A New Hike!!!

 A few weeks (months?) ago... we got to try out a new hike! It's been on my LBBL (Little Bear Bucket List) for a while... so we are doing pretty good on checking things off of that...

Let's go!!

It's a beary pretty hike through lush forests. There is a creek off to the right which we can hear babbling away. 

Ah... there it is!

It was fairly low water... but it's beary calm and peaceful here.

And it's a salmon bearing stream too... although we didn't see any.

We did see some Maiden Hair fern - beary pretty.

The local area has been doing some restoration work on salmon bearing side channels...

Always good to see that! Keeps the local bears happy!

Oooohhh... red huckleberries!!!

Quite a few actually. A bit tart but packed with flavour. YUM!

The thimble-berries weren't even thinking of being ripe yet. They would have made a nice mouth-combo with the huckleberries.

OK... this trail does have some uphill sections... ugh!

Ooooh... a Deer Fern... don't see this all that often. It's beary pretty with it's fertile fronds coming up in the middle (compared to the flatter sterile fronds down below).

Oh. My. Goodness... Do you see what I see?

That is a beary steep slope down to the creek with a lot of wet seepage spots and... I see...

Some devil's club!!! I haven't see ANY on Vancouver Island ever... this is the first. We know they really well from Gramma's... so this is cool to see some here.

Seee... they are nasty but also have some good medicinal properties...

Onwards!! This old cedar would make a great bear condo...

And those lower hollows could use some fairy doors.

So beautiful... soooo green!

We heard the creek again and took a side trail to check it out... beary pretty.

And then we picked our way upstream a bit and around the corner...

We found this uber cute waterfall!

We just have to dance across the stream boulders a bit more...

Oooh... ahhh... with a beautiful deep pool.

Rose might like this for swimming... although it's a good 2 km hike from any parking spot soooo... maybe not!

I'm going to sit and enjoy the waterfall and the peace and quiet for a bit...