I went for a walk today through the forest over to the beach on the south side of Brooks Peninsula. It is such a spectacular place. One of the largest untouched pieces of land on Vancouver Island, and preserved in a way that feels especially striking after coming down the north end of the island. I’ve been really shocked by how much logging there is. Everywhere I’ve gone, more or less, there has been logging. Very few mountainsides seem to have been spared. But Brooks Peninsula has been left untouched. The whole peninsula is preserved, full of old growth forest and all kinds of birds. It is also believed to be one of the few places here that was not covered by glaciers during the last Ice Age, so it has this very long history of life. It is remarkable to walk through an ancient forest with so much life around. I saw two black bears, both on the way out to the beach and then again on the way back. I kept my distance, and they kept theirs. On the way out, one came out of the forest near the beach, saw me, looked at me, and then I rang my bear bell. He turned around and booked it back into the forest. On the way back I watched them grazing for a while from a distance. The beach itself is on the south side of Brooks Peninsula, opening out toward the Pacific. It is hard to describe how spectacular these west coast beaches are. The white sand, the softness of it under your feet, the endless amount of it. Being able to walk out into the water and just keep walking out over sand, feeling the waves come in and wash over you. The water cold, the sun warm. There is something powerful about seeing open ocean like that. The blues, the sand, the waves coming in, the rocks, the mist on the water. It felt like something I had forgotten. I’ve spent so little of my life on these west coast beaches, and I think I had forgotten how much they move the spirit. It is probably close to what Edmund Burke meant by the sublime: that awe that comes from being overwhelmed by the size and scale and majesty of something. Not necessarily terrifying, although I’m sure it could be in a storm. But it does impart that feeling of awe. I wanted to stay there all day. I’ll probably go back tomorrow, maybe take a book, swim again, wander the beach, and just soak it up.

I woke up this morning and looked outside to see a pack of wolves trotting along the beach. There was probably 8-10 of them.