We’ll pick up the trip on Sunday on Galiano with some additional adventures. We finally found some sea lions and lots of birds, before heading back home to Vancouver. More adventures await later in the week.
We had a pileated woodpecker hanging about the feeders.
Mackenzie at the 49th Parallel
Sunday morning we had another relaxing start to the day - not too early. It was out last day on Galiano, as we were booked on the evening ferry heading back to Vancouver. The plan was to explore a bit more and show Mackenzie more of Galiano. We started with a trip to the north end of the island.
The north end is a 15 minute drive from our place, and we headed up there to check out the cool wetland area. Sadly, there was not a lot to see as the whole wetland was frozen over. So that was a bit of a bust.
As we drove south, we stopped for a photo op at the 49th parallel. I was a bit surprised that Mackenzie was unfamiliar with the significance of the 49th, so we’ll go to our friends at Wikipedia for the overview:
Roughly 2,030 kilometres of the Canada–United States border was designated to follow the 49th parallel from British Columbia to Manitoba on the Canada side, and from Washington to Minnesota on the U.S. side, more specifically from the Strait of Georgia to the Lake of the Woods. This international border was specified in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846, though survey markers placed in the 19th century cause the border to deviate from the 49th parallel by up to 810 metres.
Another fun fact - the city of Paris is about 15 km south of the 49th parallel and is the largest city between the 48th and 49th parallels. Its main airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport, lies on the parallel. So we’re basically the same latitude as Paris on Galiano.
From there, we headed back south and decided to stop at the public dock, to see what might be around. We’ve had really good luck with this dock, even having seen porpoises one time! It was very quiet, with almost no cars around (unusual), so we got a prime parking spot out front. As we walked out and onto the dock, you could hear the distinctive barking of sea lions! We had finally found some!
We spent close to an hour checking out the dock and the sea lions. As we were heading out, there were some Chestnut-backed Chickadees in the fir trees near the truck. These might be the best photos of the day!
After leaving the dock we headed south and stopped at the Pink Geranium for a beverage and a snack. It’s so great to have this spot close by. We continued south to Montague Harbour to go for another short walk, and to see what we could see. I’m sure Mackenzie was getting sick of our desire to hike!
Our walk around Montague Harbour.
Mackenzie and Justine on the beach.
We parked at the beach and wandered out onto the white, crushed shell beach. The sun wasn’t out, so we did not get the cool Caribbean look that you can get this time of year. But it was still a nice afternoon. We decided to do the short loop around the point, hoping for some good bird sightings. It ended up being quiet, and while we saw a few things, it wasn’t the usual.
After our walk we needed to head back. We didn’t have a ton of time and needed to get the cottage cleaned up for our departure. We got packed up and headed south for the ferry. We had decided to book dinner at the Galiano Inn - prime rib! It was delicious, and we had a nice evening before catching the ferry home.
It’s looking like this trip is going to require quite a few posts…