Tahsis Year one

For eight years my summers and much of some Falls were spent exploring as much as I could of the area surrounding a little village at the end of an inlet on Vancouver Island BC called Tahsis. I made some lasting and dear friendships there. The experiences I have had have been unforgettable and I will miss my times with those wonderful funny people as well as the nature that I clung to while homesick for my backyard. I saw breathtaking things while hiking alone in the rain forest. I've bumped into a bear, been lunged at by a mama bear, come within 15' of a Mother cougar laying along the base of a hemlock tree while her kits played in a tree nearby. Of course those were the times when I didn't bring my camera, or panicked and snapped the pic after the bear ducked back into the bush! This blog is a peek at life in a place that you get to only by boat, float plane or a looong bumpy gravel road 3 hours from real civilization and the people who wind up in such a place!

Tahsis & Nootka Sound year 1 (Fall 2004)




Above the inlet at the lookout (looking towards the village)





I think this is where I said "but I don't want to work on any more houses"

This was the view

But this was the house!

I decided to accept the ^&*%# smiling bears with trays of cookies and fish sandwiches tile as "whimsicle". When it pisses rain sideways for months with no break in the Fall, ya just wanna smack the smiles right off those bears while making bannock & cream of Cantrell soup. It was always nice on these days when someone would pop in for tea! Sometimes it was Oyster Bob heading in or out from Nuchalitz where he lived and ran an oyster farm. More on him and his boat  and Nuchalitz below and in future Blogs.

A boat ride with Bob Devault (Oyster Bob) on The Nootka Rose which he built himself was the first boat adventure to his Oyster Farm on Nuchalitz where his home off the grid is. The Nootka Rose remains my favorite boat! Here is a Blog that shows a recent trip to Nuchalitz and Bob's place: http://itwasokay.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-boat-ride-to-nuchatlizt-island-paul.html  

Bob built the home himself with his sawmill.





A paddle in Bob's rowboat from his place to a trek over the sand revealed this awesome double rainbow (you're not the only one Bear!) after being pelted with hail. Didn't have the camera, but Bob took this awesome pic and emailed it. For more on the Oyster farm, I found this link. I'm not sure Bob is still oystering though!  http://www.cosmotourist.de/reisen/d/i/2414128/tab/3/t/centre-island/nuchatlitz/fotos/

This mama bear and her cubs fishing in the Tahsis River each day were a great draw for entertainment! If you look closely up in the tree to the left, you can see the cubs. The stuff all over the beach are salmon that bears have ripped up. Bears on Vancouver Isladn are black bears, no Grizz. They are almost always truly black, not ranging from light brown to black in Yosemite area. This same Fall I bumped into a very big bear in the bushes. I think he was asleep as it was still dim in the morning when I went for my walk. The bear garumphed when I bumped him, so I excused myself and backed away! They really don't smell so good.  

Up Tahsis Inlet towards the open sea, the narrows Nootka Island, Nuchalitz and beyond from the lookout above Tahsis village.

Down Inlet from the lookout towards the Village of Tahsis 

This was the beginning of a trail I found by bushwhacking. It turned out to be the start of what is now the Estuary Trail. You will be seeing much more of this trail to come in future posts! 

In November the swans came into the Inlet.

This boat the Dorian became like an old friend to me as I returned each year. 

Her body was already in pieces here and there.

A piece of her hull?

Dorian low tide

After weeks with pissing sideways rain, on American Thanksgiving day, it was time to bring the last bag of trash out & head home. Canadian Thanksgiving was in October. A boat ride to Esperanza with new friends Dave & Sue  and a salmon feast was a great way to celebrate! Dave & Sue will be in future posts. I had no pics of them yet here. They are artists from New Mexico and part timers in Tahsis. Susan later became my Cantrell mushroom hunting buddy. The foraging and harvesting of mushrooms, berries, sea and plant foods was the main thing along with exploring that kept me going without a garden and my own backyard full of granite rocks (Yosemite).  I had given up my horse before these trips and there were no horses in the area at all, so that was difficult for my psyche. 

Logging truck passing on the loooong gravel road out 1& 1/2 hours to Gold River, then pavement another 1&1/2 hours to real civilzation, Campbell River.

Malispina Lake, on the way out