Life is better when you head for where the rainforest meets the sea. At least that's always been my experience. One February morning in 2009 a classmate and I left our school work behind us in Victoria BC and, heading west, made for the solace of nature.
Until 1996 China Beach was a Provincial Park. The Juan de Fuca Provincial Park was established to collect and connect the various Provincial Parks (China Beach Park, Loss Creek Park, Parkinson Creek Park, and Botanical Beach Park) along the Juan de Fuca trail as a contiguous park of temperate coastal rainforesty awesomeness.
So we'll start in the parking lot ;)
(The impetus for this blog post started when Reggie Norman, Andrew Metcalfe, and Levi Moore, started engaging with this photo on Google Plus. I love how the community there is inspiring and motivating me to look at things in new ways, and share past adventures too.)
As we head towards the beach we pass an overgrown road. The forest reclaims land fairly quickly in these parts.
It's a good idea to stop and use the facilities before one heads off into the unknown..
I know there's an outhouse around here somewhere..
Next we enter an area where wind has blown down many a tree. But don't worry.. the Parks people have replanted and put lovely little white protective covers over top.
Still some trees stand. Limbless in places. But they stand still.
Some have survived damage of old. Others have not. Each tells a story.
In light of the forest's fall, ferns are seen on the forest's floor
Still the beach beckons through the Pacific mist
and the damp drenched growth it sustains
On down the trail we head.. past the lairs of real and imagined creatures
and somehow.. down the path and into the heart of the forest they came
and dumped a car?!?! What the? Gah!
Nearer we draw to the sea..
Finding old weathered stump remains rerooted in the sand and stone shore
We are not alone
One is never alone in the coastal temperate rainforest.
Mood effuses from everything..
from the swirling cloud.. to the grain of sand..
an expanse of mystery
an expanse of wonder
The merganser knows..in part.. a part
but will not share his tale with the seagull..
who leaves in a tizzy
and lands
to do his vampire impression.... ... mwaha..ha.
still the waves wash in as they will and have for millennia
and under the gaze of a gull.. we say farewell
Till next time ;)
May you see the wonder around you
~mm
