Island hopping

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

PARKSVILLE, VANCOUVER ISLAND — We’re at the same campground again tonight, but in a different spot. It provides a nice view of the Englishman River flowing by at the bottom of the hill below us.
Today we decided to visit Denman and Hornby Islands, some 40 km north of here. We caught the 10 o’clock ferry across to the first, larger island — a short 10-minute crossing. We stopped at Fillongley Provincial Park, and took a short walking trail that meandered through some beautiful old growth forest where it was cool and quiet. As we approached a clearing, I caught sight of a deer a few yards ahead, nibbling at the leaves of a small tree. We watched for several minutes until it wandered into the bush.
The trail brought us back to the beach area where we had parked, so we headed down to it. It had rather course, dark sand, sprinkled generously with stones and bits of shells, and three clear lines of seaweed to indicate the height of recent tides. The edge of the water was quite far off, with rocky shallow areas closer to us that sparkled in the sun. I reached down to pick up a smooth, round sand dollar, and away scuttled a tiny crab from underneath. Then I noticed there were hundreds of these minuscule crabs scampering about in and around the shells and stones!
We chatted with one of the local residents, an older man who had brought his two teenage granddaughters to the beach (turned out they were visiting from Carp, ON), and he said normally at this time of year the beach is crawling with visitors, but there were much fewer this year.
We paused for a bite of lunch in the camper before heading across the island to catch the next ferry for Hornby Island, another 10-minute hop. Hornby is much smaller, but boasts two provincial parks, as well as a vibrant artistic community. We passed lots of artisans’ locations on the winding road that brought us to Helliwell Provincial Park at the island’s southeastern tip.
We put on our hiking boots for this tour, as it was going to take us through forest and out to the bluffs in a one and a half hour circuit. There were big fronds of ferns on the forest floor and more of the wonderful, towering Douglas firs overhead. The path took us to a higher level and finally opened onto a cliff covered with tall grass that was bleached yellow by the sun. In the distance were blue, snow-topped mountains, then the sparkling water of the Georgia Strait, and large rocks and boulders on the shore below. It was simply breathtaking. It was also pretty warm walking along the cliffs in the full sun, after our cool forest interlude earlier. We stopped to take a photo of an arbutus tree — and I heard some rustling in the undergrowth near the tree. We froze. What was it? We could see the shape of some animal’s body but it wasn’t clear. Finally, we saw a pair of longish ears and a slender snout and realized it was a deer! There was another near the first, and they were both nibbling on the thick bushes in which they stood, barely visible. What a surprise! And a relief, considering what else it might be.
Just a bit further around the bend we spotted a bald eagle, and then another, and then two more! They were flying out from the trees to the rocky shore, looking for fish to eat. What magnificent birds! There was even a nice bench by the path in the shade, so we sat and watched them for a while and cooled off a bit. Then it was back through the forest to the parking lot.
We almost had the path to ourselves the whole time. We did meet another couple with their dog, and the man offered to snap a photo of the two of us together. During our short conversation, he asked Val what kind of work he did, and Val told him about his RCMP career. As we parted ways, he thanked Val for his service as a police officer — it was one of the first times anyone had ever done that!
The second park was Tribune Bay Provincial Park. We were both pretty tired from our long hike, but wanted to see what it was like. It’s a very small park, but has a huge, wide, sandy beach in a lovely cove, where all kinds of people were swimming and sunning themselves and having a great time. In the water beyond were dozens of pleasure boats anchored and enjoying the day. It was a beautiful spot.
We headed back to the ferry, and found ourselves second in line with 45 minutes to kill before sailing time. We set up our lawn chairs in the shade, and struck up a conversation with a man who had arrived by bicycle to catch the same ferry. It turned out he was a retired police officer from the Calgary Police Service and knew the one CPS member we had met, on our trip to Brazil a few years ago! We offered him a ride across Denman Island back to his car on the mainland and had an interesting conversation. He now lives in Qualicum Beach, and we have an invitation to drop in for a visit when we pass through the next time.