The West Coast Trail - Part III: Tsusiat Falls to Cribs Creek

A new day starts foggy and damp, as always. Usually we have two choices: hike on a deteriorating trail on top of those cliffs or along the beach under them, tides permitting. We choose the beach when we can.

There are often a couple different kinds of rock overlaying each other on these cliffs.

There were lots of gray whales close to the beach along the trail.

The hole in the wall is drawing closer.

The Hole in the Wall is much larger in person.

The sandstone shelves can be slick (sense the foreshadowing?).

This is a surge channel. Wouldn't want to fall in there (Sense more foreshadowing?).

Seals have a good life. They just eat and relax and eat and relax and eat and relax and get eaten by a killer whale. Simple life.

Good by to the Hole in the Wall.

Okay. So sometimes seals actually spend time satisfying their curiosity in between eating and relaxing. These ones are having a conversation like,
"You say they walk the beach voluntarily?"
"Ya, dude."
"Why don't they swim?"
"Same reason they do it wearing a giant bag on their back."
"Why is that?"
"I guess their insane."
"Oh, ya. That makes sense, there."

These are sea palms. They are a kind of kelp that grows on rocks in pounding surf. When a wave hits them they face-plant on the rocks and rattle there until the wave recedes. Then they spring back up like, "boinnngggg!"

Sometimes we have to backtrack to find the trail into the forest. Despite the warnings of other hikers that it was a dead end, we just had to go down and look around for ourselves. We should have listened. Exploring is better saved for times when you aren't carrying 40 extra pounds on your back.

Sometimes the trail runs unnervingly close to the cliff ledge.

"Enough with the photos already!"

This, our third day, is when the boardwalk started looking even more rough.

This is the beautiful Rana aurora. My favorite ranid.

This looks like a really evil roller coaster ride more than a hiking trail.

Hmn. That looks like good hiking. Why are we up here on this nasty boardwalk?

An old cabin by the seaside in gif form.

These pretty little white bells belong to Moneses uniflora, a single-flowered evergreen perennial.

I always get that gloating grin whenever I catch a snake. This one puffed up a little bit like he might think of biting me but, as usual, it was just a bluff. I released him unharmed.

Some of the coastal Thamnophis sirtalis have those blushing red cheeks.

There were several juvenile garter snakes on the trailside and I managed to capture a few of them.

He's soooo cute!

Lots of bridges.

Carmanah Creek.

Walking the sandstone shelf is fairly enjoyable, but those patches of green algae are slick as "bug snot," as my dad likes to say.

These slanted shelves of limestone must tell an epic geological story of shifting plates and tectonic catastrophe!

Cormorants are built for this kind of weather.

Whale bones! There must be a carcass around.

I confess! I fooled around with this one in photo shop to give the illusion it is in the evening. Looks nice, eh?

Another wrong turn took us to this cliff. We had two choices: climb a rope up a steeper part of the cliff, or try to climb down this slipper slope above the sea with our 40-pound packs trying to drag us down. Dad thought we might be able to do the rope, provided we took our packs off and pulled them up tied to the end of the rope, but I opted out. Neither sounded so hot, so we decided to go back.

These immense bones probably belong to a young grey whale. There were pools of white blubber underneath the carcass and ravens waited near by for another feed.

The sunset at Cribs Creek was beautiful, but it was surprisingly difficult to get a good picture. There were a lot of people who took this opportunity to walk into the sunset.