The end on the island is slowly approaching

After the first night in Port Alberni, I visited the salmon run and its fish ladder. As always, the parking lot had a sign that said: "Caution, you are in bear country" (of course in English). I looked at the fish ladder and a woman came to check it. She said that currently 500 salmon can be seen per day.

Afterwards, I walked along the gorge to the river below. When I reached the bottom, a black bear disappeared around a bend. It wandered along the river and looked for something to eat. So, after a few seconds, I slowly walked to the edge and kept an eye out for it. Eventually, I saw it and was able to take a photo.

After this experience, I continued to Coombs and visited a wildlife rescue center. There were also birds of prey in the rehabilitation center.

Because it had been raining the whole time and I was slightly cold, I went back to the swimming pool in Port Alberni afterwards, not to swim, but to warm up in the sauna and hot tub.

The next day, I started driving about 200 km north to Sayward in pouring rain and took the opportunity of a short break in the rain to walk along the river. But the eagles were not in the mood for photos that day and flew away one by one.

In the evening, I played billiards and was really good. I won every game. I was way superior to my opponent. Okay, let me clarify a short word to my opponent: I was my opponent.

Today, I went on a hike with an intern from here. Along the way, we saw elk and a black bear. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to take a photo of the bear. We probably scared him too much.

The ascent was so steep that we had to crawl on all fours at times. So we climbed over 1000 meters in altitude.

When it became a bit more level, the snow and fog appeared. Without the pink ribbons on the trees, we would never have found the way.

So, the view at the highest point was not really worth seeing.

The descent was somewhat more pleasant in terms of steepness, but we still ended up with wet feet sometimes.

After 33 km, 47,770 steps, and 9 hours on the road, we arrived back at our accommodation.

Now I have realized with horror that I have to go back tomorrow so that I can be in Victoria on time and not miss my flight. It is already on Friday morning and I still have about 500 km to drive and some things I want to see, as it is more enjoyable in nice weather than in pouring rain. Okay, there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, but at 8°C it is still not so pleasant.