Walking on water...

We took a trip out to Steveston on Saturday. I have been itching to re-visit the “Coyote Walk”, a trail that leads from Scotch Point, close to Garry Point Park, and goes out towards the water. Bronwyn named it the “Coyote Walk”. Coyotes live and hunt on the dyke. We used to live close to the dyke in Steveston, and would often be woken in the night by the primitive howls of the coyotes; the full-throated calls of the adults and the baby-like yelps of the pups. It is a relatively deserted walk. Even locals are unaware of the path and visitors to Steveston prefer the more groomed pathways and manicured beach front of Garry Point Park.

It is on an area of coast known as Sturgeon Banks, which stretches to Terra Nova. The mouth of the Fraser opens here and flows into the Georgia Straight and out into the ocean.

Salt water blends with fresh water to create an area of wetland. Tidal flats; brackish marshes and muddy reed beds are carved throughout with drainage ditches that branch out like veins. Long reeds lay flattened by tides and provide a damp carpet over what would be a muddy swamp. It is a wonderfully slushy, muddy walk.

Here Bronwyn is negotiating the muddy water-filled drainage ditches...

As you proceed from Scotch pond towards the water, you begin to spot rusted steel rods and decaying pilings jutting out of the mud, slowly being reclaimed by the tides and the marsh.

Poles stand at altered angles in a straggling line that leads back to the shore.

These are the remains of the old cannery (part of the Scottish Canadian Cannery, built in 1899), and a memory of a once thriving fishing industry and of a small community that was built on the tidal flats and set on wooden pilings.

The area is also the habitat for a large variety of migratory birds and water fowl. It is home to coyotes, owls, eagles, hawks, herons, wrens and, of course, the ubiquitous red-winged blackbird. We caught sight of a couple of males, showing off and singing their hearts out, a sure sign of an early spring. The sky was a mixture of grays and blues that created shade and texture to the water and the landscape. We will go back soon; perhaps we will visit during a dramatic sunset.

We were also fortunate enough to spot the rare “lesser leathered couch”, a distant relative of the more common domestic couch. There must be a story behind how it got there. It is the perfect place to think deep thoughts...if one had deep thoughts to think.

It is a wonderfully quiet place. Manufactured structures have been reclaimed by nature and now perhaps provide shelter for animals or remain on the landscape as suggestions of a previous reincarnation. Great Blue Herons huddle in groups like old men in overcoats and ducks and geese swim in and out as if they're not quite sure if this is what they were looking for. Occasionally a ship will enter the Fraser. At first it appears to be traveling on land and is massive in contrast to the flat landscape. Its engine throbs as it passes by; industry full-steam ahead, just down the Fraser.