Crazy times... and a lovely hike

It's been crazy times around here, with a massive intake of more than two dozen pot bellied pigs by our local (Cowichan and District) SPCA.  With the Cowichan SPCA not set up for farm animals, and with all the female pigs (including a number of six month old babes) being pregnant or nursing, a scramble to find appropriate foster homes ensued.  Hearts on Noses offered to take one of the nursing moms with two babies permanently into their care, so I transported those from the island to the mainland.  I'll be blogging more about this shortly, including info on the fundraisers for their eventual spays.
Because of this, and other things going on in my life,  photos are piling up, with no time to edit the larger pool of photos taken on a recent camping trip - but I shall get there! Meanwhile, I offer you this set of photos which I posted on Facebook last night - taken yesterday on my customary Monday hike with my friend Sally, this hike at Colliery Dam Park in Nanaimo.  Enjoy!

There are two lakes at Colliery Dam Park, with easy paths around them, each with a loop trail around them.  There are also many other trails made by mountain bikes, and a somewhat misleading map at the trail head, so for the second time we missed the unmarked trail head for the second lake and spent some time on mountain bike trails before redirected by a friendly hiker.  Though the day was wet, it was still a very pleasant hike.  

This interesting combination of ramp, bridge and stairs
crosses a narrow chasm at one end of the second lake.

Dogwood - BC's provincial flower - were in bloom around the lakes

An angler's gear on the lake shore.  

There were many colourful fungi in the almost rainforest habitat

This paved path is part of  Nanaimo's extensive Parkway Trail
system, which passes through this park.

While a hiker mentioned a cougar in the area, and an angler/photographer showed
us photos of an owl and her babies and pointed out their tree, the only wildlife we
saw was this squirrel. 

My favourite photo of the day was this one - an elderly angler sits fishing,
amid reflections and raindrops.