Float Plane to Hot Springs Cove

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This morning started out stunningly beautiful as we were greeted with a colorful sunrise at breakfast. It was probably the most sun we'd seen since our trip started. Ok, it WAS the most sun. It set the theme for the day- calm, mostly dry, skies. Chris and I ate breakfast at The Pointe again. I had some kind of eggs with goat cheese on bread with potato, although way more artful than I described. Chris had a breakfast version of a pulled pork sandwich. We finished up our delicious food and then ran down to the beach just in front of the hotel to take a billion pictures of the sunrise.

After that, we went back to our rooms to get dressed for the day's adventure. We didn't originally plan on this because we didn't think it was suitable for a toddler (and it isn't) but when she wasn't able to go on the trip because she was sick, I booked the trip. We were going to take a boat tour north to Hot Springs Cove. It was supposed to take most of the day. We picked up a couple of sandwiches from the Driftwood Cafe and added it to the leftover food we already had from the day prior. We also packed leftover wine (from the first night that we never opened) into the canteens the hotel provided for hiking and picnics, that way we wouldn't have to bring glass (it's not allowed at the Cove).

We headed down to the boat tour office at the specified time, only to find a very confused tour operator. Our tour had been booked and confirmed through our hotel concierge. But the boat company said they didn't have any tours planned because there wasn't enough interest that day (remember I said the town was void of tourists). Apparently we were the only two people in Tofino wanting to go out to this very popular Cove. The tour operator said that the guy working last night had supposedly canceled our reservation but no one had told us. We weren't happy. I was incredibly bummed because I was really, really looking forward to this adventure. The tour operator saw how upset I was, and began making phone calls to see if any other boats were headed out to the Cove that day. We were out of luck- NO ONE was going. "How do you feel about flying there?" she finally asked. Well, I hadn't seriously considered it because it wasn't cheap. Now that it was the only option, along with the adventure of flying out to a deserted cove, it was suddenly incredibly appealing despite the cost. So she called Tofino Air, the local float plane operator, to see if they had any pilots willing to fly us. They did. So next we walked down to the office.

At first I was confused by the accents, they sounded Scottish. Jay was definitely a Canadian local but Lisa actually was Scottish. It's amazing how similar they can sound. Jay tried very hard to get the computers to cooperate to check us in and charge us for our flight. Eventually he just ended up waiting for Lisa, the gorgeous redheaded pilot to figure it out. He was hilarious, cracking jokes left and right. I would have slept with him in a heartbeat if I weren't married, and happened to be in this tiny town. After being charged a lot, but surprisingly less than you'd expect for a private plane trip to a deserted island, we had a half hour to kill before departure. They were timing it with another drop- a power cable repairman to an island village that was out of power. So we walked up to the Common Loaf to get morning coffee. Or rather, Chris did. I was worried about having anything in my stomach on a small plane flight, especially after our flight into Canada.

It ended up being Lisa piloting our morning flight. I'm beginning to believe all pilots are required to be gorgeous to maintain their licenses. Lisa, Chris, the repairman and I crawled into the little float plane with our stuff. The repair guy was very friendly and chatted with us until we couldn't hear him anymore over the engine. I expected the flight to be rough. It was the smoothest flight I'd ever been on. Weather really does make a difference. I couldn't tell the difference between skidding across the water and when we took flight.

The views were amazing from the plane. I took lots of pictures and just enjoyed myself in the front seat. Lisa took mostly water routes. Eventually we landed at the tiny town of.. and I don't know what the name was... but it was possibly Ahousat. There was a tiny harbor with a boat graveyard. Sunken vessels everywhere that were just left. I was amazed because something like that would be incredibly illegal back home. But out here, it clearly wasn't regulated. Or they didn't have the funds to regulate it. I don't know. We got out on the dock with the repairman to take a look around. We happened across three dead sea otters. I initially thought they were sleeping but once I got closer... yup, definitely dead. I definitely got the impression that this town lived in extreme conditions, something I wasn't at all familiar with.

We loaded back into the plane and the three of us continued our flight to Hot Springs Cove. Lisa was fairly certain she saw whales in the area a day or so prior but we didn't run into them in spite of looking. It wasn't really whale season for the area anyway. We landed at an abandoned dock, and were told we would be picked up in 2.5hours- so be at the dock or be left behind. There was supposedly one other couple on the island visiting the springs as well. It felt like the beginning of a horror movie watching Lisa fly away in the plane without us.

We hiked another thirty minutes along redwood boardwalks to the Hot Springs. The difference was that this boardwalk had inscriptions on the planks. Some of them seemed like names for boats, others like groups, or vacations. Most had years on them.

Eventually we came to a fork- left was to a bathroom, and right was a small bridge over a steaming creek. I imagine that water was scalding. Chris went to the bathroom, and then we got changed into our clothes. I was wearing my bathing suit underneath all my clothes so it was just a matter of stripping down. I was very glad I packed water shoes with me because getting over to the springs would have been difficult. It's very rocky and slippery. The other couple hailed us over onto their ledge. There seemed to be two pools- a smaller one overlooking a set of larger ones. They were a friendly Canadian couple (possibly just friends). We got to talking and wouldn't you know it... they had an interesting tale. They had tried to book a boat tour out to the Hot Springs but were told that no one else was interested. They were put on a waiting list with the SAME company we had booked, and told if four people were interested than they'd be able to do the trip. So it sounds like the boat tour company really screwed up. They must not have written down our reservation since they seemed unaware we had made one. So all four of us ended up paying for the flight to the island. Which was amazing, of course, but funny how things work out.

After chatting, Chris and I headed down to the lower pools with our wine and camera phone. We took pictures and just relaxed in the hot sulfuric water. It was such an amazing place. It was literally freezing temperature outside the pools but the water was hot like a bath tub. I wore my snow hat anyway. I don't think it's the same relaxing experience when it's crowded with tourists so I felt incredibly blessed that we had to it ourselves. In Japan, they would have called this a rotemburo. We got to experience a lot of the hot springs in Japan back in April this past year- we absolutely loved the experience.

When it was about forty five minutes before the plane was supposed to pick us up, we headed back up to the sitting area where our belongings were stashed. We ate our sandwiches and finished the wine. By the time we were dressed and hiking back to the docks, I was getting drunk from the wine. It made the walk back very fast, though!

This time it was Jay who picked us up, and he was right on time. He had the bigger plane that the five of us fit into. Instead of taking the water routes like Lisa, he flew right up and over the mountains covered in snow. We passed mountain lakes and forests. It was so beautiful. We landed at the same tiny town we had stopped at during our morning flight, I had assumed to pick up the repair guy. Turns out we were giving two social workers a lift. Now the plane had seven of us, and we flew back to Tofino.

After that, Chris and I bummed around downtown and the main highway for a little bit. We bought a Christmas ornament (we collect a new one for every new adventure we go on) and bought chocolates at a local shop. Then we headed back to our hotel to shower (okay, i bathed in that hot tub again, eating my chocolates) and then headed out to dinner. We were looking forward to eating at Wolf in the Fog. The food and reviews we saw looked amazing. We weren't disappointed- we ordered way more food than we could eat, simply because we wanted to try so much of it!

We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the hotel, so we called it an early night again. It gets dark so early, and our days were so busy, that it just felt much later than it actually it was. We had to be up before 5am the next morning, though, for our trip home, so it was good we went to bed early. We really weren't sure what type of road conditions we were going to run into.

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