Welcome to my corner of paradise

April 13th, 2008

The start of the day was awesome..I woke up early to a wee bit of cloud..but then as I was leaving to go up to the trail..the sun burst out and started to warm everything up.

I drove in to sooke to join my friend who is (83 years), young..an awesome man with much energy and great stories to tell...he is of Scandinavian descent...and tells me that is why he is in such good shape to walk around all of these trails.

It is about a 1.5 hour drive from his place up into some pretty mean looking loggin roads.  I have been hiking this trail (have also helped to build this trail) for about 15 years now.  It is 53 kilometers of wilderness trail (sorry folks nowhere near a dairy queen or McDonald's) and many lakes, (these lakes are actually clean and unpolluted and you can see the clearness all the way down) meadows, mountains.   Lots of wildlife from Black Bear, Cougars, brown squirrels...and the wolf (I have still never seen a wolf out there)...Also frogs who never stop singing the same old song all night long in the spring and summer so if you think the wilderness is quiet...well you would be in for a surprise just as I was when I first went out there. There are of course many birds, bee's, flowers and trees..(hahahah).  It has many fruits to offer from 5 different varieties of wild blueberries, wild cranberries (yes they are yummy), huckleberries, salmon berries...oh and cheeky Whiskey Jacks.  These birds are cute to look at..not shy at all, they will come and eat right out of your hand.

Anyway that is a bit of history of the trail.

Sooooooo...we went out there today to fix the snow tractor that died yesterday.   This thing dies in the middle of the logging road and still 6 miles from the trail head.  So Maywell went to try and fix the machine...we took the dogs and I went snowshoeing.  I know nothing about mechanics...can't hardly change a tire.  But I love being out in the wilderness.

So at the start it is a beautiful sunny day...no snow..drive for 1.5 hours...(I can't believe I actually went to visit snow)...Arggggg..... but there is was 3 feet of snow, 15 feet of snow farther up the trail...and peace and quiet...hot sun on my face, water and food in my pack, camera in hand and away I went.

Ohhhhh...what a great walk.  Not a man made sound could you hear, no planes, trains or automobiles.  No phones, TV's, radios.  Nothing but the wind, the birds and the swoosh of my snowshoes...I hardly wanted to come back could have stayed all night if I didn't have to work.  It was so warm and peacful..what a treat it was for me.   The dogs played in the snow I think Tess found a mouse or something she was sniffing and digging...A great Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!