, defying umbrellas and hoods. John Rolin, who prefers to be called Junak (the name came to him in a dream), stood in a threadbare coat with a blanket draped across his chest as he stared up at the Stawamus Chief from the grassy patch in the middle of Squamish’s Pavilion Park.
On his feet, now deep in the rain-soaked lawn, Rolin, 26, wore leather sandals, which he prefers unless he is in nature, where he mostly goes barefoot.
Like many, Rolin came to Squamish recently – in late September – and like most, it is the landscape that drew him.
“Squamish is a special place with the mountains and the sea, nature wildlife and culture. My mind and body feel strongest when I am in environments as this,” said Rolin, who is Cherokee-French and Mexican.
Though still in his 20s, Rolin’s back-story reads like an adventure novel. Born in Texas and raised by his single mom in the woods of Florida, playing with turtles and snakes and fishing, Rolin has since lived and worked in diverse places.
He has rehabilitated spider monkeys in the jungle of Tulum, in Mexico. He hiked active lava fields on the big island of Hawaii and lived in the jungles of Kauai. Most recently, he was in Alaska for six years at times living off the land and often off the grid.
“I feel better out in nature, away from people. I don’t need anyone or anything. I can feel my body and my mind getting stronger when I am out there. When I come to cities, I feel I’m part of the problem, unless I help others,” he said.
His Alaskan friend Jeffery James, 39, said while living in teepees on a friend’s property he and Rolin would harvest for food. For money, Rolin worked odd jobs including at the Alaska Zoo. His main profession the last few years has been as a kayaking and hiking guide. James said Rolin always seemed to have wanderlust that took him on solo adventures.
James recalled when Rolin decided to make his way from Denali, Alaska, near where he and Rolin lived, to Prudhoe Bay, which is at the uppermost tip of Alaska.
“No one goes there except like Ice Road Truckers, and he said he wanted to hitchhike all the way up to the top,” said James. “There’s not many like him.”
Rather than hitchhike the entire way, Rolin ended up walking long distances until he reached Prudhoe.
Rolin admits while he constantly craves the serenity of nature, he is also a social creature and so is drawn from time to time to towns and even urban centres to reconnect with others.
In Squamish he hopes to find a happy medium: a place where he can set up his teepee, but also be welcomed and connect with others. So far no one has responded to his Craigslist post requesting space for his circular home. For Rolin, the desire to live in a teepee, or at least some traditional nomadic housing, is as strong as his need for peace and quiet.
“Being in a teepee gives me a sense of being good to the earth. The circular space lets my mind be at ease with fresh air while wasting nothing. My floor is dirt and grass.
“I make a fire pit in the middle to cook and dry. I use no electricity or running water. I feel strong in my mind and spirit,” he said.
Ideally, Rolin would like to have others share his teepee lifestyle.
“I would like to have others live there as well in their own way and space, but together. It’s not going back in time, it is continuing a way that always has been,” he said.
To contact Rolin email him at [email protected].
