Day 1 - Caught a ride with friends early morn out to the ferry terminal, the cost for a foot passenger one way is now $16... My wallet winces. Aquatic transportation I cannot compromise on, and is thus unavoidable. I arrived in Nanaimo around noon-ish, walked in the bright light with negligible rain (and looked for a rainbow but didn't find one) to the Newcastle Island ferry. Adult fare is $9 incl return passage, and the operator is very personable and informative. Disembarked the ferry and noticed the low tide... took off my boots and teetering with full packs picked my way carefully across squishy-slick mud/sand and sharp oyster shells to Protection Island. Protection Island is almost solely residential and private property, with a community garden and the Dinghy Dock Pub. I'll search for four geocaches and have a pint+dessert at the pub, and likely not before the tide turns, so it's a good thing I brought my gear in case I need to camp out quietly in a park. Already I'm scouting ideal locations; minding tidelines, wind shelter, comfortable ground... Spent awhile looking for a cache I couldn't find, had a snack of kiwi and granola bar on the beach. Second one I found after crawling through hawthorn, blackberry and holly - these woods are unfriendly! It started to spit rain and the tide was coming in, so I abandoned the search for the third cache, then stubbornly found the fourth one despite a downpour. I saw three young bucks with fuzzy knobby antlers in someone's front yard. I stopped by the community garden to the booth there offering today's produce; lettuce, spinach, broccoli greens, radish greens, tarragon, chives, parsley, peppermint, and I donated a bit for that good cause. The garden invites visitors, and I noticed a greenhouse was not only unlocked but open so I sat there among the baskets of petunias, warm and fragrant, till the rain subsided and I deemed it dinnertime. I wandered to the pub, past a heronry and two quail, and arrived to the sounds of a guitar duo covering Simon+Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" quite well. I got a pint of Granville Island Maple Cream Ale I think I deserved that day (a bit of a luxury when travelling as I do), and settled to watch the show, very content. A gap-toothed older fella joined me and chat for a bit, suggested I sleep in the vacant shed where he's been staying - I thanked him for the advice, though preferring to opt for the warm greenhouse.
As the pub winds down for the night, I inquire to staff when they're expecting the tides to be low and find it's 2:30am. Fine enough, who better to wade through mud barefoot in the dark?? Instead they arrange for the shuttling ferry to take me to Newcastle, a special run just for me! I arrive at Newcastle around 10:30pm in the dark, and even the ferry operator suggests I camp anywhere and worry about finding an official campsite in the morning. I follow the dull glow of several illuminated tents and find the campsites, and a vacant one. Set up my tent completely in the dark - at least I know I can! - and listen to the raccoons fighting/mating nearby before falling asleep. The night is cold. Maybe it's just me.
Day 2 - Woke up at 6am, up and packed tent by 8am, as I'm not sure when the park warden comes to collect fees. Would be worth staying a night _officially_ if I wanted to view the Victoria Day fireworks from Newcastle specifically, but if I view them from Nanaimo then I can get an early start on hitching to Tofino. So I carried full packs for the whole day. Beautiful dew on the long grass, quiet save for two noisy geese. I warmed up under the hand dryer of the washrooms, breakfast was a mandarin orange and nibbling away on the herbs from the garden booth - quite piquant in the morning first off, but anything to wake up and get moving.
First cache was easy. Second one I tromped through the knee-high salal for at least a half hour, and in kneeling and spreading bushes carefully discovered a nest of four tiny beaked mouths gaping at me silently. Only then I noticed the two towhees close to me weren't chirping randomly, they were chirping at me. I can't believe I hadn't crushed them under my boots already, definitely a shuddering shock that would've ruined my vacation right there. Never found the cache, but lesson learned; the frustrating search for trinkets is not worth destroying a young family for! I continued geocaching counterclockwise around the island, a 7.5km hike made longer. Saw another deer, two ravens mating mid-air, a small blue butterfly. The weather was beautifully sunny. I was exhausted but adequately satisfied by around 4pm, I flopped out on the grass for a nap and had some rationed goodies I'd packed, my tiny lunch/dinner.
I took the shuttle ferry back to Nanaimo and despite being tired... continued to walk. Curiosity to explore, or just impulsive habit? When it got too cool to be out, I found a pub to settle in, no sooner had I sat down then a man approached me and put $10 on the table, saying "don't say anything, just take it" and walked away. I don't know which is more strange - that that happened, or that that isn't the first time that's happened. I swear I'm not destitute, just tired and extremely frugal! I was content there with my cup of hot lemon water, and upon inquiry they turned on the fireplace. I could spend hours there mesmerized in the flames, like a child. I left briefly to watch the fireworks from the waterfront part, though they don't hold the same magic as they used to - maybe like parades, they just aren't a spectacle for me anymore. Done that, returned to my fireplace to get warm awhile and left around 10-ish. No other reason to stay in Nanaimo, I got a cheap bagel+coffee from a very busy 24hr Timmy Ho's, and proceeded to walk out of town north. No one picks up hitchhikers at night, I suppose we all turn into some crazed maniacs after sundown - lo and behold a nice fella picked me up. Good company, a nurse and home care provider. He drove me as far as the junction to the westward road I needed near Coombs, and gave me a touque one of his clients had knitted, a small flashlight and cherry cookies he'd been given. With much thanks I was left to either move forward into darkness or camp. I chose to move forward.
There was little light, no moon and few stars. The trees were imposing, but the huge trees were one of my reasons for coming. No sound, except for frogs in ponds when I came across them. Just silence and dark. A little nervous about skulking cougars, but thankful that it was not raining noticeably and rather warm - perhaps just warm because I was moving, if I'd stopped and laid down to sleep I'd be cold. Best to keep moving. One young woman picked me up and drove me not very far. I kept walking. No landmarks. Another fella picked me up, more good company who liked foraging and gardening, and he drove me on to Port Alberni and beyond to Sproat Lake Provincial Park. I could camp, out in the middle of nowhere, or just keep walking. I kept walking. The sky lightened and my friend the moon made a half-assed appearance I was nevertheless grateful for. While being aware of every rustling bush and dimly lit shape, it was still a sort of meditation. I could talk to myself (and the listening cougars undoubtedly watching me, of course) about any nonsensical thing that crossed my mind, fleeting and silly or deeply important. I walked up the hill and walked down. Got tired of walking at Taylor Arm Provincial Park so set up tent there - the campsite was 400m off the road, which was 400m too creepy for me. I pitched my tent amidst bracken and some scrubby ground cover plant I hoped would be more of an insulating mattress, right off the main highway so I'd get an early start on the day (it was already 3am or so).
Day 3 - Awoke to the sound of traffic around 5-ish, time to get moving again. Was a bit warmer than in previous nights, either from being away from the coast or from my new touque. Walked, listened to ravens and woodpeckers. Eventually a fella picked me up, good company, took me all the way to the junction where the road splits south to Uclulet or north to Tofino. I kept walking. Another ride with a family, an adolecent girl that loudly protested being squished next to me ("I'm not even touching you!") and that she's gonna hurl after every mild rise and fall of the road ([pointing at her brother] "Hurl that way then"), dropped me off at Cox Beach where I'd camped before years ago. I briefly hunted two geocaches along the trail with no luck, found the beach and headed south to the edge of the Pacific Rim National Park. Scouted a spot to pitch my tent (on the 'camping prohibited' beach), and otherwise just flopped out with bare toes in the warm sand for hours - no agenda, no demands, just to _stop moving_ and enjoy the warmth. Got a little too much sun on my ankles of all places, made putting on socks+boots again a bit sore but whatever. Lunch/dinner was a kiwi and a granola bar.
Day 4 - woke around 7am, glad to not have to pack and move the whole camp again. I am at my destination. I hitched the into Tofino to find some breakfast and hunt out a public computer to check my email. Found one $1.75/5 min, fine enough. I also recalled there were some in the pharmacy and found they were $1/7 min. It pays to shop around, as well as trust my memory from six years ago. I remembered the best cheap breakfast was at the Common Loaf Bakery. Simple coffee is $1.75, a bun is 70 cents, and I sit upstairs and wait for the grey clouds to lighten to overcast, reading the community newspaper and listening to happy kids pick apart their cinnamon buns.
By 10-ish I started geocaching around town and down the Tonquin Trail, with pleasing success. I met a very friendly dog which hung out with me awhile, and several people asked if he was mine - "No, he's just following me". I met another couple of geocachers from Germany, nice folks. I've realized that geocaching has a far different mentality than simply hiking through the woods, as we're lead by an arrow on a glowing screen past the great trees and beaches with more... drive. Perhaps I'm a product of our education system, that I must complete a task even if the reward is just a marble or pretty rock, and long after the process itself has become less fun and more gruelling. Must finish the quest! Maybe because I'm seldom here and don't know when I'll get a chance to revisit, I'm driven to find them all ASAP. I should pace myself or I'll burn out like a racehorse.
Late afternoon I returned to town for groceries at the co-op; I'd noticed the resort I dropped by had a sheltered barbecue available, intended for the use of the cabin renters.. So I picked up a tip of smoked salmon that could be served hot (or cold if I couldn't get it to work), potato, tomato, and some bananas, around $6. I walked the full way back to camp, organized my meal, and searched fruitlessly for a geocache in the woods somewhat near my camp till it got too dark to search. Over to the resort I approached the barbecue and found three men sipping whiskey (not scotch) and smoking cigars. I am more tolerant of cigars than cigarettes. They were from Windsor, Ont and came here for a sort of reunion, wives in tow, staying in a cabin. I started baking my potato, which I knew would take awhile, and prepped a bun with red pepper hummus+spinach from the Protection Is garden, and enjoyed talking with the fellas that were all about my dad's age. I have the best luck at finding dads along my travels! They had bought crab from a native fisherman and had a great crab dinner - their ringleader went back to their cabin and returned with an already cooked crab and the last of the whiskey (and a cup for me!). I ate half a crab and by this time was full, didn't even need the meal I'd planned. We chat about BC, Ontario, and hunting, they eventually retired for the evening with a hug and left me to finish my whiskey and grill a hot sweet banana for dessert! I sat alongside the grill awhile, heating just one side of me and contemplating spending the whole night burning through someone else's barbecue gas... then I returned to my tent. Now with a salmon tip, a half crab and a few ripe bananas in my food stores I bagged it and buried it several logs away from my tent, as not to encourage bears. The wind was still this night.
Day 5 - Bright grey morning, inspect my food stores and there's been no curious footprints around it, good. Hitched a ride into town with none other than the waiter in the resort lounge, he was off to a landscaping job and I didn't even recognize him. Breakfast was coffee+bun. Checked email at the pharmacy. Searched for one more geocache that I didn't find, was consoled by a free beer tasting at the Tofino Brewery across the street. The rest of the geocaches can wait till my next visit, I'm winding down now. Walked back to camp and finished my half crab, left the scrap shells for the ravens. Took down my tent in a brief rain that finished just as I did. Perhaps the land was sad to see me go...
Packed up and left, walked awhile and caught a ride to Long Beach, kept walking, then caught a ride that took me all the way back to Nanaimo! This was the best case scenario, convenient and fast. It was a pleasant but quiet ride with not much conversation so I just stared out the window like a good passenger, the driver played Radiohead which I'm not a fan of, this was the only music I'd heard other than the guitar duo at the Dinghy Dock Pub. The soundtrack of my trip was hummingbirds, ravens, and robins, the silence and frogs, and the waves. I tried not to nap through the beautiful forests we drove through, as now I could see them in daylight. Snack was a mandarin orange and a granola bar.
Dropped off at the ferry terminal, wait for ferry, uneventful ferry ride over and bus ride back to Vancouver. Arrived back and checked email, then had a bath to soak achy feet and shoulders, bruises and scratches. Went to bed - a comfy big bed in a warm room! - still at 11pm. It might take a few days to get back into regular eating+sleeping patterns.
I could've stayed out longer, but felt I didn't need to. Overall cost was ~$74, of which $43 was ferry fees. This was as challenging, relaxing, and interesting as I'd expected, and I'll plan more trips in the summer.
