{"id":5761,"date":"2008-01-25T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2008-01-25T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=5761"},"modified":"2020-06-19T22:41:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T02:41:37","slug":"goose-spit-regional-park-comox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=5761","title":{"rendered":"Goose Spit Regional Park, Comox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rumour has it that Oprah bought the big glass house overlooking the Spit<\/em>; and, I can understand why. To the west, there is a fantastic view of Mount Washington and its snow-covered peaks. If you look to the east you might be able to catch a whale or two, or one of the cruise ships heading north to Alaska. Look south and you’ll see a lot of beaches.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, a “spit” is a giant permanent sandbar that juts out into the ocean<\/a>. This particular spit is called Goose Spit Park<\/em> and is broken into three sections: the skinny Balmoral Beach, the large H.M.C.S. Quadra, and the tiny and mysterious indigenous reserve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 130-years ago, sections of the land became a naval training base — land that is still leased to the H.M.C.S. Quadra. Every summer hundreds of keen, bright-faced youth end up at the Spit<\/em> to train as naval cadets. My Mom worked here — back when the only way out to the base was by boat. Now you can access the beaches (and base) by driving along Balmoral Road.<\/p>\n

I don’t know much about the piece of land at the end of the Spit<\/em>. I do know that it is one of the smallest Indian Reserves in B.C. and is rumoured to be indigenous burial land. It was allocated as indigenous land about a decade before the naval training base came to be.<\/p>\n

Once on the “cove” side of the Spit<\/em> you’ll find a sheltered lagoon with lots of birds, interesting plants and a view of the Comox Glacier and Mount Washington. One of the photos in the gallery is taken looking north of the lagoon. I rather like it because it reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle photo. <\/p>\n

You can do a 1.5-hour hike around the entire park, which we’ll probably do when La Ni\u00f1a<\/em> is older and able to walk that distance. There are hikers who do an entire loop from the Comox Port, around the Spit<\/em> counter-clockwise, and back to the town centre via the Mack Laing Interpretive Trail<\/a>. I can’t imagine how long this would take but it would be one heck of a nice hike.<\/p>\n