Day #5 - From Cape Sutil Campsite to Beyond Stranby River

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(Click on the top photo to see the Gallery of Day 5 photos)
We rise about 7 am and start to go through our usual routines.  We hit the road at about 10:30 am.

The path from the first Cape Sutil Beach zigzigs through the forest, up, down, and comes around at the Second Cape Sutil Beach.  We do not actually see Cape Sutil-- it is on Reserve Land.

We follow the beach and have to go through the forest again, and come out on the opposite side.   We hike a short distance to the next beach (referred to for our purposes, "Loggy Beach").  We encounter a number of logs that we had to traverse over.  We are now on the Southwest side of Cape Sutil.  Cobble for a while, smooth, and then we work our way inland again.  It is a tough climb to get up to a High Tide Trail that follows the tops of the cliffs and goes inland on the cliffs, and then goes back down to another beach.  We have to use ropes to haul ourselves up and over to yet another beach.

Almost immediately we need to start climbing again, using ropes.  Here is a vertical, extremely difficult section where we have to release one rope to grab and use another as we are descending.

I am first down the steep section and coach one of the woman to descend.  I suggested to Brian that he wear gloves to do the rope work.  He has his gloves in his backpack; he gestures and asked India if she will reach in and get them for him.  When she unzips the pack the bear spray tumbles out, followed by his water purification drops.  They fall irretrievably into a ravine at the base of the ropes and the bear spray cannister breaks into three parts.  Miraculously, Brian is able to salvage all three pieces and he manually operates the spray pump, using both hands, to send out a thin stream of spray.  He recognizes that the gadget is broken.  India, above and behind him, suddenly feels her throat go dry, and feels dizzy <--this demonstrates="" for="" how="" is.="" nbsp="" p="" potent="" spray="" the="" us="">
Brian picks up the broken pieces of the bear spray cannister and puts them into his back pack, along with the water purification kit.

We continue on to another beach-- it is easy to lose track of the different beaches, this is quite a long series of beaches.

We cross to the forest with the tombolo on the right.

We come out on the other side of the forest to another beach.  We are greeted by some fantastic rock formations: jagged, rugged, green.  We walk along a cobble beach.  We come to a very wide and rocky creek's mouth where water flows in a thin trickle down the middle portion, allowing us to breeze through, rock to rock, without getting our feet wet.

Brian walks just ahead of me.  I yell at him from behind, "Is this Irony Creek?"  He replies that he doesn't think it is.

We keep walking along a beautiful sandy beach-- the best walking beach of the hike.  It arks around to the right.  We hike along here for about forty-five minutes, enjoying the activities of the shore birds and the surf flashing in the sun.

We came to what turns out to be the Stranby River-- although we are still under the impression that it is Irony Creek-- and look for the Campsite on the opposite side.  The Tide is coming in --passage to the other side is an impossible feat.  We backtrack about a half kilometer and find an old settlers' corduroy road.  We follow this inland (parallel to the river).  The corduroy road crosses back and forth and we tire considerably, but finally make it to a cable car.  Darci says, "This has to be the Stranby River."  Brian is insistent that it is Irony Creek.

We pull ourselves on the cable car to the other side.  There is no signage.  It would be nice to know if it is the Stranby River we are crossing.

After crossing and climbing down from the cable car, we fill up our water bottles along the bank of the river.  We aren't sure how far it is to where we will pitch camp for the night.  It is about 8pm and dark is falling.

We head out along the Trail, flat but grossly disfigured by roots, fallen logs and mud, a difficult route in the fading light.  Brian opts to go ahead to find the campsite and I volunteer to wait for the women to catch up.  (Brian still believes that we had just crossed Irony Creek).

Darci and India join up with me and the three of us soldier on.  After about twenty minutes we catch a glimpse of river in the twilight.  The Trail curves to the left, away from the river, into a myriad of pathways and we just hope we are on the right one.  We have lost sight of Brian.  We begin yelling out for him.

We are eerily convinced we hear him two different times, but aren't sure what we hear  or what direction his voice is coming from.  Very creepy.

We stop to have a discussion about how to proceed.  We decide that I will backtrack to see if I can find Brian and they will continue on to locate a safe place to camp for the night.  Our theory is that Brian is below us along the beach beside the ocean, and that having heard his voice, I will backtrack to connect with him.

I turn on my heel, and taking out my small flashlight, I yell out for him as I walk.  I think this might keep the bears away.  I end up back as far as where I think I last heard his voice.  I take a path that I hope will lead to the ocean, but is a dead-end.  I am starting to worry.  I decide to head along the path to re-join up with Darci and India. It is darker now and hard to discern whether I am even on the right path.

In the meantime, the women have stumbled onto a 'pocket beach,' a crescent of sand with high rock piles on either side.  They decide against going further because they see no evidence of a campsite and no Brian, so they circle back and we meet on the path.  I report my findings (or lack thereof).  I suggest we camp on the pocket beach.

We arrive at the beach.  In the forest it is dark, but on the beach I can clearly see piles of rotting seaweed at the high tide mark.  We check out the end of the beach.  Rocks jut out to the ocean.    The women are concerned that the high tide would wash them away.  Darci is actually considering hitting the emergency button her "Spot".

On the mesa, the sand is fine and I point out that there are many boot prints, suggesting that the tide doesn't  rise this high and it will  make a good camp. They are still very nervous, because on the way over to the landrise we saw fresh bear scat on the beach.  I share some of my research that indicates there is no record of anyone having been killed by a bear on Vancouver Island.     I also mention that while I understand that an emergency evacuation is free if there is deemed a 'legitimate' reason, such as a hiker being injured in a condition not to be able to continue the hike, but that just being scared or tired does not qualify for a 'free rescue'.

We set up camp and get a big fire going.  We have something to eat and drink.  Darci asks me "What do you think happened to Brian?"  I reply that I assume that he is camping somewhere and he'll head out early in the morning and find us. I assure them that Brian was an experienced, skilled leader in Outdoors Education in his working years.  He knows how to survive in the wilderness as well as teach others these skills.

After eating we look for suitable trees to cache our food.  The tree that looked most promising was dead and the limb we throw our rope over breaks off.  We seal up all of the food so as to prevent odours.  I have separated zip lock bags that I contain in one large ziplock bag.  The women had special camping water-tight sacks.  They take the three food bags and they lie them on the sand, covering them with rotting sea weed, rocks and logs.  I think to myself, "this is ingenious".

This night the women decide to share one tent.  They also decide they will take turns, one doing 'bear watch' while the other one sleeps.  I say to them, "What good will that do?  If a bear comes in the middle of the night, you'll both be too tired to fight it off, plus you'll be dead tired in the morning."  So they decide to go to sleep.  By the time we retire, it is past midnight.

I pray that when we wake up in the morning that everything will be fine.
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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.