West Coast Trail - Part VII: Camper Creek to Thrasher Cove

Swainson's thrush watching breakfast at Camper Bay.

I assume this is a colour variety of the banana slug. It was about six inches long.

The bridge over 150 Yard Creek.

A giant red cedar.

The unfurling fiddlehead of a deer fern.

Remember that foreboding statement on my previous post? This is were it comes
to fruition. While attempting to climb through a dangerous surge channel, Dad
slipped on a wet boulder and fell into the swells. With his arms groping at the walls
and rocks and his legs kicking fruitlessly in the tide, he might not have made it out
without help. Grabbing the back of his 40-pound pack, I pulled him out enough for
his boots to find traction. He wasn't hurt--just wet.

The martian-like landscape of the limestone shelf.

A green algal boom in a tide pool.

This something like a giant surge channel.

We had to wait Owen Point for the tide to get low enough for us to pass through the caves. There were a couple other groups there as well with nothing to do but eat lunch and watch the seals on Owen Island.

Kayakers appeared to explore the caves and ride the waves between Owen Point and the island. This photo has been doctored for creativity. It was still daylight when the kayakers arrived.

The seals were nervous about the hikers on the shore, let alone the kayakers. The watched everyones moves very closely.

The water is low enough to wade and the other hikers have already passed through in sandals.

A mink at Thrasher Cove. There were many large groups at Thrasher, most heading in the opposite direction. A large private school was also there, participating in a lively game of base ball on the beach.

Cape Scott: Summer 2014

As you all know, I was very busy in Indiana doing an internship last summer. However, I did fit in some interesting activities around back home.

 

 The above photograph is a chiton. They are a kind of mollusk all their own. At first glance, it looks like a cross between a slug and crocodile. Watch for future posts on the intertidal zone in the next couple months.
The black-and-white of me standing under the sedimentary rocks and the fossils under one arm was taken at a logging road-side fossil site.

 

 

 

The gnarled roots and trunk of this cedar growing from the base of a fir is characteristic of the west coast. After looking through these pictures, I can't help but think, Vancouver Island is a paradise. Cool winters, cool summers, and scenery more jaw-dropping than anywhere else in North America. I'm biased of course. The young robin in my hands below, in case you were wondering, was standing in the middle of the road. I think he might have been hit by a car but, besides seeming a little week, he seemed fine. I released off the road. His parents were near by.
Speaking of birds, I'm at 148 for my life list right now, but haven't really been trying as of late.
Far above I have a couple photographs of an interesting hand-like branch. It's actually the result of a parasitic plant called dwarf mistletoe. It grows inside the tissues of the evergreen and can get so large at times that the limb can break right off.