Weekend Activities in Comox
Go for a Hike
My sister was getting married on the weekend, but
wanted us up to Courtenay on Thursday so we could attend the
rehearsal. Usually, when in Courtenay there is no end of family
to
visit (and I'm glad too), but with my sisters wedding on, that family
was busy or I just wanted to get some exercise. I picked two
different short activities to get outside:
A Walk in Paradise Meadows
I've been to Paradise meadows before with my sister, and it certainly
is a treat to visit. Any kind of meadow is a delicate environment
and the Mount Washington resort has gone to extraordinary lengths to
make
this an accessible location.
The trails go a long way into Strathcona
Provincial
Park. The short loop is up to the shores of Lake Helen, and then back
to the Parking lot - a round trip of at least two hours. While I had my
camera and my tripod, I was making very good time because I didn't have
bug spray. While the bugs weren't biting (much) they were very
annoying,
so I would ensure my stops were as short as possible.
I had a bit more
time than required to do the loop so I walked up the spur toward lady
lake. The trail quality goes down hill in hurry - streams start
to flow with the trail (a sign of heavy hiking damage) and muddy bogs
were causing the trail to widen into the surrounding environment.
I was quite happy to see Marsh Marigold - a plant I had seen a few
weeks earlier at
Mount Cheam.
I promised my grandmother I would call at 3pm (there is cell phone
service up here), and I still had to pick up my tuxedo downtown, so I
turned back and headed for the car.
I was very glad to get the opportunity to be in such a beautiful place
- it certainly brightened up the weekend for me.
Stotan Falls
I have a guide book to fossils on Vancouver Island, and it recommends
Stotan Falls - just past the junction of the Puntledge and Browns
Rivers - as a good place to look for fossils. You can't collect
them (not that I want any rocks to move around), but I thought it would
be fun to see and if they were sharp, photograph.
The geography that makes good fossil
sites seems to be hard layered materials like shale. That
geography
makes river channels like deep U shaped troughs - the river cuts
vertically down into the landscape. Getting down to the river was
a challenge - I wound up walking down a very steep dry creek and
arriving on a thin ledge wedged between the thick forest and a deep,
fast moving river.
The water is clear and it's quite easy to see the
bottom - and the algae that covers it. I looked at all the rock
outcropping trying to find anything that resembled a fossil and had no
luck. Apparently the fossil museum in town runs tours of this
area and I'll bet they have more luck point out where to look. At
the same time, I was rather enamored with the falls so I took a few
shots.
Rather than try and
climb back out of the river trench, I thought would walk up the river a
ways. On the west coast, there are two distinct hiking
modes - Hiking boots, and well secured sandals (dry and wet).
This would have been a good place for sandals, but the water was very
thin so hiking up the river (in the river) was surprisingly easy.
Tags: Mount Washington(8), trail(4), waterfall(3), alpine(3), meadow(3), flower(3)
From: John Harvey Photo > A Weekend in Comox
Last Modified Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 00:51:20 Edit
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