Among many varied outdoor weather excursions, whether kayaking or hiking in the summer months, he makes South Thormanby Island on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia his twice-yearly destination; once in fall, and then again in spring. Its sunsets are spectacular. When mist rolls in over the island the effect is mysteriously fascinating.

Sea life and the appearance of various types of mammals and birds can be guaranteed sightings in this area so far removed from the unnatural world we inhabit of cement, traffic and high-rises.

It is a place for contemplation of nature, for relaxation and for recreation, to take a busy mind away from the immaterial, thrusting it into the world of nature and appreciation for the areas of life so far removed from the manipulated environment we call our own.

Here, there are no others around and you rely on your own ingenuity and experience from previous such occasions to have a broad idea of what to expect, how to react, from pitching your tent above the high-tide water-mark, to viewing, but not molesting other animals that appear from time to time, often as curious about your presence as you are theirs.

It is a place where, reliant on your own devices and the small comforts you've brought with you, the occasion to blend with nature, that rare commodity of time and space and atmosphere, is yours alone to do with what you will, paddling the clear water of the coastal Pacific, idling on a beach, sleeping at night close by beach-lapping water, cooking meals on a tiny stove and appreciating the opportunity to test your mettle against a brief exposure to nature as raw as it can be.

But nature seldom, here, does it become more raw than what weather conditions bring along. And those too can be coped with, given the precautions taken in bringing along tarps and other comfort expedients. You are left free to act and react to nature in all her naked glory.