Happiest of Holidays to you all.

Happy Christmas from the crew of OYSTERCATCHER.

Dream daringly this year.

Here's the link to our annual holiday letter.

All our best wishes on a prosperous, safe, and peaceful New Year...

Off to ski the rain away

Frosty hike to Georgie and Songhees Lakes out of Port Hardy. Thank again to our Boatminder Tom Cook for turning us on to another great hike.

Interesting and simple two by four ladder with large rubber belts for stringers. Really molds to the rocky sections.

Back at the harbor, the ice was closing in with the week-long cold snap.

Oystercatcher all tarped up, triple tied and ready for winter hibernation.

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After winterizing Oystercatcher, we drove to Courtenay for some skiing at Mt. Washington, and stopped at the trail to Ripple Rock. Once apon a time Ripple Rock was a dangerous hazard to ships navigating through the Inside Passage. Nothing a few thousand tons of explosives and some Canadian mining engineers couldn't solve. Here's the story of the largest non-nuclear blast in history.

Well we spotted the trailhead to the former home of Ripple Rock, and stretched our legs from the car ride. We only made it as far as the first suspension bridge, but it was a fun destination.

Cabled to three huge trees, the whole thing moves with a hiker's weight - note the sag under Mo and Chance. She swears it wasn't those pesky holiday pounds.

The skiing at Mt. Washington was a blast. We shredded those blue groomers up good. The crosscountry skiing trails were fantastic and the facility unbelievable. And we thought Kincaid Chalet was nice. Guessing it was built with Olympics dollars. Several national ski teams were scheduled to train there beforehand.

We're now in Bellingham, WA again and are gathering steam for a ski road trip East.