Completely spoiled on the Sunshine Coast

  Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada
Thursday, August 7, 2008

We were sad top leave the comfort of Brendan's cabin, but by a happy coincidence, our next stop on the Sunshine Coast was also the location of Eric's family's cabin.  It was a short boat ride over to the cabin, where we were welcomed by Eric's parents and their friends who were visiting from New Zealand.  After a refreshing saltwater swim, we sat down to a delicious home-cooked meal courtesy of Eric's parents and, for dessert, fresh fruit strait from the Okanagan.  As we ate dinner over-looking the ocean, the sun began to set providing us with a perfect backdrop for our little dinner party.

We met with Sheldon on Friday to get organised for all the work we would do the following week and while we were at the Park's office we had the (somewhat morbid) opportunity to see a dead black bear up close.  It was fascinating, disturbing, and sort of smelly.  We were happy to return to Eric's cabin for the weekend where we had a great time hiking, swimming, playing with the dog (cocoa), playing board games, and catching up on our reading.  We also explored Gibson's Landing (home of the Beachcombers) and enjoyed all the home cooking we could eat. 

On our last night there, I went down to the dock to check out the scenery and when I dangled my toes in the water, I noticed that they were glowing!  I have never seen such intense bioluminescence before!  I went and got the rest of the crew so they could see it too.  We had a great time stirring it around and throwing rocks to see the ripples light up.  I couldn't resist going in for a swim; it was amazing to see the millions of flecks of green light tracing the movement of my arms and legs and sparkling in a cloud all around me.

The next morning we made our way to Robert's Creek so we could be closer to our worksite and also because we had another cabin where we could stay.  On Monday we met with Sheldon again and started work on Sakinaw Lake.  We were lucky to finally have some sunny weather, but this turned out to be a double edged sword as it meant that everyone was out on their docks.  By the third day of our collecting data, people were getting pretty curious about what we were doing.  Working with Sheldon was a lot of fun and we were really glad he was there to deal with the very cranky boat motor which seemed only to start for him (and occasionally Eric).  One evening we met up with Eric's parents as well as Sheldon to have dinner at the Gumboot Restaurant, a somewhat 'hippy chic' place just down the road from the cabin.   The meal was very tasty (and healthy too) and we all had a nice sunset walk down the breakwater after dinner.

We finished Ruby Lake much faster than Sakinaw as it was smaller and had less development (and fewer curious dock people), and by Friday we were on our way back to the Island.  We were all excited to get home to see friends and family and (for everyone but me) to get ready to go back to school very shortly.  I was looking forward to spending some time in one place and getting all the data organized, and also to starting my Master's degree at UVic in January.  The summer had flown by so quickly, it seemed like no time at all had passed since we were setting camp for our first night in the Okanagan.  Looking back it's amazing how much of the province we had a chance to see, and how much more there is out there!  We only had one week of data collection left on the island, and then the guys would be done for the summer.