Five easy walks
A leisurely start saw Charlie springing into action after a two day break. Items accidentally 'borrowed' from Alan and Toddy were dropped off, and provisions were acquired.
A short drive to beyond the Port Alberni turn took us to Wick Road and the 'Bog Trail' for our first exercise of the day. An 800 metre loop on a boardwalk through a bog. There were supposed to be sundew but we couldn't spot any. Just a blue gentian-like flower that was struggling to bloom. The top picture shows the ambience...
Next, we drove to the end of Wick Road and strolled for a kilometre or so along Wickaninnish Beach. It's the first of a series of beaches ending with Long Beach, all of which merge into a 16 km continuous strip of sand. Despite the cool, overcast morning, some surfers were demonstrating their skill in the breakers. Others were learning.
Curious marks in the sand were analysed as deriving from dogs and ravens. There were lots of shells in the sand as well as seaweed and small jellyfish. The entire beach was backed by a rim of bleached tree trunks, then forest. The tree trunks are everywhere. We are told that they derive from many years of carelessness when transporting lumber by sea. The washed up trunks are now so ingrained with sand and other impurities that they are totally useless and are therefore left to litter the shores of the whole area. (See second and third pictures.)
After a brief visit to a nearby visitor centre we embarked on another 2 km stroll. This was along the South Beach Trail, a woodland route leading past a totem pole, some large slugs and a garter snake, to a beach of soft shingle. The path was mainly another boardwalk. It passed through an area inhabited by a large family of noisy ravens. (See fourth picture.)
Continuing our drive we reached Sproat Lake, where a café satisfied our thirst for coffee and some picnic benches provided a suitable venue for our picnic lunch.
By now it was hot and sunny, so we were glad of a bit of shade for our next outing, another 2 km stroll. We had reached the tourist trap known as the Cathedral Trail, in the MacMillan Provincial Park. The Douglas Fir trees and the Western Red Cedars reach up to about 70 metres in height, so there's no problem with shade. The latter live for up to 800 years. There is evidence of a serious fire here around 350 years ago, but many trees survived that event. (See fifth picture.)
We left the crowds and the very smelly washrooms (aka toilets) in favour of heading to the Qualicum Falls. Here we managed a circuit of over 4 km (wow!), taking in the lower and the upper falls (sixth picture) plus a pleasant diversion to an upper bridge next to a campsite. All this was not unexpectedly in woodland, with the twisting nature of the river providing excellent views that neither of us had the skill to photograph effectively.
After this quieter and much more pleasant stroll than that along the Cathedral Trail, we hopped back into Charlie for the hour's drive to Cumberland, where we are spending two nights in the Riding Fool Hostel, part of the Hostelling International network.
The Waverley Hotel provided a very tasty and filling supper.
11 km of walking in five short bursts, and a 210 km drive.
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