Archive for July, 2009
Friday, July 24th, 2009
It was mid September. Most of the recreation fishing boats had finished for the season. A Tuesday afternoon, so there would be very few boats out fishing. I decided that the weather was too good to pass up a few hours of fishing. Off I went with my trusty companion, Salty the dog. Salty was quick to jump aboard as he does love a boat ride. Most other yellow labs would do the same.
We fished for about two eventful hours with much success. The Northern Coho were here in good numbers and the last of the big Chinook salmon were still in the area.
We started off just west of Secretary Island, a local favourite. The water was as calm as a small lake and the bites began immediately. In the two hours, Salty and I hooked into a dozen salmon, including a bunch of Coho and a nice ‘Spring’ which was the fish that we brought home. After the first 45 minutes passed, we had a visit from two transient Orcas. They came up just behind the boat, showed us their tails and disappeared. The fishing continued until a huge sea lion checked us out. It was so close that I could smell it’s breath. ‘Care for a tic-tac?’
For some reason, the fishing was suddenly slow, so we decided to make a loop into deeper water just south of the little island in search of the Coho. As we made the turn, I noticed something glistening in the water. Another short loop and I was able to pick the shiny object out of the clear water with my net. ‘Just a bottle’ I first thought. When I pulled it out of the net, I realized it was a special bottle. Not the clear bottle itself, but the whole package. The top was sealed with red wax and there was a piece of paper rolled up inside. Salty wisely suggested that I do not open it until we reached home to share the fun with Maggie.
The two of us sat on the deck and curiously peeled off the wax. The anticipation was high, but our expectations were realistically low.
As we pulled out the paper and unrolled the mystery, we found more than we could have imagined, a message that we will never forget. Together, we read the message and then looked at each other in silence. The hand written words were a most unexpected message.
“This ring no longer serves a purpose in my life. May it bring you joy, luck and abundant prosperity.
Taped to bottom of the page was a wedding band, the kind that my mother had. A gold and silver band made into a simple ring. We can only speculate where the strong Juan de Fuca current may have carried this most unusual package. We will probably never know.
Neil and Maggie Flynn
Salty Towers Oceanfront Retreat
Monday, July 20th, 2009
Over the years, we have had many bear encounters from one big black bear meandering through our yard below our deck, between our house and French Beach Provencal Park – seeing them on a beach, to narrowly missing them on the highway between French Beach and Sooke. We have also seen them on the road near John Muir School in Sooke as well.
However one day last summer, my wife and I decided to go for a walk with our American Eskimo dog that we called, “ Bear”! It was a bright sunny afternoon so and we went to the top of Seaside Drive to walk through the new subdivision and look at the Sheringham Point Lighthouse. We often took the dog for a walk in the new subdivision to see the progress of the site from raw acreage to lots with an incredible view of the Strait and the Olympic Mountains across the way.
We had walked up the road, stopped to admire the view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca from the road above the lighthouse. On our way back toward the lighthouse we took a side road up the hill away from the water side of the main road, to see if it connected up with Sheringham Point Road. Our dog, Bear, was not one to be quiet when a strange or different animal is around, barked at other dogs in our yard, barked at sea lions, seals, and otters off the rocks at French Beach. He also loved to bark at the raucous ravens that would sit in trees from time to time, just to tease him – I believe.
We had not walked very far up the side road and our Bear began tugging at his lead trying to drag me up the hill. He was very quiet except for the occasional low almost inaudible snort. “Ah, I thought”, he must be on the sent of another dog or a horse; maybe a cougar had passed this way. Cougars are indeed quite numerous around here. Generally speaking, they will see you long before you see them, but their scent is another matter – for a dog.
There was not much fuss or any noise from our Bear, just a steady pull on his lead as we made our way up the road to a gate with something big and black only a few feet away. Bear met bear, not a sound from us or the animals, everybody froze for a few seconds – we were very close to each other. We looked each other over; the bear was a big shiny black bear. When he glanced away we backed up and he moved off into the woods along the side of the road in an almost opposite direction. We then turned and walked briskly to our car a kilometer or so away. What struck me most was the almost non-chalant way the bear moved – on as if to say ‘be and let be’ – and the dog that is prone to bark in such situations remained almost totally silent.
We have lived in bear country both here and in the Kootenays and our dogs had always barked at the scent or sight of a bear. But this time it was different – kind of a close encounter of the strange kind.
Richard Hopkins,
Shirley, BC
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
I have always loved otters –I used to read my children “Oscar Otter” to get them to bed; loving the story as much as they did. When we first moved to Vancouver Island 15 years ago, I was truly thrilled by my first glimpse of one loping across the West Coast Road heading for the ocean.
The otters commonly seen here, on the Southwest Coast of the Island, are river otters whose primary habitat is in small streams and rivers, but they also love to swim and play in the sea.
This experience, of course, was topped months later by the 5 or 6 otters running across the beach trail at French Beach Provincial Park- heading out to cavort in the ocean – on one of our many walks along French Beach. This event got very high marks since some visiting family and friends got to share the experience!
But nothing tops my favourite otter story…
I spend a lot of time wandering our local beaches with friends, visitors, our local hiking group…or even doing Tai Chi with our group…but one quiet morning my husband, Richard, and our dog, Bear, joined me at our local beach while I was collecting seaweeds. I use seaweeds for thalassotherapy (seaweed soaks) for treatments which I offer at my Spa. I was very intent on my collecting; watching to see what gems might be washing in with the tide. Richard had been throwing sticks for Bear to swim out to retrieve until Bear decided that he should come and assist me (he truly loved plunging right into the surf with me!)
Suddenly Richard whistled to get my attention and pointed at the water out past me. I was absolutely stunned to look up to see 5 otters in a semi-circle fairly close to me. They were watching me with obvious curiosity. I just stood there in awe for a minute – then realized they did not appear to be very frightened of me (or even of Bear who remained uncharacteristically quiet much to my amazement). Although it may have only been 5 or 10 minutes, it felt like a timeless episode. I slowly started strolling along the shore in the shallow water and they swam along – maintaining their safe distance – until they eventually had satisfied their curiosity or tired of watching to see what I was up to.
It was a magical experience and remains vivid in my pictorial memory.
I often think how very fortunate we are to live is such a lush and beautiful area – but some of these fleeting moments are truly ‘golden memories’ making life very rich indeed. It seems that such moments arise when we least expect them and that it is best for us just to trust in their possibility.
I do have to add one sad note; we lost our beloved Bear last Fall.
Our family has so many very fond memories of time spent with him- but people who love their pets will understand the value of these remarkable shared experiences. I know he thought it was amazing too!
Christine Hopkins,
Shirley, BC
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
My first big tree memory is unhappy. I was “helping my father, you see, cut firewood from a large previously felled Douglas fir. This was about 150 ft. from the stump and the trunk was about 5 ft. thick. Father was using an 8 ft. long crosscut saw, and my job was to watch the curly chips being pushed out of the kerf on the other side of the log. At age 3, that was about all I could do to ‘help’. But then I leaned too close to pick up some long curls, and straightened up in time to catch the moving saw teeth on top of my head. That ended my job, and his too, for that day.
By two years later my siblings and I were climbing up the 12 ft. high stumps to play on the 10 ft. wide surface. Later I measured the distance to the top of the tree, still lying half rotten on the ground. 264 ft. it was.
That started my quest for bigger and better trees. Two more Fir stumps similar in size, and one Red Cedar stump 14 ft. across, and one standing Fir 43 ft. in circumference.
The nearest tree to that size in the Sooke area now is a 9 ft. diameter, 240 ft. high tree on private property along the Sooke River near the potholes.
In later years, when I had the means to travel farther west, I visited the famous Red Creek Fir near Port Renfrew, recognized now as the largest of its kind in the world. It is marginally bigger than the one of my childhood. Only a few miles away in San Juan River valley stands what is said to be the largest Sitka Spruce tree in Canada with a diameter of 19.3 ft. height of 250 ft.
But still farther west, in the Carmanah and Walbran valleys blessed (or cursed) with heavier rainfall – think 150 to 200 inches per year – I found, in the course of many, many days of searching, Spruce trees in excess of 14 ft. in circumference and up to 311 ft. high. Also a number of Western Red Cedars 15 and 16 ft. in diameter.
But in nearby Cheewaht Lake area I came upon the Mother Lode – many Cedars 15 to 18 ft. in diameter, of them all the Cheewaht Cedar, the largest tree in Canada, and arguably the biggest Cedar tree in the world. 63 ft. in circumference and 192 ft. tall.
It boggles the mind to think that this was a full-grown tree long before the Roman Empire came into existence! And is still standing in good health.
- Maywell Wickheim
|
