After arriving back from Toronto, we had one quick day at home to unpack and get things organized before we headed over to Galino for New Year’s Eve. We were staying for a few days into the new year which was unseasonably warm but gave us an opportunity to get out and do a few things and continue some projects around the property.
The daffodils are confused and think spring has arrived.
The winter thus far has been unseasonably warm. It’s been nice, don’t get me wrong, but I’m afraid we’re goign to pay for it eventually. It’s been 10C, sometimes as high as 15C on a regular basis - so much so that the spring flowers are confused and starting to sprout.
We arrived on New Year’s eve on the morning ferry, which put us on the island around lunch time. We had big plans to get work done, but after wandering around to check things out, we didn’t really feel like doing a whole heck of a lot. We fed the birds, did a walk around to see how everything was looking, but that was about it.
A little later in the afternoon, we decided that the lovely clear weather meant that we should use our fire pit and have a fire outside. It really was a lovely day - clear and fairly warm. So we made a fire, had a beer and enjoyed the last light of the day.
We haven’t had a lot of opportunity to use the fire pit, so it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the afternoon. We had a beer, maybe some chips, and just relaxed and talked about the busy year ahead of us. We’ve got a lot planned already, and I suspect that 2024 is going to fly by.
Our resident piliated woodpecker has been around quite a lot.
The piliated woodpecker paid us a visit on New Year’s Eve.
Sitting by the fire on New Year’s Eve afternoon.
Cool mushrooms on the golf course.
A little later that afternoon, David and Tova swung by to visit. We sat by the fire for a while, chatting and catching up after the holidays. It was nice to sit and relax, but eventually it got dark and started to get cold. David and Tova ran home for a bit, before coming back to have dinner. We set out a great charcuterie board, and we had a fun evening. After an exhausted Christmas break, none of us were up for a late night. We celebrated the east coast New Year’s, a which point David and Tova called it a night and headed home. We didn’t last much longer, also calling it an early night. So long 2023, hello 2024!
I was up pretty early on New Year’s Day and took advantage of the nice weather to get in a round of golf. The course was in decent shape, wet but not completely flooded. I was able to play the whole round, and as usual had the course to myself.
Justine was up byt the time I got back, so we had breakfast and enjoyed the morning. The goal was to head out and do a bit of a hike up to the north end of the island and Dionisio Provincial Park. We don’t do it every year, but we do have something of a tradition of heading up to the park this time of year. There are often huge packs of sea lions this time of year, so we were excited at what we might see.
We drove up to the gate at the end of Bodega Beach Drive, parked and then headed up into the trails. The first part of the hike is fairly steep, as it climbs up the hillside to the top of the ridge.
From there, the trail winds along the top of the ridge for a bit, before starting to descend a bit to the top of the local gravel pit. We were surprised to see how much the pit had expanded. Clearly, there’s a fair amount of demand for aggregate, as they have dug out a lot of material since the last time we were up this way on the trails.
We then headed up some more, eventually connecting to waht seemed ot be a new trail, nicely marked as Mystic Woods.
The map of our hike for New Year’s Day. It was a lovely one - just over 11 km!
Eventually the trail took us up to the entrance to the park. From there, it was the long, gradual descent back towards the water (which means coming uphill on the way home…). But eventually we got to the beach at the very northern tip of the island.
New Year’s Day is popular with people doing crazy things like polar bear swims. The water at Dionisio, even in the summer, is so cold you can barely get in the water. On our way in we happened upon to older, very naked women doing their own swim. We gave the a wide berth and enjoyed the view in the opposite direction…
It was actually quite a nice day and we had clear views all the way to Black Tuck near Whistler. It looked like they have had a lot of snow!
While we didn’t have any sea lions right at the park, they were nearby and there were a ton of birds nearby. The tide was very high, cutting off the small island/prominary in the park.
We did have a few sea lions swimming around in the waters just off the shoreline. One was brave enough to haul up on the rocks for a short while, I guess checking it out for a change of scenery? We could see the main colony just a little ways up the the channel.
We spent some time wandering the park, checking out the views and generally enjoying the park. W ewalked down past the First Nations site and out to the small beach in the cove. We sat there for a while, had some luch and enjoyed the view and the quiet.
One of the most interesting thing about the park is the sheer volume of different birds that are around this time of year. Every time you look around, there are huge flocks of birds flying just offshore. And even the rocks around the beach were teeming with birds.
Eventually we needed to make our way home. The walk back was just as nice as the walk in. We basically retraced our steps until we got to the gravel pit, then we walked back along the road and to the gate where the truck was parked. It was thena quick trip home, and as the afternoon was drawing on, it was time to make a fire and settle in for a relaxing night.
As the weather was not the nicest, we spent a fair bit of time inside over the days that we were on the island. We had lots of fun things to do inside, including doing a puzzle and some of the Lego we had received at Christmas.
The last time we were over on Galiano we had done a pretty significant broome cutting, working our way through a fairly large swath. It had been sitting for about a month, and we thought, given the wet weather, that it was time to burn. On Wednesday, I had worked the whole day, but cut out around 3 pm to start a fire. Broome burns surprisingly fast, and while we only had a couple of hours of daylight, it was a enough to work through the huge pile.
Our friends Davd and Tova came up for a bit to help out and enjoy the fire as the sun started to set.
Our timing ended up being quite good. After the fire had burned down to just coals, it started to rain lightly. That made us feel better about leaving the remnants of the fire over night.
The next day, we had a big pile of ash. The rain had cooled it off completely, but it was down to nothing. We were leaving later that day, catching the evening ferry. I was once again working (Justine had taken a couple of extra days off that week), but I did take an hour during the day to go for a hike up to Bodega Ridge, as it was aclear, beautiful day. It was a great trip, and a good start to the New Year!
All that was left was a small pile of ash.
My hike up to the top of Bodega Ridge
It was a beautiful day, with a great view out to Salt Spring and Vancouver Island. It was quite windy, so I didn’t stay for long.
We also finally got around to hanging Justine’s birthday gift. I found this company that does custom relief maps. I did this one of Galiano, with our cottage location marked. I think it’s quite cool!