May 31 – Notch Hill

We decided to take advantage of another bright sunny day to climb up to the viewpoint over Nanoose Bay on Notch Hill. Afterwards we went over to the very small Beachcomber Regional Park to have lunch by the ocean.

The trail loops to a lower lookout and then the summit and is only about 3 km but there were no flat spots.

There were good trail maps at all the junctions. I drew our clockwise path in red on a picture of one of the maps.

It was a steep, steady climb up about 500 vertical feet. It is called Notch Hill because there are really two summits with a valley in between so after we got to the first viewpoint we had to go down and back up to get to the second. After yesterday, there was a lot of huffing and puffing.

You walk up an access road to these water tanks.

The hill is covered in the twisted Gary Oaks and Arbutus trees.

It may look like the camera was tilted for this picture but no.

It was hot in the sun so the jackets quickly came off.

The viewpoints are open meadows with fairly unobstructed views down to Nanoose Bay.

It was a bit hazy but we still could easily see the snow covered mountains in the distance.

Jennie needed some shade.

There were some lines of floats in the bay for what I assume is shellfish farming.

 

It is so much easier taking a photosphere when you are not spinning around on top of a slippery narrow rock, trying not to fall into a roaring creek.

Notch Hill Lookout Photosphere

Down into the notch.

And back up with lots of twisty trees to look at.

As we did start back up, we noticed some little treasures at the bottom of some trees.

Wow, a short flat spot.

Not for long.

Now it was a ghost.

Another great view from what we thought was the summit.

Almost but not quite.

Now an owl.

This was the summit.

An owl on the tree to the right, above.

A nice, just a bit too tall, bench for a rest.

This tree had more treasures.

Moving on to another owl. They were so great that I just have to post them all.

 

From the south of of the summit meadow we got a look out the end of Nanoose Bay.

Notch Hill Summit Photosphere

Starting down.

The last of the treasures, that we found.

Heading back to the car.

We had been going to have lunch at the top but we had a late breakfast and just weren’t hungry.

I had read a bit about Beachcomber Regional Park. It is really tiny but with that name I hoped for something interesting. It turned out that there was not that much to beachcomb but it was still a nice place for lunch.

The park is just this bit of beach.

And this small patch of forest with the rocks in front. It was hemmed in by what looked like very expensive home all around.

Lunch first.

And then some exploring.

To be fair it was not even close to low tide.

We were also quite tired from our climb so we only stayed a short while and then headed home.

May 30 – Rosewall Creek Provincial Park

Another waterfall day.

I had seen the falls on Rosewall Creek mentioned in a bunch of blogs and brochures. They all mentioned the length at around 4 km but some never said one way or round trip. One did say one way and another did say round trip and it had a GPS track so I went with that one. I even tried to measure on a map and 4 km total seemed reasonable. You know where this is going. I should have read the round trip blog a bit closer. The lady did the hike with her kids and it turns out they gave up before getting to the falls. So it was around an 8 km hike today. It was longer than I had intended and with all the scrambling I did at the actual falls, my legs are rather sore.

 

Even looking at the scale on the GPS track afterwards 2 km one way would seem reasonable. I guess all the wiggles stretches it out.

First, under the highway.

And then a smaller road.

The trail pretty much hugged the side of the creek except for the few times that the shore got too steep or eroded and we had to climb around.

I think this tree was soon going to be in serious trouble.

I am told that this is a Sapsucker and and that is what we saw on Newcastle Island.

A lot of the trail was on the flood plain of the creek. These pictures are terrible but Jennie is looking up at what are some of the roots of the tree. They were once underground and have been exposed by erosion. You can sort of see the rocks that have been trapped by the roots.

The section below was a short steep downhill. I guess it was dug out by the water from all the exposed root that are still hanging there.

We had to go around this huge jumble of logs at the outside of a sharp corner in the creek.

We haven’t had a mushroom picture in a while.

At about the 3 km mark I finally resigned myself to it being an 8 km day.

The falls occur right at a sharp bend in the creek. Right at the bend is a vertical wall that prevents access. Before the bend is a nice cascade. A small ribbon waterfall enters down the wall from the side and the main falls are around the bend almost out of sight.

These picture are so heavily and badly photoshopped that it was hard to show them here but it is the best I could do. To get good pictures we should really come on cloudy days but it is much nicer to hike when it is sunny and the falls do look better in person.

Here is what we could see from the viewpoint most people start at, if you went as close to the rock wall as you could.

The ribbon falls are just visible if you go downstream a bit.

Father down there was a spot that let you get out into the creek far enough to get a good view of the cascade and the ribbon.

To continue any farther meant climbing up a VERY steep trail to the top of the cliff and working your way around until you could come down a VERY steep trail to get closer to the main falls. Jennie stayed behind at our future lunch spot while I went off exploring.

Part way up there was a ledge where I could get a slightly better view.

I noticed that someone had snapped off one of the small trees to improve the sight line. Still not great.

Looking back down at Jennie through the trees.

Onwards and upwards, mostly on hands and knees.

I worked my way back down to near the top of the ribbon falls. I took this really lousy photosphere but it gives you an idea what I was up against.

Rosewall Falls Photosphere 1

In hindsight, the pictures I was able to get from the places that I was (almost) safely able to get to were just not worth the risk and effort. But I did it so here they are.

Working my way down to another narrow ledge.

This is as close as I could get.

I worked my way downstream a bit for a couple of more shots.

Time to head back to Jennie. By the time I got back to her I was exhausted. She had long since given up waiting and had lunch. We decided that we are going to have to bring some walkie talkies so that we can both feel safer when I go off like this. (No cell coverage here).

After I ate my lunch and rested a while, I took one more photosphere and we headed back.

I am not why sure part of it is out of focus. I was perched up on a rock so maybe I just took them too fast. (I also chopped off Jennie.)

Rosewall Creek Photosphere 2

After dinner I wandered out on to the beach in front of the RV park.

A day of more than expected exercise.