Campbell River (Sept 3 - 5)
Campbell River is the “Salmon capital of the
world”. It is a small seaport fishing
village in the woods and home to many artists.
The place is also full of resorts and cabins and campgrounds. People come here to escape the big cities of
Victoria and Vancouver, looking for a peaceful place by the sea (the inland
passage), and in the woods. And oh yeah,
there is also a river, Campbell River.
Something that Canada does all over the country is
post a signs on the road side pointing to an art studio or the home of an
artist. It’s a blue square sign with a
big white “A” in the middle of it. Below
it is a word that describes the art, such as woodwork, ironwork, pottery,
ceramics, etc. A great idea!
In
Campbell River we stayed at SALMON POINT RV RESORT and Marina. It’s located between the towns of Campbell
River and Courtney at I assume, Salmon Point.
This is a very nice campground.
It’s in the woods overlooking a boat harbor and the inland passage. On a clear day you can see the mainland. The sites are a bit tight, too close to your
neighbor, but all the facilities are clean and modern and the showers are
free. This is rare for the RV parks in
Canada. With the help of the extender we
had a good WiFi signal. But no cable TV, no TV at all. There is a very nice restaurant (Salmon Point
Restaurant) on the property that serves …ta da.. a variety of Salmon dishes.
We
stayed at Campbell River for three nights.
Kitty
Coleman Woodland Gardens
This
is 24-acres of informal gardens. Over
Labour Day weekend they had an Artisans Festival. Yes, Canada celebrates Labor Day (spelling it
a little differently). And school starts
after Labour Day. The campground we
stayed at was full of families taking their last vacation before school.
We
found this Festival on the ‘schedule of events’ and had to attend it. So glad we did. It was the one beautiful, sunny day we had
before the rains started. There were 70
booths of art and crafts clustered in several areas of the garden, such as
Sunset Garden, South Lawn, Artist Glade and Santa’s Barn.
There are a lot of fountains in this garden. Notice the double rainbow below.
Of course we always notice "cat crafts"
We
met a very nice wood artist, Richard Sandstrom, who is from Washington State
and has lived on Vancouver Island for 40 years.
He was so excited to meet a fellow American. He said he hasn’t met or seen many of us on
this part of the Island ‘for 40 years’.
We had a long talk comparing the two countries and of course a bit of
politics.
We
have had some stares and finger pointing at our car (we have a Hillary sticker),
since our arrival on the Island. I think
the Canadians want to approach us and talk politics, but they are polite and
just say things like “how was the drive from California”. Or “Hello California”.
Anyway,
we had a nice chat with Richard and we bought some very nice woodwork from him.
Elk
Falls and Suspension Bridge
We
did a short hike to view the Elk Falls on the Campbell River. To get to the falls you had to cross over BC
Hydro property to get into the Elk Falls Provincial Park. The falls and river run in a deep canyon and
the only way to see the falls clearly is from high above in the middle of the
canyon. So with the cooperation of BC
Hydro, City of Campbell River, several First Nations tribes, and BC Parks, a “world
class” suspension bridge and a series of steps and viewing platforms was
build. It was completed and opened just
over a year ago on May 8, 2015.
The
suspension bridge was secured by 4 cables (that I could see) and it was pretty
secure. It did not swing too much when
walked on. It helped that there were not
any kids on the bridge when we crossed. (They like to run and jump.)
Another
interesting sight was viewing the ‘penstocks’ when crossing over a first bridge
on BC Hydro property. These are huge,
and I mean huge (about 20 feet diameter) wooden pipes that are about a mile
long, from a dam at John Hart Lake to the hydro plant about a mile away. These penstocks are going to be ‘out of
commission’. I don’t know if they are
replacing the wood pipes or closing the dam and plant.
Campbell
Chainsaw Carvings
We
spent very little time downtown. But the chainsaw carvings did catch our
attention as we drove through town on our first day. We stopped to check it out and it turned out
to be a carving competition that happened this year. There were several nice pieces. We noticed several other wood carvings around
town from other years so this must be an annual competition.
"Cemetery Gates" won 3rd place. Below is a carving from a past competition.
Free spring water and water for dogs. How nice!
Tofino (Sept 6 - 8)
We drove to the west coast of the
island where it hugs the Pacific Ocean.
We drove on a winding, narrow, bumpy road over the mountains and along
Kennedy Lake until we hit a fork. One
way goes through the Pacific Rim National Park and dead ends at Tofino. The other way dead ends at Ucluelet and Point
Albion. We go right.
We spent three nights in Tofino,
another seaport village that could also be called “surfboard village”. In driving through this small town, all you
can see are surfboard shops. At this
time, it is also over run by collage students.
They are everywhere. Collage must
not have started yet and these students are getting in that last wave before
the school year starts.
We are staying at CRYSTAL COVE
BEACH RESORT. It’s a short distance
outside of town on the beach and in the woods.
It is a very nice place. Very
clean and nicely landscaped. Again the
showers are free. The Wifi was okay with
the help of the extender. There was no
TV, but there was a very large selection of DVDs you could borrow. Some were new releases. So we watched DVD’s every night. And they had a Starbucks kiosk in the office
where you could get free coffee every morning until 1:00pm. I paid a fee and had a latte every morning.
"Setting up camp" is a routine process. The last thing we do is unload the cats from their crates, one at a time. Each time they have to sniff around the trailer to remember "yeah I've been here before..now where's my food".
Ucluelet
On a
very rainy day we drove through Pacific Rim National Park and stopped at the
visitor center. It is just too wet to do
any hiking. We’ll save it for another
trip. We continued down the road to the
other end of the fork to visit Ucluelet.
We had lunch at Matterson House Restaurant in a 1931 historical
home. And we visited another historical
building, General Store circa 1908.
Today it is still a general store called the Crow’s Nest.
Tofino
Botanical Gardens
Finally
a nice sunny day. We visited a small
12-acre botanical garden and forest that reaches down to the edge of Clayoquot
Sound. “The gardens celebrate the
various cultural groups that have made the Clayoquot Sound their home now and
in the past, particularly the Nuu-Chah-nulth First Nations, early Japanese
fishing families, and, of course, hippies.”
Above: Mudflats Below: Boardwalk trail
Old
City Quarter
Above: Mudflats Below: Boardwalk trail
WESTERN RED CEDAR about 800 years old is the oldest Tofino resident. In 2001 the city council declared the cedar a "danger". It was unstable. The community wanted to save and preserve the tree. An arborist and structural engineer were hired and they designed a support brace to "fortify this cedar against failure".
Nanaimo (Sept 9 - 10)
Nanaimo, the “Harbor City” is our
last stop on Vancouver Island. Back on
the East coast of Vancouver Island we will be spending two nights here. This is where we will board a ferry to the
city of Vancouver on the mainland.
We stayed at LIVING FOREST
OCEANSIDE CAMPGROUND and RV PARK. This
is a huge RV park with about 200 sites.
We had a very nice spacious and private site in the woods. There are hiking trails and a beach at this park,
but we had no time to enjoy any of this.
The comfort station is a little primitive, the free WiFi was weak and
you only get cable TV if you stay more than 5 days. We were able to get a few channels on the antenna. However, we did enjoy our stay here and was
very comfortable.
This
section of the city is the historic and arts district. There was a Harvest Festival in this part of
town on the day we were here. It was
only a short block long, but it was something to do and we checked out some of
the shops in the area.
Martin Machacek from the Czech Republic has his artwork in a gallery in Old City Quarter. His work is colorful and jumped out at me. He calls this technique "architectural etherealism" He has traveled all over the world and paints many known sites. I was told he will be in San Francisco soon. I can't wait to see what he does to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Qualicum
Beach Promenade
This
is a 2-mile walkway along the waterfront with the bay on one side and shops and
cafés and Nanaimo’s largest playground on the other side. It was a beautiful day as we walked a mile
along this promenade and on the way back we stopped for an ice cream.
High end appartments with wrap around decks and patios with a great view of the harbor and bay.
Must be nice to live here.
In memory Frank Lewis Ney (1918 - 1992). Known as Black Frank who in 1967 helped launched the now famous loyal Nanaimo Bath Tub Race. The pirate costume was worn to promote Nanaimo as "The sunporch of Canada, jewel of the west, and bathtub capital of the world". Black Frank was also mayor of Nanaimo from 1967 to 1984 and again from 1986 - 1990.
"L-O-V-E is in the Air"
Our
time on Vancouver Island is over.
Now we ferry over to the mainland.
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