There is a moment when I think we both can sense what it must have been like to travel across the peninsula before the advent of concrete and cars. It took a rough scramble through thick brush and downed trees to get here, but we have emerged into easy walking. Rocky Creek fills the open forest with the sound of water. Everything is soft and fresh and bright, a carpet of bleeding heart and scattered fern and salmonberry.
Have our feet found one of the old native footpaths? We can imagine.
In 2023, Key Peninsula News contributor Joseph Pentheroudakis published his finding that, on an 1850s map created by government surveyors, trails are shown winding through the northern third of the peninsula. Trails built and used by native people. To say my imagination flared is an understatement. I pored over those maps. Why did the trails go where they did? What were their landmarks? What special places did they access?…