After spending most of the day on October 26th in Cathedral Grove, we took a drive further inland to Port Alberni, and beyond to Sproat Lake. We knew of a petroglyph site at Sproat Lake that we wanted to photograph. It was about a half a kilometer walk from the parking area to a small cliff on the shore of the lake. Not an easy task with a backpack that could not be carried on my back. My arms became quite tired as I carried it in a bearhug to and from the site.
After photographing there we noticed a large aircraft just up the shore. This was the Mars Bomber, and it was in dry dock at the site of a forest fire fighting company. We drove over to it bu unfortunately the site was locked up and we were only able to view the two massive flying boats from through a chain link fence. These World War II era cargo planes were converted to water bombers for fighting forest fires. See further information below....
By this time it was getting to be rather late in the day and we ran out of time to make it to the nearby McLean Mill Historic Site. This was the site of a historic sawmill and a rail line that once ran to it. As we had to leave the island the next morning, this site will need to be left for a future visit.
On our way back to the guest house we made a stop in Port Alberni. There was a cool old hotel there and we decided to check it out for the Beer Parlour Project. There was guy there shooting pool by himself, and we kind of suspect that he was trying to hustle us into a game. None of us took him up on it, but he was agreeable to letting Arturo photograph him. It was a weekday afternoon and the place was pretty full, and there was a band playing. I can only imagine what it must be like on a Saturday night. An official visit for the Beer Parlour Project will have to wait for a return visit as we simply could not squeeze it on this day.
Here is a link to a Wikipedia post about these famous aircraft, and a couple of images copies from that post. Only seven of these aircraft were ever built, and two of them now reside at Sproat Lake. They were converted to water bombers for fighting forest fires, but are now retired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_JRM_Mars
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