Day 132: Snakes at sea

As we walked through Smuggler Cove provincial park, Dawn lamented that she hadn't seen a snake all weekend. Within the next 100 m we saw two garter snakes swimming in the shallow water of the swamp. The swamp was created by beavers damming the creek and occasionally floods the trail, but today we had no problems with just a muddy puddle to avoid.

Down in the cove, I took advantage of the low tide and rock-hopped my way over to a small island where I startled another snake. At first look I wasn't sure it was a garter snake, on account of its markings, but a bit of reading at the BC reptiles website has me largely convinced I was looking at a northwestern garter snake. It darted across the water to hide in a small rock crevice, where my shadow duly persuaded it to move on. I followed it over the rocks for a while, and eventually managed to get a really good angle on it next to a few barnacles. The snake must have been barely 20 cm long, I'm guessing a youngster from this year.

Basking garter snake

Day 131: Clear nights

After a deluge the night before it was a real treat for normal service to resume this evening. The night was cooler than when we arrived but we still found it comfortable to lie on the dock and stare up at the myriad stars above us. The sky looked dark from north to south, and I couldn't resist some long exposure photos to try and capture the Milky Way. To my surprise, the photo taken looking south towards Sagittarius showed clear signs of light pollution. I'm not sure I know where it was coming from, but it was bright enough to show up reflected in the lake. I took a shot to the north just to convince myself that this wasn't some bizarre aurora and sure enough its horizon was dark. That said, it was wonderful to take a picture and see the Milky Way so clearly. Just wonderful.

Southern skies at Klein Lake

Technical info: ISO 3200, 30 sec at f/4.5. Default JPG processing in-camera. A smidgeon of noise reduction and sharpening in post-processing.

Day 130: Flowers of a different kind

This year we seem to be re-visiting places we first went five years ago. This weekend is the BC-day long weekend, and we had arranged to spend it on the Sunshine Coast, taking in some spots we visited back in 2006. The main driver was a boat trip to Princess Louisa Inlet (tomorrow) but we were also drawn back by the fact that this weekend would see strong tides at the Skookumchuck Narrows. Back in 2006 we'd seen the narrows at a medium tide, and there really wasn't much to see - a few whirlpools and some gentle rapids (if that makes sense...). The tide didn't get particularly low so the rock pools weren't visible.

But the rapids (which were quite spectacular today) were pushed into second place by our discovery of what can only be described as a grove of Indian Pipe. Like the more commonly-seen coralroot and pinesap, Indian Pipe obtains its nutrients from decaying matter rather than by photosynthesis. It has no chlorophyll and indeed almost no colouring at all so it appears as a ghostly white plant on the forest floor (it's also known as the ghost plant). We'd seen in only once before on Vancouver Island in 2005, so I was over the moon to see it again. I couldn't believe that so much of it was growing so close to the busy trail. At one spot, it was growing everywhere and I was spoiled for choice of flowers to photograph. In the end I settled on this large "bunch" :-)

A bunch of Indian Pipe

Day 63: Homeward bound

Checking out time at Desolation Resort, and we're sad to be leaving it behind. It's been a wonderfully relaxing few days chilling out on the deck of the cabin, or sitting on the sofa facing the view out of the window. A book in one hand, and either a glass of wine or a cup of coffee in the other.

One of the things that really struck us about this place is all the little touches that make it welcoming. Someone has thought really hard about what it takes to create a comfortable, relaxing environment: the cabins are really well-appointed, with quality furnishings, full kitchen (including a dishwasher and washer-dryer), gas barbecue on the deck and a shower stall big enough to actually turn round in. The wood panelling is finished off perfectly with no rough edges anywhere. And not forgetting the enormous picture windows to gaze out of. We were so comfortable we self-catered every night.

We arrived by road, but you could equally arrive by boat. Pulling up at their dock, you're greeted by a number of wonderful wood carvings - cormorants and pelicans on the gangway posts, a fisherman at the bottom of the steps and then part way up, a guide with a light to welcome you safely to shore.

We're agreed: we would definitely come back and stay again.

Leaving our welcome behind

Day 62: Pinnipeds to you too!

Before we left home, we'd booked a day tour with Terracentric Coastal Adventures to visit Mitlenatch Island which is about half-way between the mainland and Vancouver Island. It's a small remote island, home to the largest sea-bird nesting colony in the Strait of Georgia (or the Salish Sea as it is now known). As well as nesting season, May is also peak time for flowers on the island. Our trip was an all-day affair and included lunch on the island itself.

We did a floating circumnavigation of the island, the perfect way to admire the nesting gulls, pelagic cormorants and cute little red-footed pigeon guillemots on such a calm sunny day. But the highlight was awaiting us. We soon heard the sound of distant barking, which could mean only one thing: sea lions! We've seen only one since we moved to Vancouver, a fleeting glimpse of a large male off a beach on Vancouver Island. We even went on a wild-goose chase in search of sea lions when we were hiking the Juan de Fuca trail. The sound grew louder and we could now see a rocky shelf covered in 20 or so sea lions. (Then the aroma reached us...)

That was a real treat in itself, but around the headland we struck gold: a lone rock jutting out of the water was a siesta spot to at least 50 sea lions, a mixture of barking Californias and gutteral-growling Stellers. Our zodiac floated past, close enough for us to get some fantastic views. The shot of the rock plastered with pinnipeds (new word for me) won out as today's photo.

Once ashore we were treated to the amazing flower display first hand. On the return journey we saw a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins, and back in Lund we were mesmerized by the hummingbirds at the feeders. What an amazing day!

A pile of pinnipeds

Day 61: Lazing around

Having reached the end of the road, we now had a day to explore. We drove back down to Powell River to visit a few of the places we'd identified in our pre-trip research. First stop was Mowat Bay and our reaction was one of indifference. On a sunny day I'm sure it would be a lovely view up Powell Lake. Next was Haywire Bay, with a nice-looking campground nestled among the trees. We ate lunch in the rain under a picnic shelter, and were visited briefly by a local hummingbird. The rain eased off and we went for a short walk to a sandy beach and a little islet where we stumbled across a couple of basking garter snakes. One took off into the grass, but the other stayed put and gave us time to change lenses and get a nice close-up.

We left the snakes in peace and wandered back to the car, via a woodland path where we stumbled (literally) into a patch of emerging western coralroot and even a few fairyslipper orchids. Next stop was Inland Lake provincial park, where we encountered another four garter snakes sunning themselves on a couple of mossy logs. I even found a snail, my very first BC land snail. It's only taken nearly 7 years... Then it was back to the cabin to spend a couple of hours paddling the calm waters of Okeover Arm in a canoe.

This snake pretty much summed up how we felt too :-)

Basking garter snake

Day 60: In search of sunshine

Today we're off somewhere new - the northernmost tip of the so-called Sunshine Coast. It's not clear to me that it really is any sunnier than other parts of the coast, but it sounds appealing. We rose early and left just before 6 am, hoping to learn from our casual approach to the ferries at Easter :-). Our ferry karma was good and we enjoyed a pleasant drive in improving weather, eventually leaving the drizzle behind. The road got twistier on the last few km towards Lund and I was feeling a bit woozy by the time we pulled in by Nancy's Bakery for much-needed afternoon coffee.

After re-caffeinating, we stopped at Okeover Arm provincial park, where the was low, to go beach-combing and found ourselves on a beach like no other we'd ever been to. First surprise was all the inch-long conical shells, most of which were inhabited by hermit crabs. The second and biggest surprise was that beyond a certain point there was no beach - just oysters as far as you could see. And big ones too, with shells often more than eight inches long. We were the only people exploring the beach: the other half-dozen or so were picking their own oysters (or clams), adding to the dozens of discarded empty shells from oysters shucked on site. You simply had no choice but to walk over the bed of shells, although the beach beneath was soft so it didn't feel quite so bad walking over the backs of hundreds of shellfish.

Oysters, oysters everywhere