Vancouver Island Trip - Day 6

On Wednesday October 23rd we repeated the drill of the day before.  Brad, Rob and I were up at 6:30AM, had a quick breakfast, packed our gear, and hit the road by 7:45AM.  Once again we headed over to Buckley Bay to catch the ferry out to the Gulf Islands.  This time around we only took the first ferry across to Denman Island.  

The tide was getting a little later every morning.  At the beginning of our trip the low tide was in the early morning hours, well before daylight.  Now, a few days later, low tide was occurring somewhat after sunrise.  

We drove up to the northern tip of Denman Island where the road ended.  From here it was a short walk through the trees to the top of the bluff above Morning Beach.  The girls and I were here a few years ago and really liked the area.  There is a steep staircase down the bluff to the beach below, and when we arrived the tide was out.  We made our way along the beach up to the spit at the northern tip of the island.  At low tide you can actually walk across the flats out to a spot called Tree Island, in Sandy Island Marine Provincial Park.  Not sure how long the tide would stay out, we did not venture across to the island.  After hiking and photographing on the beach for a while, we made our way back to the staircase.  By the time we got there the tide was well on its way up again.  The stairs were rather steep and narrow and climbing them with my heavy camera pack on my back was no small feat.  The burning in my thighs reminded me that I'm getting too old for this.

We got back to the truck and headed down to the south end of the Island.  We parked at the other end of the road, this time in Boyle Point Provincial Park.  From here there was a short hike through the trees over to Eagle Point.  Here there was no staircase and it was a bit of a scramble down to the beach below.  I understand that the locals call this Betty's Beach.  It is scattered with large eroded boulders, black in color, that have tumbled down into the water and become rounded and worn.  The tide was pretty high by this point and the shooting was a little limited.  

Once we finished up here we scrambled back up to the cliff top and once again my thighs reminded me of the weight that I was packing around.  My phone recorded my steps and indicated that I walked the equivalent of 8.6km on this day, and climbed the equivalent of 16 flights.  It would take a few days for the soreness in my legs to ease off...

After we got back to the truck we took the ferry back across to the main Island and headed back up to Courtenay and our rental house.  After the evening meal we repeated the usual routine... more visiting, beer and guitar playing.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 5

On Tuesday October 22nd there was a drastic improvement in the weather.  The guys and I were up early... at about 6:30AM.  We had a quick breakfast, loaded our gear, and hit the road by about 7:45AM.  It was a short drive down the old Island Highway to Buckley Bay.  Here we would catch the ferry.  The round trip cost up about a hundred bucks return.  This actually included two ferries... first a cable ferry across to Denman Island.  Then we had to drive across Denman Island and down to the south end to catch a second ferry at Gravelly Bay.  This one was not a cable ferry and traveled across to Shingle Spit on Hornby Island.  The whole process consumed nearly two hours and we would have to repeat the process at the end of the day to get back to Vancouver Island.  The Gulf Islands and the West Coast in general are beautiful, and a wonderful place to visit as a tourist.  But to leave here would be challenging.  Not only are the gloomy, overcast conditions of winter rather depressing, but to be married to the crazy ferry schedules, and saddled with the costs, would drive me insane.

After we left Shingle Spit we crossed Hornby Island and then headed over to Ford Cove.  Here there was a small marina, and a beach with some really interested weathered sandstone.  We photographed here for a while.  Later we stopped and wandered around a bit in an open meadow with some Garry Oaks and an old cedar split rail fence.

By early afternoon we made our way down to the south end of Hornby Island and went for a hike at Helliwell Provincial Park.  There are some open grassy meadows with a scattering of more Garry Oaks and a few Arbutus trees.  These are along some open bluffs exposed to the ocean.  Further inland the forest recedes into the more typical fir, hemlock, cedar and maples so common everywhere else.  We walked for about 4 or 5km on a loop trail around the park and stopped to make a couple of photographs.  By mid-afternoon the light was beginning to fade.  We had to constantly keep in mind the ferry schedule and make sure that we could be on time to make the connections to get back to Vancouver Island.  At this point in the off-season, and being the middle of the week, I think the last ferry of the day was around 6:00PM.

It was early evening by the time we got back to the house and followed what had become our usual routine.    ...Check e-mail messages from work, put something together for supper, relax and have a few beers, and then dig out the guitars.  It was certainly nice to not have any rain on this day as it made things a lot more pleasant and productive than the previous two.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4

The weather out on Vancouver Island on Monday October 21st. got worse.  They rain was coming down heavier and harder than it had the day before, and it was rather windy.  We decided to head out scouting around, and hoped that the weather might break later in the day.  It never did, so this ended up just a scouting trip and the big camera never made it out of the truck.  I took a bunch of snapshots with my phone, and we got some ideas where we might shoot if the weather improved. 

Our first stop was at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park near Parksville.  The tide was fairly high by the time we arrived.  It was windy, cold and raining and there was not much opportunity to shoot.  There were a bunch of little black rabbits running around all over the grassy areas adjacent to the beach.  Not sure if these were wild... or just a bunch of feral ones that had taken up residence.  They were sorta cute so I took a couple snapshots to send home to my rabbit loving daughters.   The areas in the fir trees near the beach were quite visually interesting and we made plans to return in better conditions.

After we had wandered around at Rathtrevor for a bit we moved inland to Englishman River Falls Provincial Park.  Here there was yet more west coast rain forest.  The Englishman River dropped over a rocky ledge into a cleft and made for a rather picturesque cascade.  It remained a little too wet to consider dragging out the big camera but we wandered around for a couple hours and took a few snapsots.  Once we finished here we hit the highway back north to the rental house.

After dinner we repeated what would become our usual drill.... visit, have a few drinks, and play guitar.  Brad is into Bluegrass music and he was patient enough to try and teach me a few things.  It was slow going but by the end of the trip I had picked up a song called Salt Creek.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 3

It was raining pretty steadily when we got up on Sunday morning... October 20th.  We were a little slow and lazy in having breakfast and getting our stuff together.  Eventually we put on our rain gear and ventured out into the wet.  We took a drive down island on the old highway, and checked out the sights along the way.  Lots of small towns down there and we thought about some places that we might return to for some shooting.  We decided to venture inland into the trees and see if we could shelter ourselves a little from the steadily falling rain.  We ended up on the highway towards Port Alberni and stopped at MacMillan Provincial Park.  Cathedral Grove in the park is an old growth forest of Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir trees.  There is the usual west coast understory of ferns, mosses, maples and other small shrubs.

Rob had an umbrella but I wasn't smart enough to bring one along so I just got wet.  At one point Brad tried to help me out and held the umbrella while I was setting up.  It quickly became evident that we were just going to get really wet and that was all that was to it.  I had a rain jacket, hat and rubber boots but my backpack and all my camera gear was soaked.  My note pad got so saturated that the ink from the pen I had used to label the holder numbers and type of film washed completely away.  Even a pencil would barely write on the soggy, wet paper.  We hung out there in the woods for two or three hours and photographed until mid afternoon when the light began to fade.  I seem to recall that I set up the view camera four or five times and shot about a dozen sheets of film.  Once we packed up and left it was a drive of about an hour to get back to the rented house in Courtenay.  There we spread out all our camera gear to dry and it sort of looked like a used camera store.
We ended up cooking almost all of our evening meals at the house and only went out to a restaurant once during the entire trip.  The evening routine for the week consisted of my checking e-mails to see if there were any work issues to be addressed.  Then we made our evening meal and tidied up the dishes.  After supper we would visit and have a few beers. Both Brad and I brought our guitars along on this trip and almost every evening we sat up and played.  Brad has been playing for several years now and is a lot further along then I am.  Mostly because he seems to be able to dedicate a lot more time to practice.  With work and everything else going on in my life it seems I have very little time for music. 

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 2

Road conditions were pretty good for Brad and I on our Friday drive out to Vernon.  We hit a couple of minor construction delays but nothing serious.  There was a little snow up on Bow Pass but nothing worse than that.  On the morning of Saturday October 19th, we piled all our gear into my truck at Robs place, and the three of us hit the road.  Once again it was a pretty early start.  We fueled the truck, grabbed a coffee, and were on our way.  We cut across from Vernon to Kamloops on Highway 97C.  From there we headed west on the old Trans Canada to Cache Creek.  There we turned north and then cut across through Lillooet and Pemberton.  Brad's oldest daughter Lindsay is living in Pemberton and we were able to connect with her briefly so that she could say hello to her Dad.  They just saw each other a short time ago at Thanksgiving, so this was just a brief visit.   

I had never travelled this way before so the route was new to me.  It was very scenic and beautiful, but the highway was winding and torturous.  This made for some very slow driving.  After our brief visit with Lindsay we carried on down to Whistler and Squamish and made our way down the Sea to Sky Highway to Horseshoe Bay.  There we caught the ferry to Nanaimo.  The timing worked out pretty well and we only had to wait for about an hour.  Once we got to Nanaimo we made a quick stop for some groceries and beer and then continued on up island.  By the time we got further north to Courtenay it was already dark.  We off-loaded our gear into the house and got settled in.  We ordered some pizza and had it delivered to the house.  That night we just settled in and relaxed.  Two days of driving for Brad and I had worn us out and we looked forward to settling in to relax, unwind and explore.  Rob was luckier as he only had to endure one day of driving to get to our eventual destination.

Vancouver Island Trip - Day 1

I've gone on several extended trips with my friends Rob and Brad.  The first time we went it was just for a couple of days, hiking in Kananaskis.  Then we went to Utah twice... the first time in 2013, and then again in 2015.  Since early this summer we have been making plans for another trip together.  With the exchange rates being what they are at the moment... and the uncertain political environment south of the 49th, we decided to stay in Canada this year.  I booked a week at the Courtenay Beach House, out on Vancouver Island.  The girls and I stayed here back in the spring of 2016 and were really impressed with the place.  It is a large home, right on the beach in Courtenay, and is very central to a number of excellent locations nearby.

On Friday October 18th, Brad met me at the shop.  We spotted his car in the yard and hit the road in my truck.  We got a pretty early start and were out of the city shortly after 7:00AM.  We traveled south and then west... through Rocky Mountain House, Nordegg, Saskatchewan Crossing and joined the Trans Canada Highway at Lake Louise.  From there we continued west through Field, Golden, Revelstoke and on to Sicamous.  There we turned south off the Trans Canada and headed down through Armstrong and Enderby and on to Vernon.  Rob used to live in Beaumont, south of Edmonton, but moved to Vernon shortly before our 2015 trip to Utah.  

We arrived in Vernon in the late afternoon, just as the fall light was fading.  We stayed at Robs place that Friday night.  Rob and his wife Monique put on a big spread for us with steaks, potatoes, corn, salad and grilled veggies.  We sat up for a while in the evening visiting and discussing our plans for the upcoming week.

It was nice to get back together again and rekindle the friendship and camaraderie that we had developed over our previous adventures.  Rob and Brad have known each other for around 30 years and I am the relative newcomer to this group.  Brad and I got stuck in Butte Montana for three days back in 2015 when the clutch dropped out of my truck on the way home from Utah.  Needless to say we spent a lot of time together there, waiting for the truck to be repaired.  We all hit it off nicely together and I really enjoy getting together with these guys.  This will definitely not be our last trip together and we hope to make it an annual event from now on.... or at least semi-annual....

Print Changeover at Mimi's Pub

Last week I changed over the prints at Mimi's Pub.  This has become a favorite hangout of ours and Margarit and I stop by at least once a week.  We have become friends with the owners and the staff and some of the regular clients.  This time around the print installation didn't go all that well.  I used some adhesive hangers just like last time, but already three of the prints have let go and fallen off the wall.  I think that perhaps I was not careful enough with the installation.  The glass has been broken out of three of the frames, but fortunately there was no damage to the prints.  I originally assembled these with rather costly non-glare high transparency glass, so this has become a rather costly error on my part.  Despite the challenges it is great to get my work on display again and this will be an ongoing venue for me...

Thanksgiving

It was a pretty quiet and laid back Thanksgiving weekend out at the cottage.  Margarit and the three girls went out on Friday evening.  I was too tired after the work week to drive into the dark so I stayed home on Friday and headed out early Saturday morning.  I picked up my Mom and brought her along for the weekend.

There was still some snow on the ground when we arrived, but most of what fell a week ago has now melted.  We made our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday and had roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and vegetables.  Now that Anna and Helena have become vegetarians, we had to also have a few extra side dishes.

We took a couple of walks around the neighborhood and the girls rode around a bit on the ATV.  I did a few chores around the cottage including assembling a coffee table that I made and putting away a bunch of tools and supplies.  The wind blew a spruce down in the back of our property and I cut that up and salvaged a couple of logs.  I peeled these so that I can use them on the bunk bed I intend to build later this fall.

I checked my Radon gas detector and the long term average seems to be settling down at a safe level.  There was a short period of time earlier in the summer when the levels exceeded the safe limit, but it is the long term average that we are supposed to be concerned about.  That is now at 165.... and has been recording since the August long weekend.

Helena was outside playing in the snow and made some little snow people... and named two of them Phillip and Gloria.  They didn't last very long as the temperature was well above freezing on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  On Sunday evening Margarit, Hailey and Helena went back home to the city as Hailey had a work shift scheduled on Monday.  Anna and I stayed on Sunday night with my Mom.

It rained for a while on Sunday evening, eventually turning to snow, but didn't amount to a lot.  We packed up and headed for home on Monday in the early afternoon.  We saw a small herd of wild horses, and a cow moose with a calf on the way home.

Evening Visitor

Seems this guy wandered by a week ago on a rather cold and snowy evening out at the cottage.  We weren't there at the time but the game camera captured this shot...  We've seen foxes in the yard and around the subdivision few times over the past couple of years, but never a coyote.  The game camera has captured a shot of them every once in a while.  Since that big dump of snow a week ago, most of it has since melted.  Hopefully we get some more fall weather before it winters in for good.