Sechelt Peninsula, Sunshine Coast BC, June 2024

 I drove from Kelowna, skirting around the north end of the Vancouver metro area for my ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale .  I took an evening walk along the beach just down from the hill from my carriage house airbnb a couple of miles north of Sechelt (I have a view of the ocean, I’m about 2 blocks up the hill from the ocean).

The next day I did my first paddle of the season, a 7 miler in Pender Harbor here on the BC Sunshine Coast.  Beautiful day and conditions.

And then an evening hike at Smuggler’s Cove Provincial Park, a really nice hike through a wetland that ends at smuggler’s cove at the ocean (had two beavers slap their tails as I passed), very peaceful with beautiful birds singing (my Merlin bird app said they were western tanagers and swainson’s thrushes), caught my first west coast sunset, and listened to the bullfrogs as I made my way back through the wetland.  A nice ending (made it back to car at twilight around 10 pm) to a beautiful day here on the Sunshine Coast.

The next day I hiked to the Sookumchuck Narrows (Sechelt Rapids).  Depending on what you read, this is either the largest tidal rapids or one of the largest tidal rapids in the world.  Either way, it’s impressive.  I had a beautiful day for it, and was lucky to be here on a HL afternoon (more extreme tides, more dramatic flow), and when I was there around noon, it was the peak ebb tide whirlpool show.  I included a few shots of the whirlpools but you can see the whirlpools forming much better in person…doesn’t photo well.  I also have a few photos showing an idiot in a boat going up the rapid, about an hour after the peak, but still very dramatic and strong flows.  He made it, but it was dicey in one spot.

I wrapped up my time here with a steep but shorter (3 mile RT) hike yesterday to Mt. Daniel with views of Pender Harbor, where I had kayaked the day before.  The western heat wave made it all the way up here, with temperatures making it to 80 degrees heading into the north end of the Sunshine Coast, but back into the 60’s the next day.