River Walkers

It's more or less Spring here on Vancouver Island. The shrubs, trees, and other plant life seem to think so. The cold, grey, rainy season is gone; replaced by the cool, grey, rainy season. However, enough photons from the sun penetrate the cloud cover to enable photosynthesis. And the rains are no longer unrelenting; we do get snatches of blue sky - sometimes stitched together to cover an afternoon.

Our Thursday evening kayak tours have resumed. The first of these was cool, grey, and rainy - what else? However, with daylight savings time again underway, next Thursday's finish will not be in the dark.

Today, upon arising, we found a cool, grey, and rainy day. In fact, the rain was sincere. Nevertheless, Eli's Norwegian synapses clicked on a decision - this would be a good day for a walk in the forest. We donned our rain gear and headed for the Westwood Lake trailhead on Arbot street. We then skirted the NW end of the lake and headed uphill.

The trees in and by the lake are dressed in a luminous light green moss. This is not a rainforest? - well, not compared to the forest on the west coast of the big island. The uphill/downhill trails are often brim full with running water this time of year. So we trudged up these rivers toward the Westwood Ridges - thanks to Al Gore for inventing GoreTex. The viewpoints at the top offered occluded views of lower trees, but certainly no glimpse of the strait. The top of the ridge is somewhat open and has some splendid specimens of the arbutus trees (called Madrona, elsewhere).

Our departure from the island will be late April, about a month and a half away. I may return at the end of May for a kayaking course - to help me become less dangerous. We are also considering returning after Labor Day for some kayaking with local friends, if our enthusiasm hasn't waned by then.

Richard
2007.03.11