Endless hikes

Our Monday morning hikes have continued since mid October. The pictures below are from last week, at Englishman River Falls Provincial Park about 20km from Parksville 

                               I never tire of the rain forests

      How many seniors does it take to hold up a giant Douglas Fir?

       The sun made this a magical and serene place in the forest.

               Good view of the island mountains near Parksville

This week the hike included two trails, both right in Nanaimo city. There are over 3,200 acres of parkland and protected areas, 130km of trails and 63 playgrounds within the city.

It was showering, but we agreed to head out anyway. The first trail was called Beach Estates and made it's way down through a canyon to the Beach near the ferry terminal.

              There were hundreds of steps down and back up.

                                           Beautiful falls over smooth rock.

We came out at the beach just as the Vancouver ferry was docking.

Some of the trail was boardwalk and some was dirt and gravel mixed, good walking though. I did not take a picture of one of our seniors who slipped off the trail and went down about 15ft on his backside in the mud. He was not hurt badly, just very embarrassed, so we carried on.

We basically survived the first trail, so we made our way to the next one called Sugarloaf Mountain. Many more steps as well as climbing up moss covered rocks. By now at least the showers had stopped.

                                          Climbing....................

                               higher with every step..............

           but the 360 degree view was more than worth the climb.
                  Below the ferry making it's way back to Vancouver.

                                 Looking west, inland.

        Looking down on Nanaimo down town and the ferry dock

Our favourite place to walk is the Marina walk, 4 1/2km along the waterfront.

Sometimes Bev will take her book and have a coffee and a Biscotti in one of the little cafes while I catch dinner on the crabbing pier.

                                            Always something to see............

               I often go to the crabbing pier down there with friends from Alberta.

                                                The local harbour seal, Lucy

 And of course my "Red Neck" crabbing buddies. Well they call themselves "red necks" so they must be, eh? Wonderful people, so kind and so much fun.

 And a local Eagle who glides in to pluck a raw chicken drumstick (crab bait) from your hand. Quite remarkable! He was there between flights.