3rd day
the third day was botanical beach day. botanical beach is a beach at the other end of the juan de fuca park, 40k away right outside port renfrew. it's famous for it's tidal pools and i really wanted to see them. according to the tidal charts low tide was at 9:08 in the morning. i told the girls we had to leave at 8 and i set the alarm on my cell phone for seven thirty. well apparently right after i fell asleep, my cell phone ran out of juice. so i woke up and found out from a groggy sarita that it was ten after eight. well i bolted straight up out of my bed and started gathering my clothes feverishly. "we have to go!" i exclaimed to my two sleepy eyed tent buddies. we got out of there by eight thirty and i was in a little bit of an inward panic. the roads were super windy, so travel was not that fast. the closer to port renfrew we got the worse the roads got. and there were at least three one way bridges and some of them had a sharp turn right after making it hard to yield to oncoming traffic if you know what i mean. heather was getting queasy.
we pulled in to the parking lot at like five after nine. i took off like a shot down the 1.5 km trail and sarita called after me that they didn't mind if i went ahead. good, i thought. it was actually a really pretty trail but i didn't take much time to admire it. there would be time for that on the way back.
well it turned out there was lots of time for exploring the tidal pools. i met a lady whose husband was a teacher and she told me lots of things about the creatures in the pools. she had a long staff that she would move the eel grass around with and poke things with. you're not supposed to touch anything. a sun screened finger could cause an oil slick, and mere human perspiration could change the ecology of the pools, etc. so i kept running in to the lady and her husband and i would ask them things. that woman really liked to teach me stuff. h&s weren't that far behind me and we criss-crossed paths at times. heather handed her camera over to me. she was so nice about sharing it. in turn i told her the info the lady told me. hours of bliss were spent exploring the pools, bending over them, climbing the rocks and taking pictures. i really tried to cut down on the pictures i included because i think they may bore others, so these are the ones i just had to show. i did some work on them to take away the glare of the water and show the colours that we saw with our eyes, so i hope you enjoy.
there were beds and beds of muscles. and limpets (the china hats). i think these are pacific plate limpets, and a few squished anemone.
i like this anemone because of it's pretty pink tips. it could be a painted urticina, but i'm unsure. that pink spiny stuff is an algae called coralline algae. i thought it was some kind of coral, but it aint. the tidal pools were thick with it.
there were huge tidal pools full of little round pockets of purple sea urchins. apparently they erode a home for themselves in the rock. i like how the giant green anemone situated himself right in the middle. notice the splash of red at the top? it's velvety red sea sponge, and i think that's a rough key hole limpet on top of it, maybe eating it. elicia's book says they eat sponges. you can just see a bubble coming out of it's top. it sends a "current of water over its gills" apparently.
i changed the contrast on this one so you can just see my reflection and the eel grass in it. it's what i wanted anyways.
heather took this one of the beautiful colours in the eel grass.
see how pink the rocks get? that pink stuff is an algae called encrusting coral. i included this pic so you could see the creature in the pool of water. i'm not sure what it is. it could be an isopod or a chiton. does anyone know? i think it may be an isopod. i didn't know it was there when i took the picture. i was all "this is a boring picture..." then i had a cool discovery.
the view from the top of some rocks i climbed.
speaking of isopods, look at this! i found this by almost putting my hand on it. at first i thought it was a wood bug (they're land isopods, by the way) but later i realized it wasn't. good because a wood but that big is really gross.
front view.
heather found this. it's a sea slug with the cool name of ring-spotted doris. it's one of my favourite finds.
the only star fish i found. it has six legs and is called, strangely enough the six-rayed sea star. below it is another unknown creature. maybe the same as in the other pic, but this one has a black circumference.
i just like this one. if you look closely you can see some fish.
i really like this pic. these are leaf barnacles.
sarita told us the queen anne's lace is from the same family as carrots and that you can eat the roots. they're like carrots! hmph.
hi.
when i came to, i was far from most people and itching to go further down the coast but i decided to go back. i found h&s sitting on a log by the trail head. we sat there for a while just enjoying ourselves. we saw some seals. sarita has an eye for these things. it started to sprinkle off and on, but i did not feel it. it was a really overcast day but my hoodie was tied around my waist.
we took more time on the trail back.
i liked this lone dead looking tree.
a mushroom that heather spotted. i didn't get a clear shot of it, sorry.
in this harbour at port renfrew we saw an otter (doing what he oughter...) and one time he dove down and came up with a fish. and he ate it. the bone crunching sounds made heather want to blow chunks.
i spotted some thistle, heather's favourite, and she took this pick.
me, ala signs.
this guy just made it to safety. whew.
little itty bitty orca.
unflattering.
heather had a hard time on the way back. we had some dogs and soup for lunch and then sarita had a nap in the car and heather in the tent. i read. it rained. and it rained off and on all night. for supper we had dogs and chips and salsa. and i wrote in my journal and we went to sleep and sarita slept in the car because apparently i kept her awake the night before. the next day we woke up at seven and packed up and left.
the end.
we pulled in to the parking lot at like five after nine. i took off like a shot down the 1.5 km trail and sarita called after me that they didn't mind if i went ahead. good, i thought. it was actually a really pretty trail but i didn't take much time to admire it. there would be time for that on the way back.
well it turned out there was lots of time for exploring the tidal pools. i met a lady whose husband was a teacher and she told me lots of things about the creatures in the pools. she had a long staff that she would move the eel grass around with and poke things with. you're not supposed to touch anything. a sun screened finger could cause an oil slick, and mere human perspiration could change the ecology of the pools, etc. so i kept running in to the lady and her husband and i would ask them things. that woman really liked to teach me stuff. h&s weren't that far behind me and we criss-crossed paths at times. heather handed her camera over to me. she was so nice about sharing it. in turn i told her the info the lady told me. hours of bliss were spent exploring the pools, bending over them, climbing the rocks and taking pictures. i really tried to cut down on the pictures i included because i think they may bore others, so these are the ones i just had to show. i did some work on them to take away the glare of the water and show the colours that we saw with our eyes, so i hope you enjoy.
there were beds and beds of muscles. and limpets (the china hats). i think these are pacific plate limpets, and a few squished anemone.
i like this anemone because of it's pretty pink tips. it could be a painted urticina, but i'm unsure. that pink spiny stuff is an algae called coralline algae. i thought it was some kind of coral, but it aint. the tidal pools were thick with it.
there were huge tidal pools full of little round pockets of purple sea urchins. apparently they erode a home for themselves in the rock. i like how the giant green anemone situated himself right in the middle. notice the splash of red at the top? it's velvety red sea sponge, and i think that's a rough key hole limpet on top of it, maybe eating it. elicia's book says they eat sponges. you can just see a bubble coming out of it's top. it sends a "current of water over its gills" apparently.
i changed the contrast on this one so you can just see my reflection and the eel grass in it. it's what i wanted anyways.
heather took this one of the beautiful colours in the eel grass.
see how pink the rocks get? that pink stuff is an algae called encrusting coral. i included this pic so you could see the creature in the pool of water. i'm not sure what it is. it could be an isopod or a chiton. does anyone know? i think it may be an isopod. i didn't know it was there when i took the picture. i was all "this is a boring picture..." then i had a cool discovery.
the view from the top of some rocks i climbed.
speaking of isopods, look at this! i found this by almost putting my hand on it. at first i thought it was a wood bug (they're land isopods, by the way) but later i realized it wasn't. good because a wood but that big is really gross.
front view.
heather found this. it's a sea slug with the cool name of ring-spotted doris. it's one of my favourite finds.
the only star fish i found. it has six legs and is called, strangely enough the six-rayed sea star. below it is another unknown creature. maybe the same as in the other pic, but this one has a black circumference.
i just like this one. if you look closely you can see some fish.
i really like this pic. these are leaf barnacles.
sarita told us the queen anne's lace is from the same family as carrots and that you can eat the roots. they're like carrots! hmph.
hi.
when i came to, i was far from most people and itching to go further down the coast but i decided to go back. i found h&s sitting on a log by the trail head. we sat there for a while just enjoying ourselves. we saw some seals. sarita has an eye for these things. it started to sprinkle off and on, but i did not feel it. it was a really overcast day but my hoodie was tied around my waist.
we took more time on the trail back.
i liked this lone dead looking tree.
a mushroom that heather spotted. i didn't get a clear shot of it, sorry.
in this harbour at port renfrew we saw an otter (doing what he oughter...) and one time he dove down and came up with a fish. and he ate it. the bone crunching sounds made heather want to blow chunks.
i spotted some thistle, heather's favourite, and she took this pick.
me, ala signs.
this guy just made it to safety. whew.
little itty bitty orca.
unflattering.
heather had a hard time on the way back. we had some dogs and soup for lunch and then sarita had a nap in the car and heather in the tent. i read. it rained. and it rained off and on all night. for supper we had dogs and chips and salsa. and i wrote in my journal and we went to sleep and sarita slept in the car because apparently i kept her awake the night before. the next day we woke up at seven and packed up and left.
the end.
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