Today is day 42 of my self isolating...that is a long time!!!
Boomer and I headed off South Island to the town of Duncan where we delivered a small birthday gift to my long time friend Sara, who is celebrating a special birthday today......hats off to Sara she is a remote location Nurse who is heading out tomorrow to go to a remote First Nations town in Northern BC for a month!!!
Boomer and I then found this trail head...
We headed off up hill into the forest..
Boomer loves his sticks...this was a big one..
But this was even bigger..
Spring flowers..
We eventually came out on the ridge with amazing views of the valley and this cross..
History of the Cross
This info was kindly provided by Maria at Providence Farm, her father welded the cross…
Originally, a wooden cross was put up on Tzouhalem in 1976 by St. Ann’s Catholic Church (Able Joe) and St. Edward’s Catholic Church (Cliff Pascoe). The cross was put up as part of “ecumenical” celebrations – part of Easter/Good Friday. Each year many people hike to the cross stopping to do the “stations of the cross” on the way up as part of the Catholic Easter celebration.
The wooden cross was repeatedly vandalized (burned/cut down), so it was replaced with the metal cross in 1988 (approx date). Maurice Dupont, a welder, made the cross in Crofton, and 3 members of Knights of Columbus, as a group, got it up there. The group included Jack Pearce, Peter Cain and Oly Bar. They drove up the mountain as far as possible then carried the steel and cement in the rest of the way. The picture above was taken after the final cementing was completed
There is also an old legend:
Chief Tzouhalem, a vicious, warring and grossly disfigured Chief, would hide out in the caves that are in Mt. Tzouhalem before and after a raid. Legend says that when he tired of his “wife” he would take her up to the point where the cross is, and throw her off – then he would go and “take” another wife. It is rumoured that he had up to 40 wives though when he was killed in 1859 he had only 14.
One story suggests he was exiled from his tribe for killing his fellow tribesmen so he moved to a cave on the mountain which now bears his name.
Another is little grimmer. He and his tribe had planned to take his next wife from a nearby tribe, planned the attack and went to carry it out. Story goes that the tribe they went to attack got word of the plan, and planned their own ambush. During the ambush Chief Tzouhalem’s head was severed. They buried his body somewhere, but kept the head to guard it for some spiritual reasons (to keep his spirit from returning?). Apparently his head is still being guarded somewhere…
I reckon we covered close to ten km a real good workout..
Tonight Heather completed my tax return the deadline is the end of April but it has been extended till the end of June I think...anyway nice to get it completed and I think I shall get lucky with a small refund cheque!!
Spoke to my family in England today and they are all doing well.
Stay safe and healthy!!
Yashi Kochi!!
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