JUST A HOP, SKIP, SAIL AWAY
Montague is a little anchorage, just a hop skip and jump from Ganges. I wanted to go back because of the park. It’s a little appendage that juts out from the land and there is a trail that goes around this special piece of land or you can walk along its amazing shore line. There is also a little shallow inlet or tidal area, which looks more like a wonderful water meadow than anything else. It is covered over when the tide’s up and semi-dry when it’s out, so you can poke and nose around in there and find all sorts of interesting things.
HUMMINGBIRD PUB, MISSED IT AGAIN
At this marine park you can see so many things. Nearby is a little marina and the big thing that boaters do here is catch the pub bus that takes you to Butterfly Pub. It’s something we’ve always heard was fun to do but somehow we never quite get past the anchorage. It’s so peaceful and beautiful.
ZIGGING PLAYING WHALE AND CHAISING
MINNOWS
We got a good anchor set and head to shore to spend several hours just poking around the shore. Ziggy is swimming and stirring up batches of little fish not more than four or five inches long. He’s becoming very adapt at swimming and looking down in the clear water at the same time seeing where the fish are. He stretches his neck way up and follows their wavy paths the best he can. We laughed at how fast he can swim chasing these fish and the crazy weaving path he takes trying to catch them. The fish are swimming madly away trying to escape this Zigmonster and some, in exasperation, jump completely out of the water trying to get away. It’s hilarious and Ziggy somehow has never ending energy doing this activity.
WATER MEADOW AND SEA ASPARAGUS
We head over the low tide area and found ourselves suddenly tromping through thick mud before we realized what a mess we’d gotten ourselves into but there was no turning back. So off the three of us went mud up to our ankles trying to step on rocks or broken branches, anything to give us some firm footing. There were millions of little itsy bitsy crabs everywhere, scrambling around in the shallow 1 inch deep tide water. They were no more than a ½ inch diameter if that. We also saw a river otter running across the tide water meadow. Thank God Zig didn’t see or smell him. I found an abundance of sea asparagus and gathered some up for a delicious healthy salad later.
MIDDEN OF SHELLS
Once on the other side of the water meadow we arrived at the shore on the other side of the park. Immediately the three of us walked in the shallow shore water to clean the mud off. There is a nice stretch of beach here and the shore is covered in an amazing thick layer of shells that have broken down over time. It’s a beautiful mixture texture and colors, white, purple and pink. I’ve never seen a shore like it and had wanted to come back to see it again. There are also millions of beautiful oyster shells, most empty but some not, but I don’t think you can eat them because of the water here. There are as many empty clam and mussel shells as this is a midden, leftovers from years of Indian shellfish consumption and occupation. In fact, archaeological research is going on here as divers have been exploring the waters recovering many First Nations artifacts. This location was the sight of significant Indian settlement at one time. There’s just something really neat about walking around here knowing that and thinking about what it must have been like and actually seeing the remnants of their occupation in the remains of shells on the shores. To me it is really special.
GRANITE GLACIER OUTCROPPINGS
Also, there are very interesting, granite glacier outcroppings that project out form the shore and reveal themselves at low tide. They are fun to walk on their odd shapes are beautiful. Their projections and crevices create little private pools, protected from the currents of the nearby flowing channel. Some of them warm up enough to be nice for swimming if the water is clean. I still am disappointed to see so much muck in the water as it accumulates along the shore line. We always give Ziggy a good bath once he gets back to the boat.
The walk around the park always includes a small bit through the forest. There are some spectacular views back to the anchorage an out to the channel from inside the canopy of the forest. So you can experience just about everything here at this wonderful little marine park.
LOCAL BAKERY
Back at the boat we find ourselves anchored next to an old converted fishing boat that is sort of like the “local bakery”. An older couple runs it and obviously also live on the boat. They have a big banner hanging over the side railing which says “Fresh Bread and Cinnamon Buns” and “Open”. We managed to stay away from the Cinnamon buns this trip though it was really tempting.
CREST OF WAVES IN THE SKY
This anchorage was so peaceful and nice at dusk. We had a nice view out over the isthmus between the shore and the park island you could see the silhouette of Vancouver Island in the background and a thick bunching of clouds as the sun was just going down behind them. As the sun dipped down it lit the edge of the clouds like a line of fire and there must have been some uplifting warm heat from Vancouver’s mainland as it was curling the edges of the cloud bank and it looked like an amazing series of waves cresting across the skyline, like rolling waves at sea.
This was a good stop.