Tag Archives: Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Assistance, collaborating, Community, Hiking and Nature, Historical, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

July 22, 2024, Halfmoon Bay, BC- The earnest young guide touted West Coast Trail, a strenuous 75-mile trail that incorporates just about every skill a wildland fire fighter, or candidate for the Survivor reality series, would need in order to meet with success. He is in university, and so has not set aside his own time to do the trek-but I could see in his eyes that the will is there. The trail’s northern terminus is near Bamfield, southeast of the Ucluelet-Tofino main segment of this Reserve. Its southern trailhead is just northeast of Port Renfrew, which itself is 110 km west northwest of Victoria. The route is on par with Newfoundland’s East Coast Trail, Ireland’s Wild Atlantic, the Florida Trail, Rim-to-Rim in the Grand Canyon and Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula Trail. It would be a good prep for an Appalachian, Pacific Crest, Continental Divide, Colorado, or Arizona Scenic trek.

My own short hikes today gave me a good sense of what a dedicated exploration of the area would entail. Stops were at Radar Hill, Grice Bay, Combers Beach, Rainforest Trail and Kwisitis Visitor Center (where the young man was touting the trail.)

Here are scenes from those spots.

Approach to Radar Hill. This site has the remnants of a World War II era Canadian Forces radar station, which kept watch for any Japanese incursions into Canadian airspace.

Canada was a key member of the Allied forces in the Korean War, as well. This plaque commemorates the Canadian Forces’ landing at Kapyong.

Commemorative ciinul for Radar Station. Like indigenous people in the United States, First Nations people in Canada were all-in, for defending the homeland during wartime.

Grice Bay lies about three kilometers east of the main Pacific Rim (Tofino-Ucluelet) Highway. It’s a major recreational fishing area, as one might expect, and there were quite a few boats being launched, while I was checking the place out.

View of Grice Bay from the west.
Southwest view of Grice Bay
Dolphins were moving about the bay-also looking for fish.
Incinerator Rock is a spot popular with surfers, just north of Rainforest Trail and Combers Beach.

The trail to Combers Beach has several elements of the rain forest, in and of itself.

Looking at these giant ferns transported me to the Silurian Era.
Huckleberries abound at Combers Beach.

Driftwood forts are everywhere at Pacific Rim. Combers Beach reminded me of Kalaloch, Washington, in that respect. (Next two photos)

This looks like a fair shelter from a storm.

The surf at Combers looks as enticing as any I’ve seen, north of Doheny. The beach is famous for its riptides, and guidance on how to handle a riptide is prominently displayed here.

Incoming tide, Combers Beach

Next up was Rainforest Trail. It was not really redundant, after the Combers experience, reinforcing the importance of recognizing the fragility of both the water table and the soil. Water storage is not strong here, because the soil is so thin. For communities like Tofino and Uculuet, this means taking strong conservation measures, despite the high average yearly rainfall. Rainforests endure more droughts than one might think.

Canopies help to preserve water, by limiting sunlight.

Red cedars, Rainforest Trail, Pacific Rim.
Sitka spruce coexist nicely with red cedars.
Saplings, springing up, guard the soil’s moisture even more.

Finally, at Kwisitis, there was a feast of driftwood and black basalt.

Wickawinnish Beach, Kwisitis
Basalt outcroppings, Kwisitis

In this Visitor Center, we learned much about the sacredness with which the Tla-o-qui-aht and neighbouring nations approach the whale hunt, to this day. The bowhead is taken with the same reverence that other Indigenous hunters approach the hunting of bison, deer or elk. The entire animal is put to use, once the kill is made, and there was/is a strict limit on the hunt.

The balance of nature weighs on the minds of all who wish to see our Planet thrive. The Nuu-cha-hulth-aht, of Ucluelet, are no exception.

Getting Past Hiccups

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Family, Hiking and Nature, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

July 20, 2024, Tofino, BC- I will forever consider myself blessed, when it comes to family. I can talk with my son, any of my siblings and any in-laws, with no qualms or trepidation, at a moment’s notice.

So many friends don’t have that blessing. I have heard from friends, recently, about being cut off from adult children and siblings-most often not because of anything they did, but because of third-party interference. This may, or may not, be part of the story, or even the whole story. I know there are those who prey on disaffected youth and actively work to turn them against their parents. There is a special place in the world of retribution for such monsters, but I digress.

No one can turn a person against their loved ones, without that person’s consent. In the end, though, there is loneliness. Chances are, the manipulator won’t be there for the lost soul. The person who is disaffected from their parent(s) or their children will have outlived any usefulness to the predator-who is most often seeking power, in a neurotic manner. So often, the predator will use mainstream religion, or cult membership, to appeal to the prey. Only when the troubled soul wakes up and reconciles with those s(he) has cast out, can there be any chance for real recovery.

I thought about these things, whilst en route to the exquisite Pacific Rim, of west central Vancouver Island. Earlier in the day, after a marvelous rest at Turtle Hostel, in Victoria’s Hillside/Quadra district, I had pleasant meetings with two dear friends, and was glad to be able to offer them support. Regarding Hillside/Quadra, it is ringed by churches and Victoria’s Conservatory of Music-and as I mentioned in the last post, is a haven for unhoused people.

Alex Goold Performance Center, Victoria Conservatory of Music
Anglican Church of St. John the Divine, Victoria
First United Church, Victoria

Each of these institutions does what it can, to help its unhoused neighbours. As is the case back at Home Base, Prescott, there are soup kitchens and active efforts to clothe the people. There, but for the grace of God……

In the next post, I will focus on the cathedrals of a different sort: The majesty of the Pacific Rim and the edge of Clayoquot Sound, particularly in Tofino and Ucluelet. Here is an example:

Clayoquot Sound, Tofino

The Anchor Is Still In Place

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

November 2, 2023- The landlord was right there, as I approached the driveway, so I pulled around and up the south side of the horseshoe. He had done some work on the back door to Home Base, but went on to other tasks, so I could bring everything inside. After an exchange of pleasantries, and my reminding him to deposit the rent check, it was time for a rest.

The western end of the Pacific Rim feels like home, the way Jeju does-and San Diego, Grapevine, Santa Fe, Vancouver Island, Cortez, Bisbee, Philadelphia, Chicagoland, Mishawaka, Cape Breton, the North Shore of Massachusetts, a dozen places across the South-and here, Home Base Prescott, my anchor.

The difference in temperature is palpable-Manila was gorgeously warm and Prescott is, well, stimulating. I put the Korean comforter on my bed, and there it will stay until March or April. The human temperature, though, is warm all over. I was welcomed in Banning-at Sunset Motel and at Gramma’s Country Kitchen, my go-to spot for a delectable meal when passing through the Inland Empire, along I-10. I had no need to stop anywhere else, save getting gas in Coachella- where it is below $5 a gallon, once again. Once in Prescott, I picked up the mail, and attended a Red Cross monthly meeting. We will do smoke detector installations, later this month, and on other occasions, towards Spring. Then, it was time for a long evening’s rest.

So here I am, thinking of the Filipino/as who make my southwest Pacific anchor strong: Demure, soft-spoken Norlie, dedicated Ylona, fun-loving, intellectual and energetic Kathy, diligent firecracker Arlene, the singing waiter and cook at Sky Pad, the kind and sweet-faced laundress of Santa Ana and all those hotel staffers and drivers who went the extra mile for me. I have only scratched the surface of that unique nation, and have promised Norlie and Kathy that I will be back, for more extensive efforts, in 2025, in-between long-delayed time in Europe and northeast Asia. Perhaps N’s beloved will be there, by then, and a group of us can visit other islands, and parts of Luzon together.

Here I am, prepping for the activities that lie ahead this month, including the now traditional week in Grapevine and thereabouts, the teaching work, the Farmers Market winter hours and installing fire alarms in the northwest AZ town of Kingman.

Here I am, feeling anchored and appreciated.

The Summer of the Rising Tides, Day 77: What If?

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Striving

August 16, 2020-

Today was a day of minor blessings for people who live in the far western section of Yavapai County. Rain fell there, in areas that haven’t seen any moisture, since February. We got no rain here, but the cloud cover kept temperatures at a decent level.

A couple of commenters have raised the spectres of even worse conditions facing us, than this year has already brought. Three Gorges Dam, for one thing, is not in the most geologically stable area of China, which has frequent earthquakes, that are not as widely reported as perhaps they should be. Should that huge dam collapse, the impact on both the world economy and on climate will be clearly catastrophic. Rain would be intense, for weeks, if not months.

People around here, and in other dry areas of Western North America, may think that will be a blessing, but remember that nonporous caliche underlies desert sands. Anyone who has lived through flash floods, in the Sonoran, Chihuahuan or Mojave Deserts can attest to the altogether different set of issues that arise with too much water.

Thus, whether it comes down to having one’s own set plans for facing swift and fluid emergency situations, or establishing a framework for intentional communities-and actually making them happen, the time for knowing what one would do, in such cases, has been in place for the past fifteen years-at least, and is not getting any less urgent.

I have networked locally, for that very reason, and those of us who have connected with one another will be okay-for six months to a year. The scenarios some have described, would last longer than that-but the time frame I mention is at least a start.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best and dive deep, in learning to live together.