Friday, August 19, 2011

Southern Vancouver Island photoadventure - Day One Done - A review

Day one of our Shorts and Gaiters adventure was a fast and furious exploration of some of Southern Vancouver Island.

This is where we're going
From Places I've wandered

Here's how we got from the 4am sunrise in Victoria, BC to after dark on top of a mountain overlooking Duncan, BC.

We started by catching the sunrising over Mt.Baker from Gonzalez Hill in Victoria.
From 2011-07-13

Then it was off west up the coastline towards the Sooke Potholes. But we were locked out. So we rambled about the Sooke River for a bit.
From Wandering and Wondering

Further west we went. Over bridges and beyond. To the end of the road we sought the path.
From Wandering and Wondering

We went through mossy dark primeval to make our way to the bountiful and magnificent intertidal zone
From Wandering and Wondering

Two of our last three visits to Botanical Beach have been planned to allow us low tide exploration. Two of the last three visits we've seen a black bear fishing out sea urchins to eat. Coincidence? I think not!
From Wandering and Wondering

We walked the shore until a chasm we couldn't cross dryly, forced us into the woods.
From Wandering and Wondering

There was time for one last dash along the sea past all sorts of intriguing geology.
From Wandering and Wondering

then it was back into the shelter of the forest and to quest for the trailhead.
From Wandering and Wondering

Leaving behind the Pacific Ocean and Provincial Park we drove deeper into the mountains along less traveled routes which afforded great discoveries during bathroom breaks.
From Wandering and Wondering

We made a quick detour and discovered a giant spruce and a large maple.
From S&G Day1

We explored canyons most usually drive over and forget.
From Places I've wandered

We discovered an old suspension bridge that lead to an overgrown path of rusted debris and local history being consumed by the rainforest reasserting itself.
From Harris Creek Suspension Bridge Discovery

We explored a waterfall beneath an old concrete bridge footing alongside the road.
From Harris Creek Waterfall - A Shorts and Gaiters Adventure


And that's how we found ourselves over 200km, and approximately 16 hours from when we started,
cruising up a dirt road on the side of Mt.Prevost.
From Places I've wandered

I haven't mentioned that the car's radiator wasn't a happy one and that we always had to be aware of the potential of overheating.... as we continued up.
From Places I've wandered

Finally we had to stop and let the car cool down. What a fabulous time to dig into some photoadventuring food! Yes, we split a tub of cookies and cream ice cream while pulled over on the side of a logging road halfway up a mountain watching a Travelling Wilburys music video on youtube on Karsten's phone.
From Places I've wandered

A drive to the parking spot, followed by a brief but intense summiting as dusk fell led to the following photos
From Places I've wandered
From Places I've wandered
From Places I've wandered

then it was time to find our way back down the trail, mostly on it, in the dark so we could get things from the car and sleep before sunrise and the start of day two. Because this is a two-day adventure around Southern Vancouver Island after all.... ;)

see you in the morning ;)
MM

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

INCREDIBLE!! Hi Jordan, it's Scott Johnson here from Google+!! We can TOTALLY see our house from the top of Mt. Prevost! Well, maybe not see as it's kinda nighttime in your shot there, but I can point to where our house is! It's always so great to see how other photographers interpret the island, you've done a wonderful job on your photography and blog. I've set you up in our RSS feed now and will not miss a single post. Perhaps one day we may even meet! Great blog, my friend, really looking forward to more...