Cortes Hike with Coastal Trek

I took a group of intrepid hikers from Coastal Trek over to tiny Cortes Bay on the south side of Cortes Island. Invited to join them by hiking guide Mike, we spent 5 marvelous hours wandering through beautiful groves of old growth forest and lake side look-outs and swim holes.
After lunch, Mohammed and I decided to take the challenging route back to the dock. Turns out his fledging guiding skills were not as keen as his business acumen, but our extended hike showed us a mammoth old fir tree of one thousand years and old logging artifacts left from a bygone era.
This photo shows one of the cool hand-made ladders up the cliff on our way to Hague Lake.
Cruising back home on glassy waters, a stop to watch harbour porpoise turned into an inpromptu swim for my guests in the Salish Sea.
Thanks to Mohammed and Meredith for allowing me to share their adventure!