Day #3- Nahwitti River Campsite to Cape Sutil East

This morning we walk from the campsite through the trees, onto the beach, to stretch.  There is a large Black Bear feeding at the mouth of the Nahwhitti River, about 3-400 meters away.  We all scramble to get our cameras and make our way closer to get some shots.

Black Bear feeding at the mouth of the Nahwitti  Photo by ©Brian Holden 2014

As we are taking pictures the bear scents us, pulls itself up on a log, turns and stares directly at us.  We yell and it pirouettes around and lopes off into the trees.

Interesting knot in a tree trunk   Photo by ©Brian Holden 2014

Two hikers, who are also medical students at UBC, examine a skeleton on the tent platform.  Seal? Photo by EZ2014

We eat breakfast, pack up, and walk upstream a kilometer to where we will cross the Nahwitti River by cable car.  About half-way there we go through the famous Emerald Forest.  Moss-covered trees with sunlight streaming through the forest raises our spirits.

Swarms of spawning fish Photo by ©Brian Holden 2014

We pause to fill our water bottles again from the bank of the Nahwitti River and watch the Sockeye swirling around, sticking around to spawn in that particular area of the river.

We arrive at the ladders up to the platform with the cable car that we will take across the river.  When it is wet, one has to be very cautious because the 15 - 20 foot ascent is 90 degrees vertical, and the railings and steps are often slippery.   No more than 2 people-- or 600 pounds-- can be safely accommodated by the car in one trip across.  At the beginning of the cable ride, we have fun because gravity moves us, but past the midway point we need to exert quite a bit more effort to pull ourselves to the destination tower.

Pulling ourselves across the river. Photo by ©Brian Holden 2014

Suspended above the river, it's exhilarating to see sights from a perspective that one normally doesn't have.  We throw our hiking poles to the ground before carefully descending the ladder.

The next section of the trail has segments that zigzag through dense forest.  It's important to keep an eye out for the trail markers (red triangles posted on trees).  Three young guys who passed us earlier had gone to the right along the river and gotten lost, but corrected their journey and pass us again.

Within a half-hour away from the cable car the Trail muddies up, and is very challenging due to foot-stubbing root extensions and the steep climb upwards towards Long Leg Hill.  At the top of Long Leg Hill we view more forest.

The Trail descends to a beach down the longest set of wooden steps in Cape Scott Provincial Park.

When we came to the next beach it is high tide with an impassable stone outcrop, so we have no choice but to camp here.  We opt to set up on a sandy deltoid-shaped section of the beach.  At the other end of the beach, two small falls spring from a cleft in the rocks and pool together and offer us the choice to fill up the water bottles from the water falls or the pool.

Again, the four of us enjoy fellowship around the campfire.  There is an abundant supply of dry twigs and driftwood along the beach to feed the fire.

There are not, however, any suitable tree conformations to hang up our food supply.  The trees are either not close together enough, sturdy enough, or low enough for us to reach.  We do find one possible candidate tree, but it is not sturdy enough to handle four bags of food.  On the beach we locate a 20-foot section of boardwalk that has washed up here (from where?) that we sit on while eating.  We decide to push our sealed bags of food under this find, and hill piles of rock up along the sides to secure and hide our food bags from wild animals, we hope.  We try to lift the structure from end to end, and it seems immovably firm and secure.  (The next morning I, unthinkingly, flip the boardwalk up on its side and laugh-- it would  have been a piece of cake for a bear to get at our food).

After we eat, we roll up our pant legs and walk in the sand and crashing waves.
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Anything mentioned in this blog that is of a "health or medical nature" is the opinion and/or experience of the blogger and not an endorsement or a cure. Please see your trusted health professional.