Goldstream Trestles

My good friend Bethany is leaving our little island and moving to the dessert. We wanted to go for a hike before she left, so that she could soak up the rainforest. It was a fittingly rainy and foggy day for such a walk. We're truly going to miss you Bethany!

Scotch and Sesame Snaps on the trestle

Bravely checking out the view below

Beautiful arbutus peeking through

Tatchu Peninsula - Day 4

The morning of our final hiking day, I climbed out of the tent to change out of my pyjamas. About the time I had my pyjama pants half way down, I looked up and noticed to bears at the end of the beach. I alerted the girls, and we all stood and watched as, what appeared to be a Mumma bear and her yearling cub, made their way along the tide line looking for eats. We must have been up-wind as they did not seem to notice our presence. After a few minutes I asked the girls, "How close do we let them get?" and we communally decided to wish the bears a good morning. They looked a little startled and retreated back to the end of the beach where they sniffed around a while longer before meandering into the bushes. We had our breakfast of Logan Bread, and Hank the socially awkward deer showed up to see us off. We half wondered if he would follow us the rest of the way.
The day's hike involved a couple of bear trails (and more loud talk singing) and some beautiful coastal meadows.

As you reach Rugged Point Marine Provincial Park the coast opens up to long beautiful striped white sand beaches. It is worth noting that the first beach you reach as you enter the park boundaries, is also where the last fresh water source is located. You cross a rapid moving stream as you enter the beach, but it has a strong sulphur smell to it. I recommend walking this beach with your boots off, as the sand has a strange spongy way of melting away under your feet. If you walk to the far end of the beach, you will find a second stream, follow it up a ways until you stop seeing signs of salt water life, and then pump from this stream - the water is clear and fresh tasting.
Once you reach the point of Rugged Point, there is a bit of challenge in finding the trails that lead you up and over the point. They take you up, and then back down into multiple bays, before finally reaching the camp sight. We arrived to find two kayakers camping at the sight, our first human interaction since the day we left the Uchuck. We spent the afternoon swimming in the bay, and laying on the white sand beach. 

The next morning we were picked up by a lovely pilot from Air Nootka. I intended to get a shot of the girls walking out to the float plain in the bay, but the plane was slightly early and we had to load in a hurry due to the choppy water that morning. I did manage to grab one with my iPhone, so I've added that in. The pilot flew us back along the trek we had just taken so that we could see it from the air; He was very informative about the history of the area including the nearby Nootka Trail. It was a beautiful clear day, and the flight was so smooth; it was a fantastic way to end the trip.

Castilleja, growing in the shade of some driftwood

Demonstrating how burly intelligent women hike

"Taking it all in" is highly recommended

A beautiful bay for our final camp

Tatchu Peninsula - Day 1
Tatchu Peninsula - Day 2
Tatchu Peninsula - Day 3

Tatchu Peninsula - Day 3

Day 3 was our shortest hike of the trip, in fact we arrived at our camp so early that we contemplated continuing on to the next and final sight. Considering our previous surge channel experience, we had our reservations knowing we would be crossing another one on this day; Our reservations turned out to be unfounded as this one was no where near as treacherous. We reached our camp spot by early afternoon, and spotted a small black bear at the far end of the beach as we approached - he didn't notice us, and ambled off into the brush eventually. After debating walking further that day, we opted to stay considering that the tide would not be on our side by that time, and the next camp-able spot was Rugged Point, the final spot. This turned out to be a great decision! After setting up our tent, we came across the skull of a black bear; it was bleached by the sun and ocean and had barnacles growing on it. As such we dubbed our beach Bear Skull Bay. The beach was made up of perfectly smoothed and rounded pebbles that had been baking in the sun all day. We alternated between jumping in the ocean and drying ourselves on the pebble beach, and it was as good as any spa treatment you could get. During our relaxing afternoon, we were visited by a young socially awkward male deer. He hung around our camp, coming quite close to us on several occasions. We realized that considering his age, and the low number of hikers that come through the area, he had probably recently left his mother and had probably never seen humans before. We obviously named him Hank, because - who wouldn't?

Stopping to pump water in a picturesque spot

Hiking around the tidal pools

Another beautiful lunch spot

The skull of a black bear

Taking shelter from the sun and wind

Our socially awkward friend Hank

The old bear hang conundrum

A common theme in our hike celebrating both the beaches with hard packed sand, and our agreement to take this adventure together

Bear Skull Bay as we dubbed it

Tatchu - Day 1

Tatchu - Day 2

Tatchu - Day 4

Roll Call

The puppies are almost eight weeks old now, so we thought we should do some updated photographs of them.  Eight of the puppies have gone into other foster homes in pairs, as sixteen puppies at this age is just too many, and this way they could get more individual attention. I have been fostering two personally, which has been both fun, and exhausting. The puppies shown here are the remaining eight, plus my two.  As they are almost eight weeks old they are also almost ready for adoption. If you are interested in any of these or the six other pups previously shown, you can apply to Broken Promises Rescue, but do it quickly!

Wren

Bryn

Thia

Banjo

Keely

Boone

Emerson

Sid

Hendry - (we think his ears might just stand up)

Berkley