David and Enid's Travels

BC Ferry crossing from Nanaimo

We are on the way home now.  The ferry ride to Vancouver this morning was very nice as it was sunny and calm.  There were quite a number of passengers aboard going to the football game this afternoon.  It was easy to get to the MEC store in North Vancouver.  It’s not very big, smaller than the store in Edmonton, but had a good selection of items.  From there we drove over the coquihalla to Kamloops.  We got here much earlier than we thought since it was so easy to get through Vancouver this morning.

Nanaimo small boat harbour

It rained sometime during the night.  Although it had stopped before we rose it was still very damp, and the tent is really wet.  From four days of camping in 100% relative humidity, where nothing will dry, everything inside our tent — sheets, sleeping bags, and pyjamas — are all pretty damp.  Because of that we stopped travelling as soon as we got to a laundromat in Nanaimo and washed and dried all our dirty clothes, as well as the stuff that is damp.  The sleeping bags are laid out in the hotel room on the extra bed, the tent fly is hanging in the bathroom over the shower rod and is almost dry now, and the tent itself is over the couch.

We are staying in the Buccaneer Inn, a small (less than ten rooms) motel right near the ferry dock.  It is very reasonably priced, and very nice and clean with a kitchenette.  The tourist information center is very hard to find, but the clerk in a service station right near the laundromat told me how to get there.  The host in the visitor center recommended the hotel, and phoned to make sure that they had a room available.  Across the street is the small boat harbour and many marine businesses.  It is a nice place to stay.

Sand and driftwood, Longbeach

This will be our last full day at the ocean.  We spent it walking along the sands of Longbeach (a total of almost 15 kilometers of walking), looking at the driftwood, the birds, the surf, and very much enjoyed being by the water.  Even though it wasn’t a cool day with a moderate breeze and the sky was overcast all day, it wasn’t foggy either, so that we were able to see the offshore rocks much more clearly than yesterday.

In the morning we walked all the way north along the beach to Incinerator Rock which is near the north end of the beach.  I got some very nice video of two Whimbrels as they searched for food in the sand.  There were some very interesting sand formations where currents have shaped the sand into small hummocks.  The sand along the beach has an interesting variation of textures:  sometimes it is very hard packed which makes it easy to walk, at other times it is very soft so that you sink in a couple of inches on each step.

After lunch we walked the other way south on Combers Beach.  It was now high tide.  Someone has built a driftwood shelter on the beach by piling many driftwood logs into the shape of a tepee and we stopped for a while.  Enid took her book with her to read this afternoon, while I tried to do some more photography, and then almost fell asleep sitting on the bench in the shelter.  There wasn’t much to see unfortunately, as no birds were out on the beach.  Oh yes, there were several hundred gulls congregated at one spot farther down, but that wasn’t very interesting.  

You could barely make out the sea lions on Sea Lion Rocks off shore with the maximum zoom on the video camera lens.  There were also some other rocks with cormorants.  We saw about a dozen tour boats today.  They would go by the rocks for a few minutes then headed back towards Tofino.

When we got back to Greenpoint Rocks I was going to try and video the little fish in the tide pools.  However the tide was still in too deep, so Enid and I waited on the rocks.  After about half an hour I walked up on top of the rocks where there was a surge of waves coming through.   I was there for quite a while, and when I came back the light was not very good in the tide pool, so I thought I would try to video the surging waves.  Enid decided to leave and returned to the campsite.  I went back onto the rocks and was setting up the video camera.  Bent over the viewfinder I didn’t see the massive wave coming, which broke violently against the back wall of the rocks and threw water completely over me.  My hair was soaked and that probably saved the camera, as it only got a bit of splash on it.  My raincoat was also soaked, and since it wasn’t zipped up all the way, so was my fleece underneath it.  I came back to the camp site and dried off the camera as best I could.  My raincoat and fleece didn’t really dry out though.  Nothing really dried today, as it is very humid here.  The washcloths that went on the clothesline this morning are still wet tonight.

Anemone at Schooner Bay

We rushed out of Tofino after updating our email as it was clear and sunny and we didn’t want to lose out on the sunshine on the ocean.  Unfortunately it got very foggy after just ten kilometres south towards Schooner Cove.  We did walk the kilometer in to the cove over a boardwalk trail that goes up and down several sets of stairs.  I was carrying the video camera on the tripod, and it was very hard to pass people on the narrow boards, so several times I stepped off to let them past me.

The tide was going out when we got to the water.  We walked north on the beach and over the rocks, but there were no good tide pools in that direction.  After we’d done that the tide was low enough that we were able to walk out to the rocky island in the cove.  There we found a pool which had a number of small black and white fish, as well as some hermit crabs.  The anemones would close when the fish darted around and bumped into them, but I never saw one actually catch a fish.  Most of the time the fish struck the outside stalk of the anemone, rather than going over the top mouth.

We now have our plans laid out to go home.  We will stay here until Friday morning then drive to Nanaimo.  From there we will take the ferry to Vancouver on Saturday morning and do some shopping at MEC.  Then it should be a fairly quick trip home as we hope to be in Prince Albert in about a week from today.

Tofino harbour

We had breakfast, packed everything, and then walked to the beach.  It  was very foggy, though it had been perfectly clear all night, in fact you could see the stars through the towering trees overhead.  We spent only half an hour on the beach videotaping the small fish in one of the tide pools.  The tide was out, but coming in.

We then drove to the gate, and were in luck.  We did manage to get registered again for the next two nights, so we won’t be leaving until Friday.  Though we’re not in the same site so had to set up the tent and the tarp again, it is a good site and more open than the last.  The trees here are huge, so that to get the rope around them for the tarp you had to walk around the tree, you couldn’t just reach around it.

It was still foggy as we drove in to Tofino where we ate our lunch down at the kayak launching area, where there were some picnic tables.  We then found the post office, and bought a stamped envelope so that I can mail a cheque to cover the cost of my speeding ticket.  We located the library, which does have wireless access, but it isn’t open until three pm, and it’s only just after noon, so we didn’t want to wait around.  The pharmacy has access, but not any USB drives open so that’s not going to work either.  We finally found an Internet Cafe “Tuff Beans” which has wireless access, and so we are on-line for the price of a piece of carrot cake and some hot chocolate.

Florencia bay

Though the morning was very foggy, it didn’t rain, and later in the day the sun broke through the fog and it became a very nice day to explore the beaches of this park.

Whimbrel

We first walked down to the beach below our campsite at Greenpoint.  The tide was almost in, and so we could not investigate the tide pools as we did yesterday.  Instead I spent quite a while filming and photographing birds.  There were two species: some form of plovers which are small birds that rapidly dart around in flocks at the edge of the water, and actively probing the sand for food; and whimbrels which are a blue legged bird with a curved bill.  The whimbrels are much larger, and were eating much higher up from the water in the drier sand.  One of the signs at an interpretive site identified the plovers as semipalmated plovers, however they look much more like snowy plovers in my field guide.

After lunch we drove to Wickaninnish Beach.  There is a large interpretive center (and restaurant) here.  Several of the displays are still under construction.  We walked quite a way along the beach until it started to sprinkle rain, watching the surfers (who didn’t seem to be doing much) and also watching the birds again.  We met another couple from Ontario who were also wondering what the small birds (the plovers) were.  They were not any more certain than we were.  We then drove to Florencia Bay and walked down to that beach.  It was much calmer than Wickaninnish.  One man was surfing there, though he was very far away from us.  We sat and just enjoyed the warmth of the sun on the beach for by now the sun had finally become strong enough to warm the air.

When we got back to our campsite we tried to book it for tomorrow.  They told us that we would have to check back tomorrow at just before 11, ist ahead of us, and our chances didn’t look good.

Cathedral Grove

No sooner had we gone to bed last night, early, around 8:30 since it was so dark, and we were both tired from the long day of ferry crossing yesterday, than it started to rain.  At first it was very light, but it continued all night, until we awoke.  Then it stopped for a bit tempting us to get out and start breakfast, but it soon started again with a real downpour as we stood under the rear door of the Yukon using it as a rain shelter.  It did stop again though, so we got the tent down without getting the inside too wet, though the fly was thoroughly soaked.

It was a slow drive across the island to Pacific Rim National Park as the road is very twisted.  It did stop raining somewhere along the way, but not until after we had gone through the huge trees of Cathedral grove.  We stopped there, got one of the last available parking spots, and spent almost an hour admiring the huge Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir on the site.  I saw one young girl of about fourteen who obviously was not as thrilled with the spectacular views of the forest as she was in texting on her cell phone.  I thought “what a sad comment that is on society, that you can’t enjoy the real beauty here because you are so wrapped up in technology.”

Greenpoint Camground is not very full.  It is the last day, Monday, of the long weekend, and we met hundreds of cars exiting the area all along the highway in.  It was a steady stream of cars and campers on the opposite side of the road heading home, and very few going our way in to the park.

The weather is dull and very foggy, but it hasn’t rained since we arrived.  We’re set up in a nice campsite under the huge moss covered cedars here.  Our tent is drier, but not dry, as the floor is still damp, but we’ll make do.  After we had the tent and the tarp set up we went for a long stroll of a couple of kilometres along the beach.  It was low tide and we enjoyed watching the anemones, mussels and very small fish in some of the tide pools.  The fish were not more than a couple of inches long, but they were aggressively tearing at one of the mussels whose shell was partially open.

Kin Beach, Comox BC

We are just outside Comox BC tonight at a small campsite.  We had a great deal of difficulty finding it and we drove right by one time without finding it at all.  We were about to leave town to try and find something else, but I wanted to fill up with gas, so when stopped I asked where the campsite was.  The girl at the till didn’t really know, but she got a map, and a man who was also in the store showed me the correct location.  I assume it is called “Kin” beach as it must have been sponsored by the Kinsmen since there is a plaque honouring a Kinsman on the site. 

We walked down to the ocean and along the beach.  You can’t go far without running into private residences though.  It is a very small park.  There are private residences on either side, and one right in the middle of the park.  Perhaps it is just a cabin, but looked much like a small house.  There were always two or three small dark black rabbits eating around the cabin each time you went by.

We had stopped at a different camp site just south of Campbell River but it was pretty busy, and cost more than I wanted to spend to possibly sit in the rain.  Somehow we missed the next park, though if it is signed as well as this one (no signs at all) then it would be easy to see why.  So when we got to Courtenay we really wanted to find somewhere to camp.  This site is good enough for one night, and at twelve dollars, the cheapest site we’ve been at in British Columbia.

The Inside Passage Ferry, Boat Bluff Light

It was an extraordinary coincidence to walk up to the passenger deck on the ferry this morning and be greeted by David Hearle, the bicyclist, whom we last saw in Inuvik more than a month ago. We have now met him at three separate locations, two of them completely by accident on ferries, and the other because he was in the same campground as us. He seemed to be a bit road weary, and is heading back now towards Seattle and his plane ride home. He has a sore ankle, and the rear wheel on his bike is in bad shape.

That was just one of the interesting events today on the ferry ride. It was an early morning starting with waking at 4:00 am, breakfast, and checking in at the ferry dock at 5:30. Then a wait for an hour until we loaded and were away by 7:30, heading from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy through the inside passage of islands on the BC coast. At times the channel is very narrow, less than a kilometre across, and the scenery is excellent. The water is calm for the most part, as the trip is so sheltered. There are only two large crossings where the full Pacific swells were hitting us broadside. We are crossing the last of those now in Queen Charlotte Sound at the north end of Vancouver Island as we approach landfall.

 We’re not quite sure why there is a difference in price on this ferry for the height of the vehicle. The deck was at least twenty feet high, and there only seemed to be one deck. All vehicles of all sizes were mixed in together. I guess it is a good way to make money for the ferry. We were glad we removed our car top carrier anyway, as it saved us over $350 to do that, and it wasn’t very hard to do.

The clouds hung load this morning, but were broken by patches of blue sky. During the day it was a mixture of weather, sometimes bright and sunny, though often cloudy with misty rain. Towards evening the weather cleared more. Twice today we saw whales, though they were far away and hard to identify the type, but they looked like humpbacks or similar sized whales from a distance. We passed a large barge loaded with logs and towed by a tugboat, a number of lighthouses, old village sites, and many waterfalls. Near the village of Bella Bella there were a number of fishing boats on the water, but we didn’t see many boats elsewhere.

Now the sun has set, and it was a very nice sunset. However it didn’t last long. Unlike the long lingering light of a prairie sunset, this was over in minutes. We will be docking in a little over an hour, and that will bring to a close a very relaxing day as we travelled south.

Museum of Northern British Columbia artifacts

Last night was a fairly nice evening.  Although it was cloudy and a bit windy, we sat by the fire reading by our generator powered light.  It was dry all night but we awoke early awakened by the sound of light rain just starting to fall on the tent.  Arising quickly we got the tent down before it got very wet.  Fortunately it was pitched under some large cedar trees that protected it some.

By the time we were eating breakfast it was a real downpour.  We were dry under the tarp, that is until the rain loosened the peg holding the guy rope on one pole, and it pulled from the ground.  The tarp collapsed on us and we hurriedly got it back up again.  This time I guyed it to a large tree using the clothesline, which needless to say was of no use for that purpose in the rain.

The rain stopped by the time we got to Prince Rupert.  We checked into our hotel after doing the laundry.  While doing that we visited with a couple from Ontario that has been travelling all summer through much of the same area as us, but in a truck camper.  They comisserated with us about being in a tent.  We’ll probably see them again tomorrow on the ferry.

After we’d spread out our gear to dry in the hotel room we walked to the Museum of Northern British Columbia, and spent a bit over an hour looking at the exhibits there.  They have some very beautiful First Nations arts and craft work, particularly masks and ceremonial skirts and headdresses.  It started to rain again as we walked back to the hotel.  It may be fun removing the roof rack tonight so that we get the height of the Yukon down below seven feet.