This is a journal of our retirement move and life in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island's ruggedly beautiful west coast. The town's motto is "Enjoy life on the edge".

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Saturday 22 February 2014

The Trail of the Lost Shoe and the Bog

Yesterday, I returned to a favorite hike, the Shorepine Bog trail, but before that, I stopped off to have a look at Lost Shoe Creek. This is the "Walk in the Rainforest" trail on Highway 4 just before the Ukee/Tofino junction. I hadn't seen this trail yet, and detoured there for a look.

 

The trail, is quite twisty in parts, and on natural ground, and in other places it becomes a boardwalk that snakes through the thick growth, past monumentally large nurse-logs that seem to rear up like the carcasses of ships thrown hither-thither by a tsunami.

 

There are some really nice interpretive placards along the trail, but sadly lacking, however, are signs to guide your route. It appears to be a loop, but you are presented with unmarked Tee-junctions... three of them. At the second, I took a guess and stayed left, so I have no idea just where that right-hand path leads. At the next Tee, I hung right, thinking it was the path back to the parking lot. That notion was soon abused, as there was considerably more boardwalk than I remembered. Finally, the boardwalk ended at a platform overlooking the scene you see below:



Quite why this is supposed to be worthy of all that boardwalk is, unfortunately, not explained. Presumeably, it is the creek that runs through here that is touted as a salmon spawning area. Ah well, I wound my way back and took the right path at the Tee, and then again at the next Tee, and finally, back to the car. Hmmmph! Three images from the whole tramp! Maybe I'll have to try it again some other time, now that I have a mental map of it in my head, and won't be so intent on not being lost... like the damn shoe the creek is named for I guess.

Onward to the bog! The Shorepine Bog has been growing on me in the two occasions that I previously visited. The first time didn't seem to really take, but the subsequent trip just captivated me. Just to switch it up, I did what I often do with loop trails, and do them backwards every now and then. It gives a different perspective on the whole experience

It really is a remarkably alien environment compared to everything else around it. The contrast of colours and the flat open "savannah-looking" bog, with the pines stunting their way upwards, haphazardly dotted here and there amidst the moss expanse.

 

 

 

As always, I find the details capture my eye and absorb me.

 

 

 

 

 

Against the snow-capped mountains in the distance, a pine glows in the morning light.

That's it for this one. Keep smiling!

 

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