Places I've Wandered - Not the Sooke Potholes

The Shorts and Gaiters Inaugural Adventure took place on June 5th and 6th of 2011. Karsten Klawitter and I have been on many wild and wonderous photoadventures and decided to take two days to explore the heck out of several sites around Southern Vancouver Island.

1 Places I've Wandered - Gonzalez Hill Sunrise


Places I've Wandered - Not the Sooke Potholes



We needed to stop for supplies to provision and the grocery store in Sooke didn't open for awhile yet.

What to do?

I suggested we divert our trip and take in the Sooke Potholes seeing as many of you fine peoples have never been there ;)

Here's what we discovered.


The gate is not opened until 8am! But it's light at around 5am. Lame.

I'll also take this moment to draw your attention to the sign.


"If vehicle tires touch pavement vehicle will be towed". Uh... but that's where we drive! And would this sign demand that the tow-truck tow itself for tire pavement touching as well? What a quandry caused by poor signage ;) They tried to amend it with the addition of a smaller second sign... but it hasn't addressed the issue.

But hey.. I've never explored this section of road before! So welcome to Sooke River nonetheless! :D Across the road on the hilly side we have a random hillside in the coastal temperate rainforest :D

Asphalt, alders, ferns, succulents, salmonberry bushes...


When plans change it's just an opportunity for new plans! Time to explore!


Like this runoff gully carving it's way down to the river


where one can see the early warm light reflected in the rippling surface


followed by a little scurry back up to the road


are we done? Nope. Not yet. I went and explored up the gully on the other side of the road and discovered some old cables strung across some trees. As is usual along the coast you don't have to look to hard to find past evidence of logging lingering just beneath the moss.



Don't worry. He nailed the landing. ;)


Here's Karsten's "Flying Squirrel" Impression


and then we drove back into Sooke to where the store had just opened and we learned something we'll continue to keep in mind for the rest of our roadtripping days ;)



Tune in next time when we adventure futher into the wilderness of Southern Vancouver Island and beyond cell phone range.. ;) Oooh and there just may be an ursine encounter approaching... maybe ;)