Rain Forest Wonderland |

Today, which happens to be in the middle of January, I went hiking in the rain forest in shorts and a tee-shirt.

I love winter on Vancouver Island. 😀

There was no itinerary in mind today; I just wanted to get some fresh air. I parked at the Canyon View trail parking lot and then wandered around until I found the Beaver Pond trail. This involved taking a wrong turn onto what happened to be a private road, which ended up with my being chased by a very loud and territorial dog. Oops! To avoid my mistake, park at the power plant lot that’s just off the highway rather than the one that is in front of the plant itself. Walk across the highway, turn left, and go around the bend until you see a path veering off into the woods. It’s not well marked, but there is a sign (see below) that will confirm you’re in the right place.

I started off in my hiking pants, a tee-shirt, and my rain slicker as the sky was very grey and heavy. I overheated within five minutes and opened up the arm pit zippers for ventilation, but that still wasn’t enough. So, off went the coat and shortly thereafter the bottom part of the hiking pants and then I was comfortable. Have I mentioned that it is presently the middle of January?

Since it had taken me over an hour to find the Beaver Trail and it looked like a long loop with rather monotonous (if rain forest can be considered monotonous) views, I only did a small part of it before doubling back to the car.

The water levels were very high today and there has been talk of possible flooding if the rain keeps up. Be sure to compare some of these pictures to ones taken on my official Canyon View hike!

The mayor* told me that there is an exhaustive map of the hiking trails around Campbell River, so I’ve put finding this map on my list of things to do tomorrow.