We drove down to Ucluelet to have coffee at the amazing Zoë’s Bakery. Brownies, big seedy cookies, pastries, loaves of rustic bread, and the best espresso I’ve had in ages. It was raining off and on. We planned to stop at the Kwisitis Centre to look at the exhibits but when we pulled into the parking area, a parks worker told us the beach and centre were closed because of particularly aggressive wolves who’d attacked a dog yesterday. What about the bog trail, we wondered. Oh, that’s open, she told us. And it was, but with this warning on the sign:
We’ve always loved the Shorepine Bog Trail. A boardwalk winds through sphagnum moss, with umbrella-shaped Pinus contorta var. contorta (a pine that is Lodgepole in its interior incarnation), stunted spruce, bog laurel, labrador tea, sundews, reeds and sedges, and everything glowing green in the mist.
There were wolf scats on the boardwalk but none of them recent. The rain had washed away most of the poop to reveal hair and tiny bone fragments. (Luckily I was wearing the yellow slicker our hotel had thoughtfully left in the closet so that if we did encounter one of the rogues, my remains might at least be recognizable as visitor, not squirrel or unlucky dog.)
Lunch at the wonderful Sobo. We ate there years ago when it was located in the Botanical Garden. Fresh local food, a glass of Joie rosé, and back to wait out the rain for another walk on Cox Bay where the surfers are bobbing in the waves like seals.
...Theresa Kishkan 