Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

December 22 nd (Tuesday) When the pilot escorted us out to the plane at the Port Hardy airport, I asked him if he would be willing to give us a fly-by of Baldy Mountain.   I explained to the pilot that Jason and I don’t get to fly in and out very often, and that we had hiked to the top of Baldy in the summer and would love to see it from the air.   The pilot drew out a map to clarify which mountain was Baldy, and said, “No problem”.   It was a beautiful day for our flight, the mountains were snow capped, the air was clear and calm, and we flew only about 1000 feet above most of the mountain tops; a few of them were a lot closer as we made our way slightly inland up along the coast.       We got to see many of the areas where Jason and I had anchored on our trip up the coast last year, and we kept pointing out areas to each other.   Nakwakto Rapids (slightly right of center in the above picture) was one such place, where we had anchored in Alliso...

December 21, 2020 (Monday)   On December 21 st , Jason and I made the drive back up island to Port Hardy.  It ended up being the worst day out of the whole year to make that drive.  It was snowing hard through the Malahat pass, and throughout all of the south island up until around Parksville.  Our little rental car turned out to be terrible in the snow, as it was too low to the ground and would easily bottom out and get pulled around by the ridge of snow that inevitably formed on snowy roads.  At one point we had to stop behind two semi-trucks that had stopped on the highway to put on chains, and we were worried that since we were on a hill we might not be able to get going again.  We did, however, and finally made it to Duncan, where the roads were probably the worst of anywhere.    About an hour after we went over the Malahat, the highway got closed due to a jack-knifed semi-truck, and a bus that went off the road. ...

Happy New Year Everyone!! Back at the beginning of December, Jason and I went out looking for our perfect Christmas tree.  We ended up finding one that was perfect for us.   It turned out that it was a Sitka spruce and the needles were needle sharp.  Sitka spruce is a variety of spruce tree that grows along the west coast from California up to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.  It is a coastal variety that seldom grows far from salt water.  Even the trunk was covered in needle sharp needles. We needed work gloves and long sleeves to handle our tree, and the process still involved lots of “ouch”, “ouch”, “ouch!”  Since we never intended to be in a house, or in Ocean Falls for Christmas, we did not have a Christmas tree stand.  So, we got creative with our supplies at hand and made one out of a pallet.  It ended up working quite well, although it was a bit more of a challenge to water the tree than it could have been...

November 2020 (Part Four) After dropping the camping gear off the day before, Jason and I were once again dropped off at the Clatse Lake landing.     This time we had less gear, with no microwave, no toaster, and no coffee maker, and we had the side-by-side to move our supplies up the hill; much easier than carrying it all.     We chose a different, and more sheltered site for the tent this time, and we set up camp once again.   Over the next few days we were once again up before sunrise and out until dark.  We saw a few deer tracks, and this time we actually saw a marten, a squirrel, and a mole.  We actually saw mammals! We went on one full-day hike up past the slide.  We hiked upwards, following the old logging road, up towards the area of Clatse Lake.   We came into an area of forest that had not been logged; it was a beautiful forest full of massive spruce trees and wide-open mossy areas.     It was beautiful...

November 2020 (Part Three)   Between our hunting trips we were back at work, and during the middle of November we had the highest tide that anyone in Ocean Falls could remember seeing.  The very high tide was accentuated by a storm surge.  As storm-force winds pummelled the outer coast, water was pushed inwards up the inlets.  In Ocean Falls it added about four feet to the top of the already high 18-foot tide. Water pushed up Martin River and flooded people’s front yards, and the particular area where the yacht club’s dock ramp is secured to land was under a foot or more of water.  Old moss-covered boards floated away from the area of the old sawmill as the water touched the bottom of the crumbling docks.  It was quite impressive to see!   Since our first hunting trip, Ken had been back out to the same area and stayed in the wall-tent with his son who was visiting. Unfortunately, they also did not see any deer, and th...

November 2020 (Part Two) Over the next few days we were up early, and out exploring and looking for deer at dawn.  Some days we came back to camp for lunch, and other days we packed a lunch and spent the day out.  Either way, we were always out again in the evening, hoping to see a deer.   On the first day of exploring we checked out each branch in the road and walked along many old clear cuts scanning for deer and looking for tracks or fresh buck rub.     Buck rub on the tree. While Jason and I walked the road from the shore to our camp yesterday, we had seen a lot of fresh buck rub and we were very optimistic.  Many of the alders right around our campsite were rubbed clean of bark by bucks; some were so recent that no fading, discolouration, or drying had occurred.  We were sure that there were bucks in the area.   As we made our way along the main road, exploring each branch as we came to it, we got to a large washed out section of th...

November 2020 (Part One) November was a very busy month for us here in Ocean Falls.  Our time was split between working and deer hunting; pretty much when we weren’t working, we were either getting ready to go hunting, or gone hunting.  It was a fun month with lots of camping and exploring, but unfortunately we did not get a deer.  At the beginning of November, on our first time off in the month, we had the biggest thunder and lightning storm that Jason and I had seen in a very long time.  It seemed like thunder cell after thunder cell just kept moving through the area, and we could hear and watch as each system passed by us.  It was very neat to watch the lightning show, and some of it was very close to us.  Some of the thunder cracks were a little too close and loud for comfort, and we could not help thinking about the rock face of Caro Marion looming over us.  With the thunder and lightning came heavy hail, torrential rain, and strong winds, and we ...