Travel Reflections: Dreary Weather & Good Memories

It’s a dreary, misting, cloudy sort of Friday.  It’s the kind of day where it looks like it will be chilly and it’s actually kind of muggy. You end up putting your jacket on and then taking it off because a nice medium is never really found.  That same medium tends to evade one’s mood too.  You might awake up-and-at-‘em but once the mist gently dampens your clothes on your way out the door, it can occasionally dampen your mood as well. 

My mind wandered a bit and I found myself thinking upon a day, much like this day, several months ago.  As I recalled that rainy, cloudy, misty day, I remembered all the beauty and peace that surrounded me.  I thought how about how we might have missed it all if we let the gloomy weather deter us.  Thankfully, we didn’t.  Because now I realize that was the day that I really began to appreciate these sorts of days.

For me, that day was really one of the neatest travel experiences I’ve had so far.  We were traveling in Vancouver Island, BC, and exploring many of the provincial parks within a moderate drive from our condo.  The weather couldn’t decide what it was doing most of the day, but by the time we arrived at Stamp River Provincial Park, it pretty much decided it was going to be raining and chilly.  It took a while to get there.  In fact, I thought we were lost and I could feel the anxiety building with the four of us as we followed curve after curve.  Just when we were all starting to get antsy, we arrived seeing just one other car in the lot. 

View Up Stream

We decided to forge ahead and I am so glad that we did.  The rain came and went, but mostly came.  The gentle and steady pace was so calming that the worry and anxiety that built up as we drove seemed to softly fall away.  The river was the main attraction as it was salmon run season.  I know it may sound weird to say this, but that was an amazing thing to witness and one I won’t soon forget.  The force of the river’s current, so loud, roaring and racing by. These exhausted fish; they just kept swimming, kept fighting, to get up stream.  The mist acted as a veil slowly dancing in and out to cloak the panoramic view.  It was early fall and some trees couldn’t hide that fact anymore with pops of red, yellow and orange peaking through.     

There was a peace I found that day, deep and quiet.  Occasionally, yells of excitement would break that quiet as we watched a brave Coho salmon make a leap into the air to jump the falls and inch closer to his goal.  We never did see the black bear we knew had to be lurking by, hoping he could catch a few worn out fish as his afternoon prize. 

Coho Salmon Making the Leap 

It was a time that stood still, almost, with no real interruptions.  As I look back on it, through pictures or thoughts, I always remember the feeling of just being.  The peace.  The quiet.  The sound. It was a perfect day for soothing a tired and weary soul.  I think that’s what helps me to enjoy days like today more than I did before. After all, isn’t that what traveling and exploring and doing new and different things is all about? 

Stamp River