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Welcome to the latest series of Super, Neighbours blog posts where we highlight incredible travel destinations in British Columbia!GUESS WHO?! |
Click here to see post 1 of 5: Getting There
Click here to see post 2 of 5: Lodging
Click here to see post 3 of 5: The Food
Click here to see post 4 of 5: Activities
It's my last post on the Sunshine Coast...at least for the Happy Trails series. So, I guess it is perfectly fitting to end with the Sunshine Coast Trail itself!
But before that, I want to show you this cool other trail that we did at the Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park!
We took about a 45-minute power walk through some beautiful forested areas in order to get to the rapids at their highest and fastest point for that day.
The water was definitely moving fast when we got there, but the waves that day with the tide weren't as insane as I had seen in some of the videos I checked out before the trip (see the one below to see some insane kayaking at the highest point in the tidal waves).
After hanging out at the rapids for a while we journeyed back through the forest - at that point it was pouring rain, but near the end it let up a bit and I was able to take a few more shots, which were great as we were surrounded by green. I'm glad we got to check it out!
Our second hiking adventure was to cover a section of the Sunshine Coast Trail (Gwendoline Hills) with our guide Eagle Walz (the president and founder of the Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society) and I was REALLY excited for this.
It was I pretty cool trek in itself to get to the entry point to the Sunshine Coast Trail, which you can totally just hike, but we decided to drive to the parking section. You're going to need 4-wheel-drive for that...and you'll see why:
(^^^just driving beside a beaver dam...no big deal...!)
Finally it was time to start hiking -- there was a short path that took you to the actual Sunshine Coast Trail [SCT], and on the way we passed what Eagle told us was wolf scat. I don't know if I've ever been that excited to see poop before...just saying.
above: Wolf scat. below: we're just going to hope that those tracks are from a dog.
Everything in the trail is really well marked...part of what the Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society (and other groups) does is clear and maintain the trail...you'll see in the next few photos the system on the actual SCT - the orange markers on the trees...when they are squares you're heading South/towards the end of the trail, and diamonds mean North/towards the beginning (that's the way we were going).
There was some BEAUTIFUL sights on our way up the trail to the Manzanita Bluffs...gorgeous trees (arbutus are my favourite), so much green and plant life and even a tree used by cougars as a scratching post.
Yes...you read that correctly.
(Cougar scratching post!)
We finally reached the Manzanita Bluffs and were treated to a spectacular view of the hills and surrounding islands. Also at the top was one of the new shelters that the Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society have started to build along the trail...which will let hikers to do the trail without having to carry tents. I could not resist checking the whole thing out including the sleeping part in the top half. It's pretty awesome...you can check out the construction on this blog post!
Our little group of travellers with Eagle!:
Back down we go:
One more photo of the wolf scat...
And here is the beaver dam from a different angle:
I hope you enjoyed my series of posts on the Sunshine Coast...I had an AMAZING time.
Thank you so much to Andrea Wickham-Foxwell and Andrea Visscher for letting me be part of this awesome trip, to Robyn, Catherine and Amanda for be great travel companions, and to all of the amazing people we met along the way for making it a great experience.
If you want more information on the Sunshine Coast, you can click HERE, HERE and HERE
- ANNNNNNNNND Sunshine Coast Tourism has teamed up with the CBC Radio 1 show The Wild Side - with Grant Lawrence and have a contest where you can win a trip for 2 (from anywhere in Canada) to the Sunshine Coast. I want to tell you to enter it, but I also want win and go back there, so.
HAPPY TRAILS!
