Wednesday Sep 25 - Tuesday Oct 01 Powell River, BC
Today we move to Powell River. That means taking the ferry from Earls Cove to Saltery Bay. The ferry ride is free which is a nice change from having to fork out close to a couple of hundred bucks each time we take the rig onboard.
The weather has started to improve. Or perhaps I should say, it is not raining.
It's about a 50 minute trip so join us as we drive to the ferry terminal and then enjoy our short ocean cruise.
Thursday
Yea! The sun is shining and the sky is blue. What a glorious day.
We are staying at Willingdon Beach campground and as its name implies it is right on the beach. Our camp site, however, is up the hill a short distance away from the beach itself and if it weren't for all the trees we would be able to see the ocean. But we can still hear the waves on the beach which is a nice way to fall asleep at night.
This afternoon we walked down to the beach and out on to the breakwater. The wind was blowing.
We explored the trail that runs along the shoreline—an old logging railway right of way.
We marvelled at the unique "exhibits" along the trail...
It might have fallen over decades ago but that didn't stop it. The trunk growing upwards at the left of the picture is capped by many branches and green growth! Amazing.
Look at this tree. Growing horizontal for quite a few feet then skyward.
Like the boom boat there are other examples of equipment along this part of the trail.
There's "home" off there in the distance.
Friday
This morning we're off to Lund. Lund is at the northern end of Hwy 101. The other (southern) end of Hwy 101 is in Chile, South America. Wow!
I last visited here many moons ago when neighbour Colin and I sailed to Desolation Sound. Lund was one of our stops on the way there.
First order of business was a coffee.
We walked along the boardwalk.
We found this notice interesting, especially the description of Yellow Jacket.
At the end of the public portion of the board walk was this
impressive totem pole.
I couldn't pass up this opportunity to ham it up.
Back in "downtown" Lund, Jen found this sign.
On the front lawn of the hotel, we just had to give this kids area a go. What fun!
And here it is, the official Mile Zero marker...
The Mile 0 marker at the southern end of Hwy 101 is 25,000 kilometers south in Castro, Chile.
Sunday
A walk to the beach.
Monday
We stopped for coffee at Base Camp. This coffee shop is all to do with climbing, mountains, etc. I just had to show you the bathroom sink - I have never seen anything like this before.
Monday afternoon we drove to the old townsite to check out Townsite Brewery.
We tried a flight of 4 beers - all except the IPA. They were all good.
On the way back to the RV park, we stopped at this overlook. The mill is on the right.
We drove back to camp and started getting ready for our ferry ride tomorrow to Comox and our winter resting place.
Tuesday
It's October 1. Today we travel via BC Ferries to Comox and our winter home.
We've had a great trip this year. We especially enjoyed spending so much time in the Kootenays, with good friends like Garnett and his faithful companion Rosie - that was special.
We also enjoyed spending more than a night or two in any one place; this year we decided we would spend a week or longer when we stopped. This gave us more time to investigate places that we had typically in the past only driven through.
We met some very special people this year, like mined individuals who enjoy the RV lifestyle.
All told, since the April 1, we drove 5,426 miles (8,682 kms).
So until next Spring when, all being well, we will head out again, I'll leave you with a couple of, unfortunately, distant shots of 3 humpback whales breaching when we were on the ferry. My apologies, the sun was shining and it was really difficult to see the screen on my phone.
