Heading Home

Last night huffed and puffed and then blew the lines down. I woke up at some point in the night and knew the power was out. Back at home it’s easy to know when it’s gone out….normally the clock radio glows dimly in the room, but the street lights and overly-well-lit townhouse complex across the street light up the darkness like people are going to be killed by monsters if there was a shadow anywhere to be found. But out here, there is nothing but that wonderfully natural blackness of night that I miss living in the city.

But even in a normally dark place, there is always something lit up.

Here, it is the smoke detector. Its tiny green light stood out on the ceiling, but when I woke up in the dark, that little detail was missing.

Not a big deal, it is our last morning here before heading home this afternoon. The BBQ did well enough to toast our bagels and cook some sausages. We had fruit.

The only real inconvenience was a lack of a coffee maker. The stove was electric so we couldn’t even easily heat the kettle (It didn’t really fit into the BBQ). Luckily the place seemed to have had propane water heating…either that or we were the only ones up early and managed to steal the hot water still remaining in the (presumably fairly large) tank somewhere on the site. So a hot shower and hot water to wash dishes was available.

Coffee had to wait until we got to the gas station. Not a great cup of coffee, but there are times that beggars can’t be choosers. This was one of those times.

Last night’s rain and wind removed all but a few spots of snow and it was hard to tell that yesterday we’d been under several inches of fabulous white stuff. But that rain had been snow on the highway above us and through the passes, so we opted to hang out and do another hike, and a wander on the beach, and leave later in the afternoon when the roads would be cleaner.

We wandered another section of the Wild Pacific Trail and experienced pretty much everything the West Coast can throw at you, save fog, in about an hour or two. We started off in the sunshine, then suddenly found ourselves in a hailstorm. When that passed, we stood on an outcrop and if we faced one direction the weather was sunny and lovely, the other…..an approaching black storm cell.

Down below somewhere I could hear one of my favourite shorebirds, the oystercatcher. You can hear them…and then you spend minutes trying to find their black bodies against the black rocks. the only way you do find them is by their bright red-orange bills.

It’s always joked that if you don’t like the weather on the West Coast, just wait five minutes. It’s not really a joke.

Shortly after the hail passed we were back in the sunshine, then the wind kicked up and it was snowing again.

When we’d completed the section of trail we wanted to hike, we doubled back to the truck and drove out to Wickaninnish Beach and meandered along, marvelling at the waves and the long unbroken stretch of sand. Piles of sea foam were tossed ashore and then were pushed along the beach, perpendicular to the waves, and they looked like little sea-tribbles in a race. Clumps of kelp were tossed up the beach, casualties of last night’s wind and wave action, too much for their holdfasts to bear.

I took so many photos of the waves, knowing that I’d delete that majority of them because, no matter how hard I try, I never capture the essence of what I am seeing on these shores.

Kennedy Hill is under construction and the road is under closures over the day. We’d managed to get in without much of a wait when we arrived at 2pm, so we aimed for that to get out. It worked and we only had enough time to eat a sandwich before the traffic was moving for us.

The rest of the drive was through a winter wonderland, with heavily falling snow in many areas. The trees were so beautiful, frosted with a thick coating of white.

The ferries have been seeing cancellations lately owing to heavy winds associated with the weather we’ve been seeing on the South Coast. This morning Howe Sound was under a gale warning so the ferries into and out of Horseshoe Bay were cancelled, but by the time we arrived in Departure Bay for the 5:55pm ferry everything was running on time and it was the emptiest ferry I’ve ever been on for a Thursday evening.

We arrived home to a driveway thickly layered in hard compact snow. That will be chiselled out tomorrow before we go to pick up the feathered monster from the vet clinic.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since we’ve visited the outer coast, we will hopefully be back there before a similar period of time passes again. It was too long; long enough that I’d forgotten how much I love the rugged environment and the constant background crash of the waves out beyond the shoals.

This part of the world is in my blood and always will be.