Boy, did it rain last night! I was sound asleep when it started about midnight, but the drumming on my tent slowly woke me up. At first I ignored it, but I eventually realized I should check the margins of the tent to make sure no water was leaking in. A quick look with my headlamp showed all was dry, yet I did raise the edges of the bathtub floor to make sure the water stayed out, then went back to sleep, or at least tried to. The drumming of the rain was intense and loud.
I dozed off and on the rest of the night. At 5:30am I realized I had not written about the two days and three nights spent at Nitinath so I cranked up my iPhone and got caught up.
Lying there in the tent everything was damp. Nothing worse than damp nylon. Nothing had taken a direct hit from rain, but the humidity must have been about 120%. I was warm and very comfortable on my sleeping pad, my down quilt thrown over me, but it was clammy.
I saw Malcolm walk by the front of my tent about 7:00am, said good morning, and began getting out of bed. I packed everything before emerging from the tent, then wandered up to the bear box to get my food. Bones was now up, as was Malcolm Jr.
Once fed and packed we headed out, about 8:55am. First order of business was crossing the Darling River. There is no bridge and although I walked a bit inland looking for rocks to hop I ended up wading the river. My socks and shoes were already totally wet having not dried a bit overnight so the shock of wading the stream wasn’t a big deal. We were on the beach for a Kilometer to Michigan Creek. The sun was out with a few clouds in the sky. A gorgeous morning. We rock hopped Michigan Creek and then walked down the beach a bit to some hanging bouys that we thought marked the entrance to the trail. Malcolm was a bit in the lead and followed a faint path off the beach that quickly dead ended. We retraced our steps back to the river and found the trail leading up and out of the campsite. It was muddy and steep at first but soon reached the plateau. The trail was a real trail! Well maintained, easy to stride out on for the most part and well brushed. We stopped at Pachena Lighthouse, met the keepers and admired the view, warming ourselves in the sun.
About a Kilometer further down the trail was a side trail that lead to an overlook out onto a large flat rock area about 2-3 acres in size. This was covered in Sea Lions barking, growling and lazing in the sunshine. We found a nice place to sit and watch and spent 15-20 minutes admiring these huge, lumbering animals. Back on the trail we moved non-stop for an hour until my stomach cried out for lunch. We all stopped and Malcolm and I had a Michelle Shake, then it was off again. We would have liked to walk the beach the last Kilometer to the car but the tide was in so we climbed up the three ladders and down the four we had already played on a week ago to reach the car.
The bus driver that had ferried us a week ago was outside the office and consented to take our picture. Malcolm Jr wanted to take a last swim in the ocean. Us three old guys changed out of our wet shoes and loaded up while Malcom swam.
We drove into Bamafield looking for free showers. We found a grocery store to get coins for the showers back at the Pachena Point Campground, then back to the campground to take showers. Nice hot water but cold air once out of the hot spray.
Clean and loaded into the car, it was a long drive to Port Alberni where we stopped at the Dog Mountain Brewery for dinner. I had a green salad with chicken breast. Back in the car we drove to Naniamo, caught the 8:15pm ferry to Tsawwannen. The drive to Anacortes was interrupted with a quick stop for gas north of Mt. Vernon at Bow Hill. Bones and I washed windows while Malcolm pumped gas and then we completed the journey to Malcolm’s house, dropping Malcolm Jr. off at his house about midnight. Bones drove his car to Malcolm’s house and we got to bed about 12:15am. Long day. Great trip.
Friday morning we were up about 7:45am. Malcolm prepared toast and an omelet for us for breakfast, then Bones and I loaded up our cars and drove for home. I stopped at the grandkids house about 12:45pm and played with Junie, Izzy and Sam until Sam went down for his nap at 2:20pm. Junie, Izzy and I loaded into the white van and picked Robby up from school. I was showing Robby the photos of conchs, sea lions, seagulls, kelp and the rest of the trip when Sally arrived. She and I left shortly, went to tour their new house and then drove our separate cars home, me in the Caldwell’s Prius, her in our Prius. What a great 10 days!
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