Beaches, Beaches, All Those Beautiful Beaches

Our next stop, as we continued our road trip down the Pacific Rim Highway on Vancouver Island, was the South Beach Trail. This scenic trail starts at Wickaninnish Beach and is only about a kilometre and a half, round trip.

 

We got plenty of sneak peeks of the shoreline along the first section of the trail.

South Beach is much smaller than Wickaninnish Beach, and consists mostly of pebbles and seashells.

Although different, it’s equally beautiful with its large outcroppings of rock.

At the far end of the beach, we met two young women who said they’d come across fresh bear scat and footprints on the other side of the large rocks. Equipped with bear bells and bear spray, we felt confident to go look for ourselves. Sure enough, we soon found plenty of bear scat. Which begs the question: What’s the difference between black bear scat and grizzly bear scat? Black bear scat contains mostly fruit and berries. Grizzly bear scat, on the other hand, is full of little red bear bells. Har-har-har.

This section of beach is full of big rocks and I couldn’t navigate it with my sore foot. So I found a nice log for Roxy and me to sit on while Hubby went in search of bear prints in the sand.

I took off my shoes to give my feet a break and sat quietly for a while, enjoying the view and the warmth of the sun.

With dense woods directly behind me, the notion of bears in the vicinity began to weigh on my mind. So I dug out my small canister of pepper spray, just to have it handy, and sang a few songs to amuse myself. I figured just the bad singing alone should scare the bears off. If that didn’t work, my escape route, over all those rocks, would not be a quick one.

I soon decided it’d be prudent to take more pictures of the main beach and basically abandoned Hubby on that isolated beach, hoping he wouldn’t become bear bait. It was a great relief when he appeared over the rocks a few minutes later.

With no photos of bear prints to be had, we followed the trail back to Wickaninnish Beach. This picturesque beach is expansive, sandy and popular with surfers and kayakers.

After all that hiking, Roxy was appreciative of a long drink of water when we got back to the car.

Because of the lateness of the day, we made Willowbrae Trail our final stop. This trail is about one and a half kilometres one way.

Stairs were interspersed throughout the trail, but the bulk of them came just before the beach. We counted 174 stairs in that section alone.

Florencia Bay Beach was totally worth having to climb all those steps on our return. Of all the beaches we saw on this trip, each with its own special appeal, Florencia Bay probably topped our list.

It had the most unique natural sand art we’ve ever seen.

Some interesting log art too.

I totally impressed myself with the ease and speed I climbed those 174 stairs back up to the trail. Especially considering we’d already climbed/descended at least a thousand (no exaggerating) stairs already that day. Logging all those boring hours on the recumbent bike had actually paid off.

Plenty of photo ops.

Hubby, having worked several summers at a Vancouver Island logging camp as a teenager, pointed out the numerous springboard notches on the tree stumps.

After our disappointing accommodations in Tofino, we were most pleased with our charming little cabin at Reef Point Cottages in Ucluelet.

I have to give Reef Point Cottages extra kudos. When I cancelled our June reservations, the manager said to ask for her when I rebooked, so I did. She not only didn’t charge the $50 cancellation fee, she gave us the same lower rate we would’ve got in June. Which meant this bright, spacious, modern cabin cost $60 a night less than the dingy motel in Tofino. Incredible.

Even Roxy loved it. After scarfing down a huge (for her) meal, she immediately got comfy.

Being a pet-friendly place, they left doggie treats for Roxy. Cute idea, although we laughed at how the treats were longer than her entire head.

With Roxy fed and settled in, we headed out to feed ourselves. This adorable guy was eating his dinner right outside our cabin.

He was soon joined by this precious pair.

Moments later, we met them again as they crossed the main road.

Having snacked on trail mix all day, I had little appetite, so I chose a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. To my disappointment, it consisted of a single processed cheese slice between two pieces of soggy white toast. Hubby, needing more than trail mix to sustain him, devoured a large plate of Chinese food and proclaimed it excellent.

After retrieving Roxy, we drove around for a while, trying to scope out a good place to watch the sunset. We happened across the public wharf during our search, enabling Hubby to indulge in another of his favourite pastimes – drooling over fancy boats.

This high-in-the-sky sunset shot was the best we could find.

We went to bed that night happy and tired, filled with anticipation of the next day’s adventures on the Wild Pacific Trail. Jump to next post here or start from beginning of trip here.

Awesomely Spectacular West Coast Scenery

After a very full and fun day of exploring (see last week), we arrived at the Dolphin Motel, situated just outside of Tofino on the Pacific Rim Hwy, around dinnertime. Although I had notified the motel owner of our check-in time, she’d already charged our credit card and marked us down as a no-show. Luckily, the room hadn’t been reassigned yet. Or maybe not so lucky.

When I’d originally looked at motels last spring, I carefully choose one with reasonable rates, while also seeming to be modestly decent. We’d only be in the room to sleep, leaving first thing the next morning, so price, location and general cleanliness was more important than high-end and fancy. I thought I’d found this in the Dolphin Motel.

After canceling our June date, I expected to pay more when I rebooked in the high season, but wow, the rate had about doubled. And the pet fee rose from $10 to $25. The total for one night was $195. An acceptable amount perhaps, but what we got was definitely not worth the price.

Our unit was decidedly shabby, outdated and crowded. We feared having to sleep on the flimsy futon in the main room and were relieved to find a bed squeezed into a small back room. Hubby immediately questioned why I’d booked the place and I was confused too. The impression in my head was nothing like the reality facing us. A quick check of their website revealed why. This is how they show their rooms:

This was our room:

Their bedroom:

Our bedroom:

Quite the difference, hey? Maybe other units resemble their website photos, but ours certainly didn’t, and they still charged us top rate. At least the place was clean, and we had a good laugh over the disparity. We quickly settled Roxy in and went in search of food.

An old gent we’d struck up a conversation with at Sproat Lake had recommended eating at Jack’s Waterfront Pub. As it was one of the first restaurants we happened across, we decided to give it a try. The location is lovely, right on the water, with nice views of the harbour.

Hubby and I both ordered beer battered lingcod and fries. The food was typical pub fare, and the service was marginal, although friendly. Despite being almost empty, it took some time before our order was taken and even longer to get the bill once we’d finished eating. Probably just a laid-back place.

After dinner, we returned to the motel to grab Roxy and some jackets, then ventured into Tofino. We were there for the scenery, not the funky shops and eclectic eateries, so aside from a brief drive through town, we didn’t do much sightseeing. Near the town entrance, stands a massive Western Red cedar, locally known as the Eik Cedar, and believed to be 800 to 1000 years old. It’s approximately 170 ft tall and 10 feet wide. Condemned as unsafe in 2001, the city saved it by fitting it with a unique support structure.

Another impressive Western Red cedar is located in front of St. Columba Anglican Church. The tree is thought to predate the church, built in 1913.

Somewhere in my research, I’d read that View Point Park was a great spot to watch sunsets. Although the views of Meares Island and Tofino Inlet were excellent, we immediately saw that the buildings to the west would block the sunset.

We hustled off on foot in search of a better location, finding one a couple blocks down. While we waited, Hubby got to enjoy lots of floatplane action.

The sunset was pretty, although not outstanding.

Not keen to return to our ‘lavish’ accommodations any sooner than we had to, we wandered over to Chesterman Beach, across the highway from the motel, where we found spectacular views aplenty.

Despite the lack of amenities, we both had a good night’s sleep and after a light breakfast in the room, we returned to Chesterman Beach to find it equally picturesque in the daylight.

I even got a glimpse of a lighthouse.

Roxy decided to wear her sweater against the slight early morning chill.

These signs, posted everywhere, were a grim reminder of a serious and very real danger.

The swelling had begun moving down the sides of my foot and the bruising was settling into my toes. The pain was manageable with icing and acetaminophen, but wearing flip-flops to the beach that morning hurt unbearably.

Knowing I’d need better support for the long day of hiking, I put on my trusty old Nikes for the first time. Getting my foot into the shoe hurt like hell, but wearing it was tolerable once I loosened the laces.

Our next stop was Schooner Cove Trail, on the north end of Long Beach. Two kilometers round-trip through lush rainforest, this trail has 336 stairs. Yes, I said 336, and I climbed/descended every single one of them.

Of all the trails we took, and there were lots, we both liked Schooner Cove the best, which is almost a shame, because all the rest to come had such a high standard to compare to.

We saw some massive, tall trees.

The beach was lovely and quiet. Logs scattered helter-skelter at the back of the beach spoke of a very different scenario during winter storms.

With the morning warming up nicely, Roxy switched to a lighter jacket.

The Rainforest Trail was our next destination along the Pacific Rim highway. This is actually two one-kilometer loops through old-growth rainforest, neither of which have beach access. Fresh off the spectacular Schooner Cove Trail, and facing at least another 300 stairs (there’s a total of 731 stairs on both loops), we were content to just do Loop B.

It was barely noon and we already had sensory overload. More awesomeness was still to come, and you can read all about it here.