TOUGH HIKE, GREAT VIEW

My brother in law and I made another trip to San Josef Bay yesterday looking for geocaches.  It turned into a bit of an epic journey as we put on just under 19 kms,   Much of it was under less than stellar conditions.  The trail to the top of Mt St Patrick was about 7.5 kms return.  It was the worst trail I have ever done as it was roots and mud holes and steep pretty much the whole distance.   On our way home, we stopped for supper at the Scarlett Ibis Pub in Holberg.
Our time here in North Island is winding down.  Tomorrow I am driving down Island to meet with Richard and Georgia and will bring Georgia back to stay a few days with us.  Saturday or Sunday, we will head down to Campbell River then to Seal Bay RV Park at Comox for our RV rally week.

Our hike objective was far beyond the left peak on that hill.  To get there, we waded past this point to reach the trail leaving the beach.  On our return, the tide was higher and we had to take a trail over the top which wasn't great.

The sign welcoming us to the only trail to the top

Typical trail conditions

The trail was crisscrossed with roots all the way

But, the view was pretty darn good making the trip worthwhile.  The main reason though for us old fools to head up here was a geocache on the peak right behind where I'm standing.  There was another halfway up on the trail.  This is looking down into Sea Otter Cove.

And 90 degrees to the left is San Josef Bay.  That little dot of sand in the top left is close to where we started.  The first forested hill is the left one we looked at from the beach where we waded.

Since we couldn't wade around the point, this is descending to the beach from the lousy trail over the headland.

I stopped at Beaver Lake the other day for a geocache and found these great reflections

A four legged water creature?

We had a bit of rain so I wandered around looking for water drops

Here's a Scotch Thistle that looks like a chicken

Evening light

Fireweed

Monkey Tree

River reflection