Day 21 Rain, Rain, and more Rain

We woke up in Tofino today on the Pacific Rim (western shore of Vancouver Island).  We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day for a change.  By 10 we were on a trail in the Pacific Rim National Park anticipating a 12 kms walk.  The beginning of the hike was through rain forest then out onto Long Beach.

Dawson on the boardwalk through the rain forest trail

 The tide was high around 1:30 and we were mainly walking along the beach so wanted to make sure we did not get stranded.

Long Beach almost high tide with mountain in background on Vancouver Island

We got absolutely soaked.  At first it was just misty, but about 2 kms into the hike it started pouring.  We made the best of it and plodded along as we are also training for our Machu Pichhu hike.  After 2 hours we made it to Green Point and went up to the campground in search of a picnic table under shelter.  We wandered an additional 2 kms. hunting for said shelter, only to find an overhang with a whale rib to rest on.  Unknown to me, Dawson had packed some lunch supplies (I envisioned having lunch at an upscale restaurant-guess that wasn't going to happen!)

Picnic lunch under an overhang

On our walk back to the car we saw a bunch of bald eagles.  Not a new sight but one that is still impressive.  In total it was 16kms walk by the time we got to the truck.  Our private hot tub was anxiously awaiting us.  The rest of the day was quite uneventful.  A quick drive around Tofino with refusal to walk around.

Day 20 From the East Coast to the West Coast in a day

As I write this I am sitting in a little cottage over looking a beach on the far west of Canada. 

We left Comox on the east coast of Vancouver Island this morning and 7 hours later (3.5 hours if we weren't such doddlers) we were are in Tofino on the west coast.  The drive was gorgeous although we had an interesting start  (GPS-affectionately known as "the bitch" led us astray while leaving Comox0.   The Bald Eagle has made an impressive comeback as we saw a number of them during the drive and Rob had told us that during a recent trip to the Comox dump they saw over 200 hundred.

Bald Eagle near Comox

We traveled down the Island highway (Hwy 19) then headed west on Hwy 4.  Along the way to Tofino we made 4 stops.  The 1st at the Little Qualicum River Falls Provicial Park.  The 3 kilometer hike followed the river along a canyon with two falls and a series of rapids.

Little Qualicum River Upper Falls

Little Qualicum River below Lower Falls

From the Little Qualicum River we continued our drive west. Next stop picnic area along Cameron Lake.  The reflections in the lake brought back memories of the Franklin River in Tasmania from our travels 25 years ago.

Julie beside Cameron Lake

Reflections in Cameron Lake
 

Next stop Catheral Grove - an old growth grove of Douglas Fir and Western Red Ceder donoted by McMillian Bloedel.  In here you really get the feeling of a northern rain forest.  Rob had told us to stop in here so it was a must on the itinerary.  The grove is right on Hwy 4 with a stand of old growth Cedar to the north and the Douglas Fir to the south.  The stand contains trees that are up to 800 years old.

Julie in the heart of Catheral Grove

From the Catheral Grove it was a short drive to Port Albernia where we stopped for supplies before heading to our final destination.  Port Albernia is at the head of an inlet from the west coast making it a port in the middle of Vancouver Island.   According to the radio the Pulp Mill is doing well and is looking at hiring an additional 50 people, which is a good thing.

Port Albernia Marinia with Pulp Mill in the background

From Port Albernia it was on to Tofina via a narrow winding road, passing over the divide of Vancouver Island.  The drive went from rain to snow and back to rain as we crossed the divide. 

We arrived at Tofino just after 4 and checked into our Cabin at Crystal Cove and headed out for a walk on the beach prior to dark.  A fantastic place and we are very glad we made the decision to add this stop into our "skibbatical".  Thanks to Rob and Maureena to recommending Crystal Cove.

View from our cabin

Self portrait on the beach

Julie on the beach

Cheers
Dawson and Julie

Day 19 - A day of snow and rain

Snowy drive down the mountain

Today was our last day in Comox and our 2nd day on Mount Washington.  Today's skiing was good but with a much limited view as it was snow all day with visibility at ~100 meters.  We took it pretty easy.  After skiing we did the "50 cent tour of Comox".  A very nice town with great waterfront, temperate albeit wet weather.  We took our hosts out for dinner at the Black Finn Pub which was excellent.  We met Rob and Maureena in Toronto at the Extended Cruising Night class as they too plan on doing some live aboard sailing.  Rob and Maureena are the proud owners of Breezing In, a 46 foot Bavaria sailboat, so we hope to see them on the water.

Rob, Maureena, Dawso

 

Day 18 - A day of Extremes and Dirty Birds

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day in Comox with a temperature of 7 degress.  Hard to believe we were going skiing only a 40 min drive away, and at a hill which had just received 24 cm of new snow.  We left Rob and Maureena house with green lawns and a blooming rodendrum in the neigbours yard and headed for Mount Washington.  It was on the drive that the title for todays post comes from.

The following series of photos show how we drove from summer to winter all in 40 mins

Rododendrum in bloom

view out of truck window enroute to Mount Washington

20 mins into drive

About half way to the hill snow starts to appear in patches, then it is full ground cover, next thing you know we are looking at fresh powder.

Fresh snow at Mount Washington

Once at the hill it was winter, in 40 mins we had driven from summer through fall into winter.  Pretty amazing for people from Ontario to experience.

Skiing was excellent.  Mount Washington is an interesting hill with a number of lifts fresh powder and the best view we have had from a ski hill.  Looking to the east you can see the inside passage to the south the Comox Glacier and to the west the Island Mountain Range.  Truly a spectacular site.  We also saw bald eagles soar over the hill. The snow is "different" well deserving of the adjective "heavy"; a snow that took some getting use to.

A panarama looking north from top of hill

Julie with a snow ghost

We came down off the hill around 3:30 and got a view of the last aspect of todays title.  Comox is home to a Ducks Unlimited waterfowl sanctuary, which consists of a very muddy ex farm field.  The area was well populated with Swans.  Swans that were orginally white in c0lour but with the mud were more "off white"

A flock of dirty birds

Day 17 - The Island

Today was a day of new territory with us leaving mainland Canada for Vancouver Island. 

The day started off in North Vancouver at Cliff and Karen's home with the rain coming down in classic west coast fashion.  We were lucky the day before having arrived in sunshine.  We went off for coffee with Cliff and Karen and had a quick tour of Deep Cove.  Deep Cove is small community in North Van. located along the Indian Arm a beautiful spot even in the rain.  Cliff and Dawson then went off on a 5 km trail run in Mt Seymour Provincial Park, an excellent run although somewhat muddy.

Cliff and Dawson ready for the run


It was then a quick departure so that we could make the ferry for Naniamo but we had to get a picture of the group.  Unfortunately for Bruce this meant we had to take the photo in his bedroom as he had not gotten up yet.  The lump on the bed below is Bruce

Alex, Karen, Cliff, Julie, Dawson and lump Bruce


 

 

We arrived at the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal with lots of time in hand ready for our  1 hr and 45 min. ferry ride.  The ride was uneventful but did offer some opportunities for photos.

View looking back at Horseshoe Bay

Coming into Nanaimo

From Nanaimo we chose to drive up highway 19A which travels along the coast.  In French Creek we stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbour and the local dragger fleet

The Dakota (our home) at French Creek Harbour

From French Creek it was a short drive up to Comox to stay with friends Rob and Maureena.  We met Rob and Maureena in Toronto during some of the sailing coarses we took last winter.  We are both pretty excited as we are skiing Mount Washington tomorrow and the forecast is for 19 cm of fresh snow over night.

 

Cheers

Dawson and Julie



Day 16 - A real day of rest

The morning started off in Vernon with the Godfray's.  Sadly I forgot to take a picture.  We left there with a few extra pounds of gear as we are bringing our old train set to Sarnia that had been exchanged with the Godfray's about 40 years ago. 

The roads looked good so we headed out towards Kelowna to get the Okanagon crossover to the Coquihalla Highway.  It was a very pretty drive.  We experienced all kinds of weather from springlike to winter (put on our 4X4) and then fall.  We saw about 4 bald eagles.  One of them in flight being chased by a crow.  We also had success on the license plate game seeing a car with a "Hawaii" plate.  Go figure that one.

Beautiful sunny start to the drive

Got snowy.  Ther roads here became snow covered.

We made it so Vancouver and the sun was shining.  We met up with Jamie Campbell downtown to say hello for an hour and then headed over to North Vancouver to stay with Dawson's cousin Cliff and his wife Karan and 2 boys Alex and Bruce.

Jamie, Julie and Dawson at the Winking Judge

Day 15- = 2 weeks on the road

Well today marks 2 weeks of being on the road since we left Sarnia.  We woke up in Revelstoke to fabulous powder (POW as they call it here).  The original phrase “there are no friends on powder day” crossed both our minds, however there are spouses on powder day!  We got to the hill as it was opening to get first tracks.  Unfortunately so did everyone else.  Here is a pic of the line up at 8:20 in the morning to get up the gondola.  It took about 15 minutes to clear the line once they started loading.

LIne up for 8:30 lift opening

There was a storm at the top of the mountain and goggles were a must.   We mainly skied the north bowl which had the best snow and lots of glades.  We got a great rush when going up the chair with a younger couple and chatting of course as Dawson and I do, the young woman goes to Queen’s university and knows Kevin very well.  Not only that but she is Casey’s housemate in KIngston.  Casey is Kevin P’s friend that has joined him for her spring break skiing at Marble mountain in NFLD.  What a small world.

Casey's housemate and friend of Kevin at Revelstoke

After a full day of skiing we got off the hill around 3 to head to Vernon, BC where we will visit with family friends The Godfrays who used to be from Sarnia.  We got a good start as we are at the east end of the time zone so it gets dark by 5:30, and it is snowing out so wanted a daylight drive.  We got about 10 minutes west of Revelstoke when we were stopped for 1 hour as they were blasting for avalanche control.  Drats!  A line up of cars ensued.

Waiting for the road to open

We of course made it safely and are tucked away near Vernon at Joan and Ron Godfrays.

Chat to you tomorrow.
Julie and Dawson

Day 14 - Skiing Revelstoke

The day started out fairly luckless but as we were loading up the truck our luck started to change as the radio stated that Revelstoke had received 6 cm of snow over night.  There is a fine line of wishing for snow for the skiing and not having too much snow to make the drive to the ski hill bad.  In our case it worked out well as we cleared Roger Pass with snow falling but none on the ground. Snow continued to fall throughout the day.

Along the Rogers Pass, driving condition are good.



The day would prove to be a tiring but enjoyable one.  Julie learned that the window for black diamonds is smaller than it used to be.   Well interesting how she always suggest we do a warm up run that is not a black diamond, that leaves a window after the warm up until lunch and then after lunch a few black diamonds and next thing you know she is suggesting some easier cool down runs.  Yes the window for black diamonds is only about 2 solid hours.  Not nearly as big as it used to be.   The window gets shorter if Julie finds herself in a pickle, i.e. one ski on and one off as demonstrated in the following photo.

Julie on her butt.  Ski fell off.



We found some powder on Revelstoke but you did have to look for it or hike for it.  Julie hated hiking up after I have paid for a lift ticket and with skis on my shoulder.  The run was excellent though after hiking up the Lemming Line.  The snow was falling quite a bit on the north side.  It was cloudy on the other side.  Almost white out conditions at times.  Revelstoke is a very, very, long hill.  The last run down went forever cause we went top to bottom (3 lifts to get there).  All in all an excellent day until we found out our hotel hot tub is broken.  Julie was extremely sad about it.

 

As soon as we got into our room we quickly tried to connect to the Ontario University track meet.  Ross is running Thurs. and Friday for University of Guelph.  His Achilles is injured but he is still running so it will be interesting to see how he does.  Part of our holiday will be to go watch the indoor National University track and field (CIS) which is being held in Edmonton.

We are going to head to the Village Idiot a local pub for dinner tonight, it is where Kevin and I had dinner the last time I skied Revelstoke 4 years ago.

Cheers Dawson and Julie

Day 13-Wapta Falls Hike

Wapta Falls



Trees across the pathway.

Well we woke up today to no fresh snow and decided Kicking Horse did not deserve our almost $200 for lift tickets.   Skiing on Tuesday was not the best without fresh snow.  Plan B kicked into gear and after a leisurely start which included a few downward dogs and pushups, we were off to hike Wapta Falls in Yoho National Park.  The hike was 8.6 kms round trip and the trail was hard packed.  No snowshoes needed.  We forgot our new grippers which was disappointing but only a few spots would have benefitted from the chains on our feet.  The hike is fairly level gaining and losing very little altitude until you reach the falls and drop about 100 feet down to the river.  There was substantial tree fall along the way we had to navigate, over, under and around.  We took about 100 pictures. 

Frozen and liquid falls

There was just us and one other couple there so we could take lots of pics with no people in the way.  The other couple was a professional photographer so we got him to take our picture together with our camera.  

 

Photo at the falls.

Tailgate lunch

After hiking we had a tailgate lunch of crackers and cheese and a couple of apples. At this rate I should be able to melt a bit of Julie Fay away.

On the 20 minute drive back from YOHO park we stopped and hiked another 3kms below the new bridge on hwy 1 into Golden. It is quite an engineering feat.

We are now packing up to get a decent start tomorrow as we head to Revelstoke for 2 days of skiing. They are expecting a bit of fresh snow but not a lot. All the hills could do with a bit more snow.  
  Julie and Dawson

Julie at Wapta Falls

Day 12 - Skiing at Kicking Horse

Day 12 which is Day 6 for skiing started off well, nice breakfast, loaded up the truck for a short drive to the hill, with an ETA for opening of the lifts.  Unfortuately we took the road to the Golden Airport that although goes in the right direction ends at the confluence of the Kicking Horse and Columbian Rivers with us on the wrong side.  There are twin railroad bridges but both Julie and I agreed that although the truck would fit it would be best to reverse our track and take the "normal" route. 

Prior to our leaving of the Gilmore/Jenning ski house we did make use of one appliance.  Below is a picture and we challange all readers to comment on what you believe it is.  We will post the correct answers along with who got it correct at the end of the month.  The prize is a week on a sailboat in the Caribbean (accomadations only, all other cost are at the winners expense).



Do you know what this device is?

We did make the hill for a good day of skiing although the hill is in need of snow.





Kicking Horse looking up the gondola



Julie at the top of the Kicking Horse Gondola

The dot in the middle is Julie on one of the bowls.

We proved it is a small world as we met good friends of my cousin on the gondola from New Glasglow in Nova Scotia, the last time we had met one of Sam's friends traveling, was in Seville Spain.  Nova Scotian teachers certainly get around. We met back up with them at the bar at the base of the hill.

 

We have giggled at ourselves as we are making use of the sleeping bags we bought and lived in 25 years ago on our last sabbatical to Australia.  Quite a bit has changed since then but the basics of travelling are similar.  We are keeping it simple, enjoying friendships along the way.  Thanks for all that have hosted us.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

 

 

Day 11 Johnston Canyon-Banff National Park

We left Cochrane via Hwy 1A for a scenic drive to Banff National Park.  Destination, Johnston Canyon.  The drive is beautiful so if you have some extra time it is worth getting off the 4 laned Hwy 1.


View out the truck window along Hwy 1A

Enroute we completed our good deed for the day when we helped someone out of the snowbank.  Thanks mom for lending us a shovel to bring with us westward. 


Our good deed for the day (Dawson in yellow jacket)

We got to the Canyon mid morning and headed out to hike Lower Falls, Upper Falls and then the Ink pots.  An excellent training hike of 12kms in total with a good climb along the way.  We bought some "grippers" yesterday and were glad to have them. Julie also used new walking poles and found them very helpful. The canyon was spectacular and well worth the long hike.

Julie at the start of the hike

Ice climber at the upper falls Johnston Canyon

Julie and Dawson at the Ink Pots

Julie with her chains on

After hiking we dined at Chateau Lake Louise with Olivia and Colin.  Niece Olivia is out visiting boyfriend Colin who we just met and seems a wonderful young gentleman.  Thanks for joining us for lunch guys.

The last portion of the day was the beautiful drive into Golden BC, where we are staying at University friends of Dawson's ski house (Thanks Paula and Chris).  Lots of trains on those train lines.  Lots of trucks on the road.  An engineering feat crossing these mountains and beautiful.  The roads were dry and visibility wonderful.  Sometimes the road gets closed due to avalanche which is a bummer.  Tomorrow we are back to skiing.  A couple days at Kickinghorse then on to Revelstoke.