We met a woman who had been in the Broughtons for several months and was ready to go home. “After a while”, she said, “it’s just rocks, rocks, rocks, trees, trees, trees.”
Perhaps if you stay anywhere long enough you become inured. We never got to that point, but we did reach our self-imposed time limit. Other plans, other chores and a sick cat called us home.
I’ll end the story of our 2019 trip to the Broughtons with a collection of photos that I found interesting. I hope you do as well.
This is one of our favorite marinas, Telegraph Harbor on Thetis Island. Also, a nearby coffee roaster.
A tree that has a very firm grip on a rock on Hornby Island.
Petroglyphs on a rock wall on the way to Turnbull Cove.
When trees are felled either by a landslide or loggers, the empty space is quickly filled by fast-growing species like aspens. This recent slide is an example.
A small sawmill once stood atop this crumbling platform. To the right, faint traces of a home remain, mostly some fruit trees and a few flowers.
In Turnbull Cove we found the site of an old logging operation. A steam donkey by the water’s edge was used to pull logs from a huge lake at the top of the hill. Logs were felled from the mountains surrounding the lake and floated to a place where they could be attached to a steel cable pulled by the donkey.
Notice that the cleared path is now mostly filled with aspens. Notice also trees growing where the donkey’s boiler once was.
This is a clam farm. Native people would find a broad, shallow bay that dried at low tide and build a dam at the mouth. Clams, their primary food, would multiply and could be easily harvested.
Finally, a few photos taken at various points along the way.
