Storms provide a time for solitude and reflection. Sitting by the fireplace with a good book, a game of cards or curling up with a good movie, a time for togetherness, a time well deserved.

Some have heard of the "storms of the Pacific Coast" and have come to experience first hand the fierce raw power of nature. Impossible to describe, impossible to picture, it's an explosion of ones emotion's as senses are pounded by the wind, rain, salt, and thirty foot swells crashing on the beach just a short distance from where you are standing. Caution has to be exercised when walking the beaches in the winter. An eye must be kept on the water as rogue waves can wash a long way up the beach beyond the normal water-mark. The logs strewn about by the tides can be picked up and rolled around at any time. High tide is a time for extreme caution and awareness.

A break in the storm and you head for the beach. At the trailhead you look out at the surf and those rocks that seemed so large and accessible are now submerged as the ocean pounds over them. You look down at Frank Island, the spit is gone and relentless waves are breaking over the rocks splitting the island in two. You take a photo; you know its there and its happening yet the picture just doesn't show it. You have to be there and be part of it. If you listen carefully you will hear the fog horn of Leonard Island Lighthouse just off Chesterman's Beach. The island's there, just obscured in the storm and fog.

Winter weather on the West Coast is governed by the Ocean and in particular the off shore currents. Ever changing, the day can go from warm with bright blue skies to torrential down pours all through the course of the day (it seems most of the rain comes during the night, this may just be a hopeful thought). Be prepared for it to change at any moment. Power outages are not uncommon as the wind blows trees down over the power lines. Winter on the West Coast is for the adventurous and hardy. In March we start to look for more moderate weather conditions and the return of the whales.