My sister Karli sent me a great little thanksgiving story. enjoy.Francis,
Amalia and I went to Nitinat in an RV this weekend to go kitesurfing. Well, yes, me in an RV - far better than me with an outhouse, I assure you. The
last time we went to Nitinat there were about 160 cars in the forestry campsite - meaning about 350 people, give or take a few. This time, there were 3 (people, that is) and I think they left just after we arrived. There were also a bunch of abandoned tents, which I hope people left behind in the hopes of preserving their precious "spots." Location is truly everything. I gathered from the lap lines that many of those same tents had recently been pricey waterfront, as it seemed that the giant puddle in the middle of the campground had receded substantially - the rain must have been rainforest-worthy. Nitinat is practically next to
Carmanah, and those trees did not grow so big on sunlight alone...
The abandoned chairs and hammock were a little foreboding, but the enormous salmon jumping in the lake distracted us. As well as the snorting seals -which were taking a break from chasing the salmon, I gather.
We had a nice cozy sleep in our comfy little RV, and in the morning decided to go for a walk through the woods to the river. Amalia indulged us by admiring all of the lovely slugs and mushrooms big and small along the way. After about 20 mins, we arrived at the river, which was beautiful, calm, and swollen with more salmon leaping from harm's way.
As we plunged through the dripping branches towards the lakefront, I narrowly missed stepping in a rather large scat. Big dog, I wondered, not letting myself really think about the more likely furry creature who left it behind. At last, we were at the beach, and happily shouting the "Ants Go Marching" song along the beach, heading back to the deserted campsite... After we saw the paw prints in the sand, which we knew were from that morning as the water level in the lake had dropped and they were at the edge, Amalia rode high on my shoulders. Francis the unflappable picked up a nice walking stick - about 8 feet long and 2 1/2 inches thick. I said hopefully "the tracks seem to be going in both directions, don't they?" not mentioning that I too had noticed the smaller paw prints next to the big ones. And so we sang ourselves loudly around the bend and back to the campsite, again noting the empty hammock, and empty tents. Safely back in the comfort of our RV, we decided to head back to civilization after some sandwiches and pumpkin pie.
Amalia, of course, wanted a story, so we read one of her favorites, about little Sal and little bear, who go into the woods with their mothers to pick blueberries and get all mixed up with each other...
(Picture from our last Nitinat kitesurfing trip together: Chris Breikss (me), Francis, Karli, Amalia, background instructor Chris)
