I put all my food in the bear box last night before heading to bed. Well, I thought I did. At about 3:00am while I was partially asleep, I felt something run across my sleeping quilt. I reacted and it began running around in my tent, bouncing off of me and the walls. In my half awakened state, in the dark, I pictured a bird trapped in my tent. I know, that makes no sense, but when you are asleep and awakened by a rodent using the inside of your tiny tent as a road rally track it is hard to be coherent. All I could think of was unzipping the tent so what ever was inside could get out. As I groped for the zipper, the frenetic activity stopped. Whatever it was, it had left thru the holes it had chewed through the mosquito netting.
I inspected my pack and found it had chewed through the waist belt pocket to get to two used Next Bar wrappers. There was no food, just empty Next Bar wrappers that it had chewed. The damage? My frazzled nerves, two holes chewed in the mosquito netting and one of my waist belt pocket’s zipper destroyed.
Our plan to get moving by 7:00am to get an hour or two of rain free walking got backed up to 7:45am. I woke Kiwi Comet at 6:00am and trudged over to the food locker to retrieve our bags. I did my usual routine and was ready about 6:50am, but Malcolm’s routine takes longer than an hour. It was good because I actually did my stretching/yoga and brushed my teeth while waiting for him to get ready. We all gathered at the foot of the cable car crossing the river, then headed up the trail. We climbed 400’ right off the bat, getting up out of the Camper River drainage, including a number of ladders. KC was still walking with us. We all were enjoying her company. Really nice kid. The trail was in the forest and was a tangle of roots, downed trees, stumps and extended boardwalks punctuated buy mud fields. As the morning progressed the sky got darker and darker and the rain started about 9:30am, an hour later than predicted. We all whipped out our umbrellas, except KC. She decided to just let the rain fall on her and soak her clothing. It wasn’t particularly cold. Even with our umbrellas we all got wet around the shoulders, but it was nice not to have the rain falling on our heads and running down our faces. Malcolm and I figured how to stabilize the umbrella handle to our chest strap so we had hands free to use our poles, a must on the slippery logs, boards and stumps. It worked well especially on the ladders. There we went down nine in a row descending to Cullite Creek cable car crossing and 7 in a row ascending the other side. I managed to get my heart rate to 166 by the top of the last ladder on the climb up!
After crossing the cable car at Cullite Creek, Malcolm Jr., who is usually way out front and waiting for us, lingered a few minutes at the crossing (he boulder hopped the river) to get water while the rest of us kept going. We had made a pact that the last person in line would actually be two people so if one slipped and got injured there would be someone there to help. About 30 minutes after the crossing KC caught up with us and said she had expected Malcolm to catch up with her, but, uncharacteristically, he had not. She was concerned that he might have fallen on the continuously hazardous footing. We stopped, thanked her, and started to divide up, Malcolm and Bones to go back and find him, InReach devices for communication and so forth, largely orchestrated by KC. Her whitewater rafting guide skill set coming to the surface. Just as Malcolm and Bones were preparing to leave, in sauntered Malcolm, unhurt, just taking it easy.
More forest obstacles brought us to the ladders descending into Walbran creek and a decision to either take to the beach which would require wading Walbran Creek or use the cable car to cross and more forest walking. We chose the beach. A short 3 or 4 minutes and we emerged from the forest to a sight I had never seen before. The sky and beach were solid seagulls. Thousands and thousands. I was transfixed. Magnificent. What causes them to all congregate here, at this time?
We moved just a bit down the beach away from the mass congregation and stopped at the camping area to eat lunch. KC let us know she was going to go ahead, possibly going on to the next campsite beyond what we had planned. We wished her well and after she left all agreed she was a remarkable 22 year old and we all enjoyed her company. Damn. Didn't get her contact information. She would be fun to connect with over the years to see where she ended up.
The rain had stopped. We put on some clothes to avoid a chill in our wet shirts, ate and then started down the beach, happy to avoid climbing over forest obstacles. The creek had a large driftwood log in the middle that allowed us to hop across without getting our feet wet. The sun peeked out occasionally through the haze and clouds and we were able to mostly dry our clothing as we walked. The surface varied from slippery sandstone and mudstone to trudge worthy deep pebbly sand, but with no logs and stumps to clamber over. The going was easier by far.
We arrived at Bonilla Camping area about 3:30pm, set up camp and hung clothing to dry. A nice waterfall brought the creek to the beach. Malcolm and I ate dinner together under the tarp I had set up and enjoyed the occasional sun and no rain. I crawled into my tent a little before 8:00pm and other than a cramping muscle on my right calf was soon asleep.
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