Blogtober Sixteen: Looking at Trees

 

Port Renfrew lies on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where the river floods into the Pacific Ocean. It's a small fishing town, as well as a tourist hub for hardy souls beginning or ending the rugged West Coast Trail. 

We are here for a few days - a rather spontaneous trip. A small cozy cabin in the woods is our home. This morning we set off across the bridge in search of some very special trees. 

 

 This tiny Douglas Fir tree is growing from a submerged Douglas Fir log. It was not on our list of trees to search for, but I spied it as we drove by. We stopped long enough to take a quick photo or two. If you search for Fairy Lake Tree, dozens of beautiful photos will appear on your screen. Makes me want to go back and see if I can get another photo in different light. 

Deep in the forest, not far from the wild waves of the Pacific Ocean on Vancouver Island's west coast, stand sentinels of time - magnificent trees, some up to 2000 years old. It was a bit of an adventure to get to the next tree. The logging road to get here is closed. Firmly closed with huge piles of forest debris pushed into an enormous pile blocking the route. Undaunted, we put on our hiking boots and clambered over 500 metres of very rough ground followed by another 1.5 km of walking. The San Juan Spruce tree is Canada's largest Sitka Spruce, and the second largest in the world. You can see my six-foot tall husband looking rather small beside it. 

On our hike to the Spruce Tree, we discovered a road that would bypass the rough terrain we hiked over. We still had to hike back the same way we came in order to get back to our vehicle, but then we drove to the trailhead for the Red Creek Fir. With a diameter of 4.2 metres (14 feet), a circumference of 9.8 metres (32 feet), and a towering height of 73.8 metres (242 feet), this is the largest Douglas Fir tree in the world, and about 1000 years old. It's impossible to photograph it all. The top just disappears into the sky. Yours truly is standing next to it and looks very small indeed.

Rivers and creeks flow through the landscape, sometimes calm and serene, sometimes gurgling as they rush over rocks. Mist hung in the trees for most of the day and there was a little rain from time to time.

Our next stop, after jouncing on a very rough road followed by a 15-minute hike, was to Avatar Grove. This stand of old-growth forest has been protected from logging. It's awe-inspiring to hike through these old trees. Enormous Red Cedar trees are at every turn. We stood in the forest hearing nothing but trickling water, trying to absorb the majesty of this place. The tree above is known as Canada's Gnarliest Tree because of its huge burls and tangled roots.

Wandering through the forest we noticed many nurse logs. The horizontal log in the center of the photo has many small trees and bushes growing from it. What is not very visible is that the tall tree at the end of the nurse log also grew from it. Decades of growth nurtured by one fallen cedar tree. 

Smaller creatures inhabit the woods and I caught this snail creeping along a fungal growth on a tree stump. We saw a few deer, a bald eagle or two, and a grouse. No bears, for which I was thankful. Someone once said to me that our forests and trees are our cathedrals since we don't have the structures people go to see in Europe. I felt much of the same awe and quietness in the forest today. Thank God for trees!

After all that hiking and tree gazing, we're planning a short while in the hot tub outside where we can look at the night sky, followed by reading for awhile before sleep.