SKOOCUMCUHUK RAPIDS - January 13, 2018


Catherine Cummins's photo.

A leaf-bare Japanese maple leaf-bare, copper-coloured branches lit like a decorator tree with hundreds of glistening raindrops.

The plat and plop of rain falling on the large maple leaves covering the roadsides.

The resinous scent of bruised boughs as we squeeze our way through the lanes of a poorly maintained backcountry campground. Carl, ever intrepid, grabbing the sapling trees bowed over the road and wrestling them out of our way.

“Careful,” Carl warns me as I step down from the RV this morning. “There’s been a visitation in the night.” In a circle ringing our vehicle are compact piles of chocolate egg shaped droppings left, we are told by the young lady we paid for our night’s stay, by bull elk with massive racks of antlers which graze the lawns of the resort every night. We chose this spot at the Back Eddy Pub and Resort near Egmont because it is as close to the Skoocumchuk Rapids as we can come by road and it doesn’t disappoint us. We dine after dark with a view of the marina lights glittering on the water and wake to seal lions frolicking in the tide race through the kelp beds. Surf scoter ducks and gulls fish the exposed shore and pick sea creatures from the marina floats. A pair of harlequin ducks preen atop a mossy rock and double-crested and pelagic cormorants hang their winds out to dry on the end of one dock.

As we board the BC Ferries ‘Island Sky’ to cross from Earls Cove to the upper Sechelt Penninsula, the mist lifts to reveal the Earle Range marching away to the west dusted with snow from yesterday’s precipitation. The ferry will take us through the Achememnon Channel then into Jervis Strait before depositing us in Saltery Bay. I get turned about once aboard the ferry and can’t find the stairway up from the car deck. Turning to one of the staff, I ask which way is up. She raises a laconic finger to point at the sky, at which we both dissolve in laughter. She hails from Nova Scotia and boasts that she works in pants(no long johns) and a fleece. January 13th and I am still dressed in sandals and either a sweater or rain coat!

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