Wickanninish Beach

Hey, kids, I made a fast run to the beach today, after checking in with my doctor in Ucluelet.

I had been keening for it all winter, and I felt my entire spirit lift up joyously as I hit the junction.

The smell of the air, all salt and cedar! Four eagles windsurfing the air currents above the main intersection.

And, when I got to the beach, that sound: the melodic, heartbeat-paced resonance of the waves coming in, going out, in endless refrain. The home of my spirit, where I most belong on this planet. Too bad it's too expensive for poor people to live there any more. But I made a hopeful and pro-active proclamation to the universe, and purchased a one year parking pass,  since I am determined to get there oftener this coming year.

I bought myself a very special treat: a soft fleecey with wolves all over it, so all next winter I can be wrapped cosily in wolf energy. It's like wrapping Pup's arms around me, when I put it on.

It was a lot of driving, an hour and a half each way, so by the time I was finished at the doctor's, I was too tired to walk on the beach. I LOOKED at it, though, reassured that it is still there, and took some photos for you. The waves were mild and calm today.

I had planned to go to South Beach, a short walk from Wickanninish. The rocks and cliffs there are amazing, great for photos, and the waves thunder marvellously into the small curved bay (a great place to storm watch in winter!) But the area was closed off.

Since I first moved there in 1989, every  spring a mama bear beds down in some bushes along the trail, and has her babies there. In earlier years, when there werent so many tourists and things were a lot more laid back, I sometimes tiptoed past. Once she had twin babies alongside the trail, and let it be known she did not appreciate visitors walking by - we ran back to the beach and waited till she had moved on, before returning to our cars.

The park people must be more cautious now. They closed the area completely. The trail likely wont open till fall, after berry season, when Mama and baby move deeper into the woods to find their winter shelter.

I then tried Florencia Bay, where the clipper Florencia shipwrecked many years ago in a winter storm,

all souls lost.

But the canopy has grown so high since I last was there that you can no longer look down the beach from the lookout, and I was too tired to walk all the way down the trail.

I took a couple of shots of trees for you instead:)

A good but tiring day. Early to bed tonight for this old gray-headed, wobbly-legged creature!