Tuesday, October 14
A silent, chilly night introduced another phenomenal fall day, and Walt and I motored back to the docks on Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park (now called Saysutshun since its return to its native people), tied up the boat, and enjoyed another shimmering afternoon and relaxing evening.
The highlight of my day was a leisurely two-hour, four-mile-round-trip, afternoon walk from the docks to the little registration building near the shore,
to the restroom complex, and then along a well-maintained forest trail to magical Mallard Lake and back. I passed a camping area and a wide meadow, and then entered wooded areas filled with salal, ferns, and spurge laurel (a very poisonous invasive species); mossy boulders, logs. and trunks; twisted snags; soaring spruce, fir, and cedar trees; marshy areas filled with long, thick grasses; nurse stumps and logs hosting various plants; and small “hidey-holes” that little creatures could burrow into. At length I reached serene, tree-encircled Mallard Lake, whose water was mirror-smooth with islands of tree debris floating here and there. The water and the trees were so still that I hardly dared to breathe lest I disturb the peace of the place!
When I returned to Braesail after bathing in the beauty of the forest, I found Walt napping, and I did some reading, some German, and some email work. After supper and galley clean-up, we pursued our usual evening activities and burrowed into bed anticipating a third day of superb (though windless) weather.
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 