The last time I posted a lot has happened! Mainly some time off – which I haven’t had the entire time here so it was both well deserved and overdue. My UBC colleague, Shaun, and I headed out on the Saturday to hike some of the famous West Coast Trail. We waited for a fairly sunny day and we were lucky – no rain. We started at Pachena Bay and hiked 10km to Pachena Point, where the lighthouse is. 
Gorgeous hike through the old growth forest – muddy but not that bad, and also not that hard. This end (the north end) is easier than the south apparently (lucky for us). No bear sightings but we saw a massive poop on trail and heard something pushing down trees – lots of “whooping” and clapping and it was no problem.
We stopped at Sea Lion point/rock – a little spot where you can look out to a huge flat rockwhere tons of Steller sea lions come out to sun themselves. Very cool to see them all hanging out, making a lot of noise and stinking up the place. When the wind blew a certain direction they actually really stink!
We met a few people on the trail – some just finishing (from starting 5 days previous) and others just starting out. I would like to do it one day… but 6-7 days is long and no dogs allowed! 🙁
Our next day off was a mix of some computer work (we are working on some curriculum connections for the station) and some relaxing beach time. We spent several hours at Pachena beach (again) just relaxing. It was a beautiful blue sky day and there have been very few of those so we wanted to soak it up. We also joined some of the other education staff who were soaking up some rays and overdue rest. I did do some walks… and found a dolphin skeleton in the midst of decomposition. Someone had removed the head (why not? that would be a cool skull to have) but the rest was left to nature. It is a beautiful place with a really nice campground, which one day I will come back to and explore with Ellis.
Monday – back to work… then only 4 days left until we leave! Time flies!
