NV Trip to Juan de Fuca Marine Park – June 2 to 6, 2023

Report by Denis Laplante

We had no rain, and the worst patch of mud was only 2cm deep. Many of the trails required scrambling and good balance; some sections were like a walk in the park. For tides we used Fisheries & Oceans https://tides.gc.ca/en/stations stations Point No Point and Port Renfrew (also Java App jtides.jar). Beware daylight saving time – tide tables at trailheads were in Standard Time, one discreetly labelled HNP (Heure Normale du Pacifique)!

See more photos at Google Photos (48 photos) including video of Gray Whale feeding near kelp bed at Botanical Beach. Also see Harvey and Michelle’s Photo Album (about 200 photos).

June 1 to 5 – 4 of us camped at China Beach

A wonderful and quiet campsite where we heard lots of birds morning and evening

Thu June 1 – East Sooke Regional Park Stats: 13km in 4h, 288m ascent
We met at Pike Road trailhead, and walked down to Iron Mine Bay then back via Coppermine Trail.  Very pleasant trails through forest and along coast (rough at times along rocky coast).  Lots of birds.

Fri June 2 Sooke Potholes – trail towards Peden Lake ; Muir Beach fossils
Stats: 4km, 3h33, 155m ascent.  Potholes and waterfalls look great; more waterfalls on trail towards Peden lake.  Lots of bird song.

Later did short walk to fossil beds on beach W of Muir Creek – 2km return from parking W of bridge.  Sandstone cliffs and broken-off boulders with fossil shells. Oligocene Sooke Formation approx 25 million years old.

Sat June 3 JdeF Chin Beach to Sombrio Beach
Stats: 11km, 7h28m, 334m ascent (487m descent)
Parked on highway near Unmarked Trail #4 (Giant Cedars, White Sands by Donald C. Mills), after leaving 2nd vehicle at S.B. parking lot.  At times rough walk (though not much mud this week in unseasonably dry weather). Passed many enormous Hemlock and some RedCedar.

Sun June 4 Whiffin Spit (Sooke) and China Beach
W.S.: 2.5km return.     Saw otters, birds, butterflies, algae and intertidal marine life; plants
C.B. Campsite to beach 1.4km (92m descent) + 0.6km along beach

Mon June 5 Parkinson Creek parking to beach & back
meandered 4.7km in 2h, ascent 90m.

June 6 to 7 we slept 6 in a cabin (AirB&B) in Port Renfrew

Tue June 6 Botanical Beach & Big Lonesome Doug

8am to noon (0.2m @ 9:33, 2.5m @ 14:00)  Botanical Beach tidepooling after 1 km walk to beach.  Stayed 8:30 to 11:30 (low tide 0.2 19:30).  Saw many algae and animals in tidepools.  Sculpins, Crabs Barnacles, Mussels, Urchins, Lemon Nudibranchs, Harlequin Ducks, and finally one Gray Whale bottom-feeding in shallow water 100m from rocky shore during 20minutes.

Later drove 11km on Gordon R Rd (logging road) to see Big Lonesome Doug. Parked before bridge over Gordon R, walked 1.4km and back, ascent 64m. This enormous Douglas Fir is awe-inspiring.  The walk along logging road is ok.

Wed June 7 Honeymoon Bay Ecological Reserve, on the way to Nanaimo.
0.9km level loop(park on shoulder, 1.0km W of turnoff to Honeymoon Bay Provincial Park.  Forest not dried out, many flowers.

List of plants (including seaweeds): Alaska blue-eyed grass, Aleutian maidenhair, arctic sweet coltsfoot, baldhip rose, beach pea, beach strawberry, bigleaf lupine, bigleaf maple, broadleaf stonecrop, bull kelp, camas, Canada mayflower, candy flower, Cascade Oregon-grape, clasping twisted-stalk, Columbia tiger lily, common butterwort, common lomatium, common monkey-flower, common snowberry, cow-parsnip, crimson columbine, crown brodiaea, cutleaf blackberry, dwarf sea hair, European searocket, evergreen huckleberry, feather boa kelp, field chickweed, five-ribbed kelp, fragrant fringecup, great horsetail, green false hellebore, hairy manzanita, harsh Indian paintbrush, Hooker’s fairy bells, Indian plum, largeleaf avens, meadow death camas, mountain sweet-cicely, nodding onion, Nootka rose, northern bedstraw, northern green orchid, one-flowered moneses, orange honeysuckle, Pacific sanicle, Pacific trillium, river-bank lupine, rusty rock, salal, scouring horsetail, seacoast angelica, seaside plantain, seaside sandplant, small enchanters nightshade, small-flowered lotus, stinging nettle, sweetgrass, tall Oregon grape, trailing blackberry, twinberry honeysuckle, vanilla leaf, variable-leaf collomia, villous cinquefoil, wall lettuce, water sedge, western buttercup, western serviceberry, western starflower, white bog orchid, white hawkweed, woodland buttercup, yarrow, yellow-eyed grass, youth-on-age, …

List of Seaweeds: beach pea (gesse maritime), branched coralline algae, Broad-winged kelp, bull kelp, coralline encrusting algae, dead man’s fingers, feather boa kelp, five-ribbed kelp (seersucker), Green Tuft (sea moss), gutweed, purple laver, sea belt (sugar kelp), sea cauliflower (sea potato), sea lettuce, sea moss (nail brush seaweed), splendid iridescent seaweed (rainbow-leaf), Turkish towel, Turkish washcloth (Sea Tar), …

List of birds seen or heard: Canada Goose, Anna’s Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Black Oystercatcher, Killdeer, Glaucous-winged Gull, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, American Crow, Common Raven, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, European Starling, American Robin, American Goldfinch, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, swainson’s thrush, varied thrush, pacific wren, belted kingfisher, Pigeon Guillemot, Harlequin ducks, Pelagic Cormorants, song sparrows, American goldfinch, Steller’s Jay, cedar waxwing, black-headed grosbeak, golden-crowned kinglet, hermit thrush, common nighthawk, Warbling Vireo, Barred Owl, Ruffed Grouse, Western Tanager, …

List of animals seen: Gray Whale, Black Bear, Harbor Seals, River Otter,  Sea Star (only 2), Limpet, Barnacle, Gooseneck Barnacle, Sea Anemone, Sculpin, Lemon nudibranch, encrusting sponge, tadpoles, millipede, Urchin, crabs, Mossy chiton (mopalia muscosa), Black Katy chiton (katherina tunicata) and lined chiton (Tonicella lineata), …