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Flores Island Hike 097

Finally catching up on some blog posts here!

In June I returned to Flores Island and hiked the Wildside trail with a group of friends. I had done the trail earlier in the year when it was quite wet and cool, so I was greatly looking forward to a warmer experience.   The Wildside Trail is on Flores Island, accessible from Tofino by water taxi.  As we ferried over to the island we were fortunate to see a pod of orca whales quite close to the boat.  The water taxi even stopped and let us view them pass.  There was one incredibly large whale in the group, her dorsal fin must have been 5-6 feet long!

We had pretty awesome weather for the trip and were hiking on the summer solstice.  We made good tracks on Friday and arrived at the beaches just south of Cow Bay and set up camp.  The evening festivities included some good eats, campfire, drinks, late night swim and beautiful singing!  Matt summed up the evening on his blog as follows:

The first night got a little raucous. We stayed up late into the evening, by midnight I was ready for bed but my comrades were still going strong and discussion began about going for a night swim with the bioluminescence. I was contemplating bed as the other three headed into surf  just after midnight. Upon their return to the fire I was serenaded to sleep by the sweet sweet sounds of the three singing at the campfire. Or as best they could manage, I don’t think that between the three of them they could remember the lyrics to even one song. By three in the morning all the campers were snug in their tents.  

In my recollection, it was a great night!

We hiked out to Cow Bay and made camp for the second night on this beautiful beach!  The days adventure took us to the north end of Cow Bay over a couple of headlands and onto the mysterious beaches which dot the west coast of Flores Island.  It felt like we could just keep beach hopping endlessly!  It would be amazing to have the Wild Side trail extended up the west side of the island somehow ending at Hot Springs Cove for a soak!

We had great weather for the remainder of our stay, and some of us were in and out of the water all weekend.  The Wildside trail is one of my favourite hikes on the island for its many beaches, island views and secluded spots.

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