Pipers Lagoon Park

Imagine a lagoon the size of a couple of football fields, with a narrow, straight dyke cutting it off from the surf, which has created a marvellous pebbly beach with a great deal of mermaid's tears (a beautiful product of beach glass). Then it gets rocky; there is some neat but short rock-climbing for those who desire it, and one larger hill covered in arbutus and Garry Oak, eagles and scared rabbits, driftwood and views of the Strait.

Shack Island is a T-shaped, exotic slice of short bluffs and rocky beach amidst the shallow waters that separate Pipers Lagoon from Neck Point to the north. Shack Island has a very interesting history, none of which I can repeat with enough credibility even for the internet. It's been home to fishermen's cabins since before the thirties, when it was a long row from town to get to some of the prime fishing areas. The "shacks" are rustic in appearance and are often thought to be abandoned, but really they are treasured and used as summer cabins by a lucky few descendants of the original owners.

The island can only be reached at low tide or by boat, or by wading or swimming, of course. Beware, however, for many an old Nanaimo nanny who's weathered her share of Dover Bay storms can tell ye how many of her schoolmates were lost in the Depression, trying to swim out to ole Shack Island! They say there are vicious sea lions that obey the fell will of an ancient native spirit.