Pacific Rim National Reserve

Sunday and Monday
18-19 July 2010

We snuck out of our parking lot spot and headed west toward Pacific Rim National Reserve. We had been here about 24 years ago with Trina and Liza. [Remember that trip?] Soon we morph into fog and cloudy conditions. The road is nothing like we remembered. It's mountainous, lots of river and creeks, curvy, curvy roads, even an 18% downhill grade plus incredibly tall trees. About 10:00 AM we reached the only campground in the park, put our names on a waiting list and waited. At 11:00 AM we had a site. We marveled at how this does NOT concur with the Pacific Rim Park that we remembered from 1986.

So we set off on a two-hour hike on the beach ending up on Combers Beach. We found a few shells, some sea anemones and sea stars. It was a loud and raucous day at the beach with surf pounding loudly. The clouds hung low. We did see sea lions on Sea Lion Rocks--no binoculars, however.

After lunch we drove to the Wickaninnish Interpretive Center where we watched a film about the park and its three parts: Long Beach [where we are camped], the Broken Group Islands and the West Coast Trail, and then went through the exhibits about the local First Nation people. Then we opted to do the South Beach hike looking for shells and rocks and driftwood and then the tide coming in. On the way back into the Park the Ice Man was open to sell firewood and ice. His young son wanted to help so he took me to the ice machine, pointed out which was block ice and which one was cubed ice and said that he should carry it to the van for me because it was very heavy. How could anyone resist a four-year-old like that?

After supper, another hike on the beach and then we went to the Ranger Talk: "Pirates of the Intertidal." Most entertaining. We learned to identify the various strata at low tide and what lives in each one. On the way back we walked the beach again to experience high tide.


Next morning: we donned our tall rubber boots and went into the tidal pools and the surf. All went well until that third wave in the series of three sets. It went over the tops of my boots and soaked my wool socks. I had failed to heed the law of the Pacific: Do not turn your back on the ocean. So we hiked inland a bit and I drained the boots and wrung out the socks and finished the hike.

For lunch we had company: a bright blue Stellar Jay looking for a hand-out. Sorry, bird, we keep a "bare" campsite.

After lunch we hiked both loops of the Rain Forest Trail. One loop emphasized the cycles of the forest while the other one talked about the structure of the forest and its inhabitants. We finally saw our giant slug--but it wasn't the bright yellow ones we remember from a previous trip. Still. it was big and left a giant slime trail. Next we drove to Radar Hill for the view but the view was hidden by the low clouds/fog. On the return to camp we stopped at another access to Long Beach and were rewarded with a brilliant blue sky and warm sun. Shoes off. Toes in the water. Feet in the surf. And do not turn your back to the ocean.

Lovely.

Evening: did another Ranger Talk. This one dealt with the spiny, sticky and poisonous things of the ocean.

We are leaving tomorrow.