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August 15, 2004

Juan de Fuca Trail

This Saturday I pretended I was not a student and took the entire day off my studies to hike part of the Juan de Fuca Trail. Just over 50 kms away from Victoria we started our day long adventure. Driving past Sooke and the infamous Potholes we continued up Island.

JDF - through the trees.JPG
Pacific through the trees.

The scenary was breathtaking and the smells were divine, (compared to the sight of Engineers and the smell of the school).
JDF-Mystic Beach.JPG JDF - Mystic.JPG
From the China Beach start point we hiked down to Mystic Beach. It was still early in the morning when we reached Mystic Beach and we could still see the "myst" rising.

JDF - Cedar tree.JPG
Continuing through the forest we saw huge old growth, in this picture, namely a cedar.

Being the adventerous types we decided to skip trail at the 7.5 kilometer mark and climb down the somewhat dried out Ivanhoe Creek. We came across our own private beach.
JDF - down Ivanhoe Creek.JPG
Aside from the menacing seals that kept staring at us,
JDF - with seals.JPG
we had the place to ourselves.

We enjoyed our lunch taking in the ocean air. Everything was dandy unitl we remembered we still had to hike back. Seeing as neither Jon nor I had been hiking this summer, the 15 kilometer round trip would take its toll on us. As we clambered up to the parking lot with blisters, sore knees and sunburnt cheeks we had the biggest smiles on. First hike of the season, (mid-August)!

JDF- hug.JPG
WE MADE IT!

Posted by jmclean at August 15, 2004 09:19 PM

Comments

Hey Jen!
I think you should drop that engineering B.S. I do believe your true calling lies in the travel/writing/entertainment/photo journalism genre.Great photos! Hope your doing well.Still riding? We ( 12 of us ) had a great mtn. biking w/e @ Sun Peaks last weekend.Take care. J.

Posted by: Jim at August 19, 2004 01:36 PM