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Last update on Victoria
May. 5th, 2008 08:32 pmOn our last day in Victoria, Julia and I went for a drive around Vancouver Island. We drove out to Port Renfrew, along the southwest side of the island. We saw some lovely views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Peninsula, but the day was not terribly photogenic.
Once we got to Port Renfrew, we hiked down to the beach, or at least tried to. We sort of ran into a small, or at least 2-year-old, problem:
Yes, that's a black bear, and yes, we are too close to it. We had just come around a curve in the trail and there it was. Fortunately, it was more interested in what it was searching around for than it was in us. Unfortunately, it was too accustomed to people for noise to drive it away. While we were trying to outwait it, I heard a noise like a creaking off the side of the trail. I've heard the sound of a new bear cub described that way, so when Julia suggested we return to the car, I agreed. On our way back to the car, we heard yet another bear off the the trail.
On the way back up, we ran into another couple coming down the trail, who we warned. They said they were going to continue on toward the beach, but they returned to the parking area less than five minutes after we did. They decided that maybe they would chance a different trail. We decided that we had hiked far enough -- I was sore from the walking (and picture-taking) the previous day.
So we started back down the coast. We cut across the island so we could see some of the north side before going back to the city. There was just enough haze (or not enough haze) that none of the pictures turned out terribly striking. We stopped through some local artisans on the way back to the city. At the potter's we did some early Christmas shopping as well as picking up some stuff for ourselves. At the glassblower's, the stuff was nice, but I've seen better done locally here in Spokane so we didn't pick anything up.
And that's what we did for our spring conference/break.
S
Once we got to Port Renfrew, we hiked down to the beach, or at least tried to. We sort of ran into a small, or at least 2-year-old, problem:
Yes, that's a black bear, and yes, we are too close to it. We had just come around a curve in the trail and there it was. Fortunately, it was more interested in what it was searching around for than it was in us. Unfortunately, it was too accustomed to people for noise to drive it away. While we were trying to outwait it, I heard a noise like a creaking off the side of the trail. I've heard the sound of a new bear cub described that way, so when Julia suggested we return to the car, I agreed. On our way back to the car, we heard yet another bear off the the trail.
On the way back up, we ran into another couple coming down the trail, who we warned. They said they were going to continue on toward the beach, but they returned to the parking area less than five minutes after we did. They decided that maybe they would chance a different trail. We decided that we had hiked far enough -- I was sore from the walking (and picture-taking) the previous day.
So we started back down the coast. We cut across the island so we could see some of the north side before going back to the city. There was just enough haze (or not enough haze) that none of the pictures turned out terribly striking. We stopped through some local artisans on the way back to the city. At the potter's we did some early Christmas shopping as well as picking up some stuff for ourselves. At the glassblower's, the stuff was nice, but I've seen better done locally here in Spokane so we didn't pick anything up.
And that's what we did for our spring conference/break.
S
