Well, that was easy to take! I am generally a snow guy, but the quick transition to spring this year is just fine with me. All the usual signs have been around for a while: the songbirds are back, tulips and daffodils abound, and the smell of first cut lawns is evident everywhere.
The most obvious sign of spring for me is the first barefoot beach walk, which happened for me this past Wednesday. I have been walking our dogs for 20 years and have several main routes but me and my trusty companion Luna like Boundary Bay the best.
We like to go just south of Centennial Beach down to the border and back, and we go at least five days a week on this route all year long. Through all weather conditions you can imagine, we enjoy this route immensely. Tide extremes are more evident now as we cruise through the spring equinox towards the summer solstice. On Wednesday there was a fourfoot tide at 2:30 p.m. so our lunchtime walk made for some good tidal pool fun for the pooch and I. This stretch of sandbars looking south toward Point Roberts and the San Juan islands is about as beautiful of a walk you could have anywhere. In the over 5,000 times I have taken this walk, it is never dull. We are unbelievably lucky to live where we do and if you haven't been out on the sandbars for a while, you need to do yourself some good and get out there.
As I walk along, the memories of summer pour in. I am so familiar with this stretch of sand that I know which tidal pools have eelgrass, which are laden with clamshells and I know which interpool tributaries go where. In a few weeks baby Dungeness crabs will appear on the scene and they will use these tributaries as crab super highways transporting them to various feeding areas.
Just last week I watched an eagle pull a flounder out of a pool and land on a rooftop in Point Bob for chow. Last September on a glass calm day we noticed the water was boiling about 10 metres off the last sand bar. Closer inspection revealed thousands of young salmon... I'm guessing fry. There is always something cool to appreciate.
A couple of years ago, out in front of Centennial Beach, we encountered a deer on the shoreline. At first thought it was some gigantic dog but Luna picked up a scent and went out for a closer look. The buck was spooked and it ran across the sand all the way to Lilly Point. Luna was in chase for a little bit but the deer was way too fast. I still had to walk to the Point to retrieve my not-so-clever dog.
Perhaps my fondest memories of summer walks at the beach were with my young daughter where we would spend hours relaxing in the "Jacuzzi" after a long day of castle building. The Jacuzzi is a convergence tributary where the water would move rapidly at tide change. Crabs and fish would flow through while we were sitting in there all those years ago. It is still there. Check it out.
