Monday, June 12 to Friday, June 16, 2023 (Puntledge River RV Park, Courtenay, BC)

Monday (June 12) and Tuesday (June 13) were pretty routine days. It's been quite hot but temperatures are forecast to drop to more seasonable levels over the next few days. Steve's cousin, Bev and her husband, Rob, are here in Courtenay visiting their long-time friends, so on Tuesday we met them for lunch at Fluid Bar and Grill. Me, Wayne (his wife was at an appointment), Bev, Rob and Steve...

We enjoyed lunch and a great visit...wonderful catching up with them and meeting Wayne!

Wednesday (June 14) morning we decided to go for a different hike in Seal Bay Nature Park. Last time here we took a trail down to the beach, but today we decided to hike a trail on the other side (west) of the road...Melda's Marsh Loop...

The park is heavily treed...

As we started, Steve wondered if there were any geocaches hidden in the park...I check the geocaching.com app and low and behold, the park is full of them! So what started off to just be a hike, ended up being a geocache hunt!

OMG, look at the size of this stump! It's actually hollow but Steve couldn't quite get through the narrow opening...besides it was probably full of creepy, crawly things!

Yup...it's a big stump!

Loved this geocache...called "Pagoda in the Forest"

And another one found!

Such a beautiful park...very lush and green!

Lots of downed trees from previous wind storms...

This is a tree root system that must have gotten it's start on a nurse log many years ago...

Bird viewing blind overlooking the marsh...

Looking right...

Center...

Left...

A nice little rest stop on the other side of the marsh...

More geocaches...

We had a wind storm last night so there were a couple of spots on the trails with downed trees...

A micro-geocache hidden in that hole...

Again, Thursday (June 15) and Friday (June 16) were fairly routine days...nothing particularly special. We actually woke Friday to clouds, cooler temps and even a little rain.

Later in the day, we thought we'd check out an area in the campground that is actually closed to the public...it goes to a beautiful open area with a firepit overlooking the river...

This is where the Tsolum River (left) joins the Puntledge River...

We continued down the road along the river and discovered old campsites and an outhouse that are no longer used...

It was a great shaded walk on a warm sunny day, and a great alternative to just walking around the campground.

Tomorrow, we are heading back down to Victoria (North Saanich) to stay with Rob, Angie and the boys for a week. Conner and Bryce are both out of school but Angie has to work another week, so we are there to take care of them. We have certainly driven the highway back and forth enough! But we're looking forward to spending the week having our grandsons "entertain" us, LOL! Stay tuned to hear all about our adventures with them!