I don’t know what it was that gave me an eerie feeling when we entered the campsite at Walbran Valley. Maybe the structures, thin sticks bound together without a canvas. Like skeletons or remains from another civilization. More likely it was that the entrance felt like stepping into a dark cave, especially as the sun was high in the sky, and inside it felt like dusk. Blackberry bushes circled the campsite and some of them looked freshly picked by a bear.

The feeling quickly subsided as we went on and the trail leading east along the Walbran Creek came into a clearing. The water looked more like a lagoon in the south pacific than a river on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Brilliant greens of the clear water combined with yellow ochre tones from the sand at the bottom. It looked very inviting in spite of its frigid cold water and Byron decided to go for a swim.
It was a very quick dip, as inviting as it looked, the Walbran Creek was too cold for any leisurely afternoon swim and we went on.

Quickly the trail became no more than a route, overgrown and littered with huge logs, casualties of past winter storms. Ferns, old growth and lichen everywhere, this place could not have looked more West Coast if it tried. We scrambled on with our heavy gear missing the route, finding it again, jumping, sliding, climbing – bushwhacking. It is believed that the Walbran valley and Carmanah Valley have one of the highest amounts of biomass per acre anywhere in the world, hence the bushwhacking.
Finally we reached the small beautiful Lower Walbran Falls and it was time to record the moment.

Story and Photography Snorri Gunnarsson

 

Tags: carmanah, falls, Lower Falls, scenic, snorri, vancouver island, walbran, Wallbran Creek, west coast

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 12:28 am and is filed under Hike, Locate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.