[2022 – 180 km – 5 days – Sarah Point to Saltery Bay]
Although the Sunshine Coast Trail is advertised as Canada’s longest hut-to-hut experience in Canada, I confess that I didn’t spend a single night in any of the huts. This is not because they were too busy. In fact, although I saw a few through-hikers along the trail, it didn’t seem to work out that we landed at the same hut at the end of the day. The huts remained empty while I slept in my tent. I did try to stay in one of the huts on the first night, but I wasn’t comfortable with it. There were mosquitoes that I didn’t want to deal with in the middle of the night and I didn’t want the one mouse that I saw scurrying across my chest while I slept. So I opted for the coziness of my little tent and slept well each night. Below are a couple of poems I wrote about the trail, one while hiking, and the other just after I finished.
–
I shiver,
morning,
in the silence.
Is that my breath I see?
Mist hovering
over the lake,
possessing, protecting secrets
of the forest night.
I reach into the mist,
try to touch it,
but it swirls away,
the secrets unrevealed.
A flat stone beckons.
With a short windup,
A snap of the wrist,
one, two, three…seven good skips
and some sputters,
eerie through the mist
before the lake pulls the stone
into her belly.
The ripples flatten,
and all is silent again.
_______________________________________________
–
Purple sea stars at low tide
Cling to seaweed-encrusted rock.
Sun sparkles on gentle swells.
A herd of seals swims slowly by,
Paying me no heed.
I am not so important.
A gull laughs,
And a raven croaks a response,
While orcas breach
Across the Strait of Georgia,
Showing off for their pod members,
Flukes kicking high in their elegant dance.
Warm jacket and
Spicy herbal tea
To ward off the chill.
Ditched the television
To sit in Nature and
Watch her script be played out
By unsuspecting actors.
I don’t see the blowhole,
But the sound of the exhale
Echoes across the strait.
I glance quickly toward the hovering mist
And see the gray whale’s dorsal fin
Just before she dives.
