As we continue our march up the protected Inside Passage, we anchored in Codville Lagoon for a few days to catch up a bit and wait until the fuel dock in Shearwater opens on Monday.  We plan to fill all the fuel tanks when we get to Ketchikan, but we want to be sure we have enough fuel to get us there – we need fuel for the engines as well as the generator (to charge batteries) and for the diesel-fired heating system.
We’re in a big protected anchorage and the birds have been entertaining.  Of course I saw the best bird action the first afternoon out in the kayak on one of those very rare occasions that I’m not dragging any cameras along.  A Barrow’s goldeneye duck was alternately trying to impress and harass his two girlfriends – they appreciated his dancing but not his ambushes so there was a lot of squawking and flying away before the routine would begin again.  The mergansers were just hanging out on a log, and there were lots of little murrelets cruising around.

We got to enjoy a few hours of rainy weather to catch up on some mundane things like dusting and vacuuming inside, as well as catching up on editing the growing pile of photos I keep taking.Codville Lagoon is labeled as a Marine Park on the chart, and there was a tiny official sign from BC Parks at the head of the trail that leads up to a lake.  (The official sign only said: “There are no trash facilities here – carry your trash out with you.”)  We read about the trail in some of the cruising guides with a warning that the trail was muddy.  After our experience hiking in Pruth Bay we developed a healthy respect for the “muddy” description so we donned our knee-high boots.  Luckily we discovered that the trail had been improved since the guide book was written.  There were some places with boards on the ground or short little boardwalks to get through some of the worst spots, though we were still glad for the boots because it was still pretty soggy here and there.  The lake was a real surprise – about a mile long by 3/4 of a mile wide with a reddish sandy beach along one side.  We saw lots of deer prints in the sand, as well as some wolf prints.We’ve enjoyed our hikes through the woods – we are in a temperate rainforest and it has a very special feeling to it with thick layers of moss on tree branches, “nurse logs” (dead trees that provide a perfect haven for new trees and plants to grow on), a variety of ferns, tiny mushrooms, lichens, etc.  We like these little details in nature so I’m carrying a macro lens more often when we hike.