Our Fourth Posting

Sunday, June 07 to Thursday, June 11, 2009 - Port McNeill

Sunday - The day started out with a foggy mist but as the morning went on it cleared up. Our schedule for today was to visit Telegraph Cove and Bear Cove. Bear Cove is where Leo really wanted to go as the logging train would unload the logs here to be sorted, dumped into the Cove as log `booms` and towed by tugboat down the island to Nanaimo for sawing into lumber. But there was no action whatsoever here today so we drove on to Telegraph Cove. We had been told to go and really visit this little village on stilts: but it was a great disappointment for us. To start with you had to pay for parking, and the parking meter was not even working so you had to go and pay at the office. Next we got to walk along the ‘boardwalk’ and look at the old houses of which many had been converted into ‘rooms to rent’ type units. There was also a restaurant and office for the whale watching operation and a ‘bones museum’ housing skeletons of various marine and land animals. Leo later found out that the village was privately owned and that they had ‘blasted away’ a rock hill to build condominiums, an RV campground and another parking lot. The whole place has lost its charm to the tourist dollar. A real shame. I tried to buy a coffee and muffin but at a price of $2.50 for a muffin I passed the opportunity. Next I thought of buying a chocolate milk, only a 250ml container, but at $3.20 I passed it on as well. So I went back to the car and had a drink of water instead. I would not recommend Telegraph Cove to anyone unless you really like touristy type places. But we did again have our sighting of black bears for the day.

Monday - Zeballos and Fair Harbour were on the schedule for today. To get to these 2 places, located on an inlet, we had to take a forestry road. We decided to try our luck in the hope that the road would not be too rough for us. It was a well graded road and we had no problems whatsoever. The logging trucks were still not driving as the whole logging operation was still not back to work due to fire hazard. The road to Zeballos was really nice and scenic and so was the village itself. As I was talking to one of the local fisherman it was recommended we should go on to Fair Harbour as it had more fishing boats and such. Note that Zeballos is a true village with a store, motel, library, pub and some side streets as well. Well after leaving Zeballos for Fair Harbour the road changed to a much narrower road and also a bit rougher to drive. We finally did get to the end of the road and that is exactly what Fair Harbour is - the end of the road with a very small harbour with a couple of docks for boats, but only two or so houses hidden in the trees. There were enough cars parked here but we did not see a lot of people so the owners of these cars must have been out on their boats fishing. We did talk to a man cleaning his fish and he proudly showed us his catch. After talking to him for a little while we went back the same bumpy narrow road. We did hear some noise from above though and when we looked we saw a helicopter doing some ‘logging’ up in this area. It was lifting large logs cut down up on a steep section of mountain and ferrying these down to a clearing beside the road where they could later be loaded onto logging trucks. Naturally we had to stop for the photographer to take a couple (lots) of pictures of this. We finally got back to Zeballos, had a bite to eat and went back to our trailer and to bed. Leo had to get up early the next morning to take pictures of the logging train.

Tuesday, June 9 - As I mentioned Leo got up early to go to ‘Camp A’ to take pictures of the train being loaded with logs which then would be pulled to Bear Cove and unloaded there. Well after about an hour Leo called me to say he was still in town as he had a flat tire and had to buy a new one, but he was ready to go now. I guess driving the forestry roads did do some damage to our tires after all. Now of course he was late for the picture taking at Camp A but he did get some shots of the train cars being loaded. When he got home late that afternoon he told me he had to go again the next morning though to take the missed pictures of them being unloaded again at Beaver Cove. He has a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Wednesday - Leo took off early again to take his pictures of the logging train unloading and when he got back for lunch we decided to visit Malcolm Island for the afternoon. It was not as interesting an island as some of the others but still nice to have seen. Then it was back to our trailer to get ready to move on to Campbell River the next day. During our time in Port Hardy and Port McNeill we had at least 1 bear sighting a day with a total bear count of 13. The most bears we have ever seen on a holiday so far.

The pictures for these days have been updated so have a look there as well.


Thursday June 11 to Tuesday June 16, 2009 - Campbell River

On we went again to our next stop - Campbell River. On the way we stopped at Woss where Leo wanted to talk to someone from the logging railroad and get some more information. After an hour stop over or so we went on again. When we got to Campbell River we found a very nice campground just outside Campbell River on the road to Gold River. While we were waiting for the campground owners to come to help us we noticed 2 hummingbird feeders hanging in front of their kitchen windows with lots, and I mean lots, of hummingbirds flying around: a very nice welcome for us of course. There were 2 kinds of hummingbirds, the Rufous and the Ruby-Throated. You will get an idea how many hummingbirds there were by having a look at our pictures. The owners told us they estimate there are a total of some 75 which are at their feeders almost 24 hours a day, and which consume some 30 kilograms of nectar formula each summer.
We got a nice camp spot and after setting up and eating lunch, went to town to do our grocery shopping for the next couple of days.

Friday - We decided to take another ferry ride and visit Quadra and Cortez Island. First we took the ferry from Campbell River to Quadra, a 10 minute sail, and then drove to the next ferry which would take us to Cortez island on a very pleasant 45 minute sail. We just barely made it on the ferry going there as we were the second last car to get on and there was no room for any more cars. When we got off the ferry there was a long line up of cars and we did not think that every one would be able to get on the ferry for that sailing. This concerned us a bit as there were not that many sailings from Cortez to Quadra, the last one being at 5:50 p.m, and we certainly did not want to be left behind for the night so we decided to be back in time for the second last sailing at 3:50 just in case. We did enjoy Cortez island very much though and we had lunch at a very nice beach park (campground as well) , and visited a unique bay which is almost dry when the tide is out. A few people were digging for clams and when they were done they had big buckets full of them to either eat or sell.
When we got back to the ferry terminal we were the 3rd car in line to get on so we were guaranteed a spot on that sailing. Once back on Quadra Island we took our time driving around. First we had a look at Rebecca Spit: a very nice area with lots of gravel ‘beach’. We walked along the beach for a bit before we moved on. Then we went to see the lighthouse and an Indian village where we got to talk to a lady who sold local art work and who herself did some machine embroidery on a Designer I machine like the one I have. We had to compare notes of course as to what kind of thread she used and also embroidery patterns. Leo did purchase a native wood-carving so we did not walk out totally empty-handed. Next we wanted to have a bite of supper but it was too close to the next ferry sailing to sit down and eat something so we ordered pizza and ate that while we waited for our next ferry to take us back to Campbell River. All in all it was a very nice day.

Saturday - When we first got to Campbell River and checked in at the visitors centre we were kind of discouraged about camping at Gold River as the campground purportedly only had a few spots (15) and there were no services what so ever. So we decided just to take a day trip to Gold River instead and also go down further to the Government wharf on Muchalat Inlet which is another 14 km from Gold River. The road to Gold River was really slow driving because of the many bends in it but it was a very nice road for scenery so we did not mind. The wharf was a disappointment as it was all blocked off by fences so we were not able to get really close to the water at all. We did get to see the cute little tugboats they use for moving the logs on the water in action so it was still worth the drive. On the way back we took a significant side road and drove along Buttle lake in Strathcona Provincial Park. This again was a beautiful scenic drive.

Sunday - We first visited the Farmers Market and no, we did not buy any more plants: we actually did not buy anything at all. While we were there we had a look at the fisherman’s pier: a pier build for fisherman to fish from. After lunch we went for a very nice walk to Elk Falls and in the evening Leo went back to the wharf to take some evening pictures of the boats in the harbour there.

Monday - This was our last day in Campbell River and we went for a walk along the shore, back to fisherman’s pier for an ice cream and back to the trailer so Leo could take some pictures of the hummingbirds.

Again you can find pictures from the above-mentioned days on our photoblog.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Port Alberni

Today we moved on to Port Alberni and planned on staying overnight there to explore this town a bit more as we have always just driven through it to and from Long Beach. We arrived at our campground around 1 pm so we had lots of time to do our exploring on the same day. Leo wanted to visit an old sawmill which is fully steam-powered and now a national historic site, but when we got there it was not in operation. Opening hours for this mill are Thursday through Monday. But we did get a change to just walk through the site on a self-guided tour. Next we drove around Port Alberni for a while and had supper at an ‘original’ type Drive In. You know: the kind where you drive in, turn on your light when you want to order and the food is brought on a tray which hangs on your car window. We just had to eat there for nostalgic reasons. The last such a place we ever ate at was the A & W one just south of Red Deer many years ago. After we had our supper we went back to our campground and decided that we had seen enough of Port Alberni so we would move on again the next day.