Waking in Tahsis is a muggy, damp experience. It had been raining all night and it was still coming down hard as I left my Dad and Nardy sleeping the motel room (which was rented from the Tahsis Lounge…convenient). I wandered through remains of an industrial town with rusting pillars and beams like bleaching bones left behind – the evidence. The scene lent itself of a photographic exploration.
Around noon, we went to the West View marina and waited for our “water taxi”. Soon the boat arrived with a couple of Indian kids who were listening to Tupac through the creepy speaker of an iPod. The taller of the two turned out to be our guide, Troy. troy speaks with a thick Canadian Indian accent, which reminded of conversations I have had in Browning. We departed from Tahsis and begin our ~45 miles trip to Eliza Inlet and the Rodgers Fishing Lodge.
After we arrived at the lodge, we quickly threw our gear into our room, and we headed out fishing. The seas were huge, and boat seemed to be thrown into amazing angles of attitude. I wa fine as long as I looked at the horizon as the Sooty Shearwaters screamed by the boat. Nardy drank his beer and fished, and Dad, well, he didn’t fare so well. We had to retreat to the calmer waters of the leeward side of Rosa Island. I love the way Troy said Rosa, called me as I can do an impression. The first Marbled Murrelets were seen in these waters as we pulled in our first salmon. The fishing trip and birding had begun in earnest now.
As left Rosa Island, the most amazing rainbow span the narrow channel. I have never seen the rainbow with such a low angle.
