Fernwood

Saltspring is a pretty rocky island and beaches are scarce. This year I tried to get to the tombolo at Walker's Hook, but gave up in the face of mud and private property (yes, these Canadians are just as proprietary about their beaches as us Americans). Clearly, I need a boat.

Fernwood is on the northwest shore of the island, not far from St. Mary Lake where we stay every year and across the road from the Raven Street Market where we occasionally come for pizza. And now there' a coffee place, too, so I have another excuse to come down to the beach early in the morning before everyone else gets up.

The beach is a thin gravel one, anchored by outcrops of steeply dipping metamorphosed sediments and scattered glacial boulders.