WHISTLER, BC Sea to Sky Highway August 17-18, 2013

We decided to take Highway 99 north to Whistler since we'd both heard so much about it over the years...just had to see what was there. Oh, what a fantastic drive up the coast, so scenic and beautiful, even with the gray skies. We found a great campground, Whistler RV Park, about 10 km south of town. Up a really steep hill to the park but a wonderful view of the mountains.

We got checked in and learned that there was a shuttle into the village leaving in 15 min so we walked Fossie and got down to the office for our ride.

Lots of traffic, and we'd been seeing so many bikes on cars as we drve up from Horseshoe Bay and once we got to town we saw why...it was the Red Bull Crankworks, competition for trick mountain bike riding.  WOW! What a surprise!! 

 I know it probably doesn't show well, but there is a rider doing a 360' flip on his bike after coming off a tall ramp!

 The paper said there were 25,000 people in attendance, it sure didn't feel like it.  Everyone was scattered all over the hill and anywhere you could get a decent view.  We watched from several paces.  The riders are judged on their unique style and difficulty of the many jumps they did in a run, there were three runs. It was incredible to be right in the midst of such a big competition, all for free.  These are very skilled riders doing feats that seemed impossible. Before the competition began at 5pm, lots of mountain bikers were coming down the mountain nearby from other trails; all covered with mud. Pretty amazing

 Just before it ended we were standing along a metal railing and these two guys came up and interviewed us for BIKE Magazine. Too funny!

 Oh, and suddenly out of no where during one break,  a group of 40-50 banana-garbed runners came down the track.  I caught two of them later...

 We stayed till the end of the event, then took the shuttle van back to the park about 8 o'clock.

Sunday morning was more of the same...drizzle, gray skies and cool temps. Neither of us felt like getting in the car to drive anywhere so we just stayed home and relaxed.  I did some cooking and PK was reading about how to fix our leaking top on the car. nice to just kick back and do nothing.

Well, kind of nothing, or at least until about 2 in the afternoon.  We drove down the hill and across the highway to Brandywine Falls Provincial Park for a beautiful walk to these falls.  It's pretty amazing to see so much water in all these waterfalls, not quite what Yosemite looks like in August.

We've decided to stay another night here and spend tomorrow on a very scenic road trip along Duffy Lake Road from Whistler to Lillooet. After talking to a couple of other rvers we think we'll just make a day trip and not take the motorhome.

ENGLISHMAN RIVER FALLS PROVINCIAL PARK AUGUST 15-17, 2013

We returned to Campbell River late Thursday afternoon and found another beautiful campsite at Elk Falls Park. I love that BC leaves half a park unreserved so we could easily find a spot for the night in this beautiful park.  After dinner we needed to find some wifi so we went to Painter's Cove Lodge to check emails and Pk got a coffee...a free one, of course, since the barista thought he was a movie star...

Friday we moved further south to the town of Parksville and nearby Englishman River Falls Park.  Another wet and drippy day, which meant lots of vacant sites in the park.  Everyone here in BC is soooooo excited to have the rain, it's been dry for 42 days in a row!!! Guess that's not the usual weather up here.

 Later that afternoon we went into town for appys and drinks along the beach and to catch the last day of the Sand Sculpting Competition

 They were amazing!!!! Never quite anything we'd seen before. Designed five weeks ago from wet, compacted sand, they were then sprayed with a very diluted glue to help make them stay standing.

 With the theme of Fairy Tales, sculptors come from all over to participate and are given twenty four hours over three days to finish their design. When the contest first started it happened all in one weekend, where the tide swept away the hard work of the sand artists.

 The only true "sand Castle" in the contest.

 Loved the "Humpty Dumped Me" sculpture.

 This was the back side of the Three Billy Goats Gruff

Friday morning we walked to the falls... which drop into this thin sheer opening.

 Then took a day trip to visit Port Alberni, "The Ultimate Fishing Town".

 and a stop at the Ahtsik Native Art Center, then back to the motorhome for dinner and a teen community theater production of Fame.

 Such a wonderful two weeks on Vancouver Island! We'd had a week of sunny warm days and also a week of rainy, wet and much needed rains. But Saturday it was time to head to the BC Ferry at Departure Bay in Nanaimo to travel across to Horseshoe Bay and mainland BC. and a stop to see the world's tallest gnome!

 Without a reservation, we arrived at the ferry about 9:30 and easily got on the 10:40 for West Vancouver.  So fun to catch a breakfast bagel and some music before boarding the ferry and the next part of our trip.

VANCOUVER ISLAND, WEEK 2 AUGUST 11-15, 2013

SUNDAY, AUGUST 11     CAMPBELL RIVER 

Saturday evening's clouds gave us a fantastic sunset but also changed our weather completely! 

 We woke up to the sound of rain early Sunday morning but it only lasted long enough to get everything really wet, then it let up so we went to the Sunday Farmer's Market in Campbell River.  It LOOKED like our markets in SLO, but it really was more of a craft show.  There were only a half dozen farmers and a couple of bakery booths, the rest were selling all kinds of other things. Some beautfiul hand made gifts and lots of jewelry.

 While I picked up a few wonderful veggies, Paul visited the Maritime Museum right off the parking lot.

 The Market is held right along the little harbor so it was fun to walk along the docks.

 And, PK couldn't pass up this photo op with the killer whale...this is such a huge whale watching area. Lots of killer whales come along these waters, so lots of opportunities to take whale watching tours.

 Sunday afternoon the weather held out for us so we could join in the fun at the Musical Ride of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  How lucky to be in the town when they came through!!!  There were 32 riders in the company and they tour the provinces each summer as well as some international trips. Each year two provinces are selected for the visits so this only happens in BC every four years. I couldnt believe how we lucked out with it!!!

Music is played over the loud speaker and the horses and riders do amazingly intricate patterns, crossing between each other, creating wheels, weaving in and out as groups.  The precision horsemanship was fascinating to watch.

After the performance the riders came along the fence to talk to small groups of the audience and answer questions.
Training? a full year just to learn the routines
Commitment? 3 years for the riders then back to their own Province and regular police work
Experienced? No, 80% had never ridden a horse before

 Later that afternoon, the rain really started coming down, so we spent the evening doing laundry and packing the motorhome for our drive north and our next stop, Telegraph Cove, about 125 miles north.

 We were so glad we chose to turn off the main Highway 19 and head down to the cove to find our camping.  We stayed at the Telegraph Cove Resort Campground, a lush, wooded and gorgeous camping area about a 1/2 mile from the water.  This campground hadn't even shown up in any of my books, I had originally thought we were going to a Marina RV Park, which was just big open lot.  What a nice surprise to find this one!

A phantom sailboat out at the edge of the cove

 The little town of Telegraph Cove was such a sweet place to spend a few days.  The antique sawmilling village built in the 1920's and 1930's has been carefully preserved by the local historical society.  There are cottages for rent, restaurants, a coffee shop, gift shop and museum all on the boardwalk.

 We did take a couple of day trips out to see the neighboring towns.  First stop was at Port McNeil only 20 min north.

 Then on to Port Hardy, the last town on Highway 19...the end of the PAVED road on the east coast of the island.  There are roads that cross the north end of the island and will get to the west coast but all are gravel logging roads. Not for us. 

We had a fish and chips dinner in Port Hardy and a walk along the bay watching all the salmon fishermen before returning to Port McNeill for a little local concert.

 Thursday morning we were packing up, too much wet, chilly weather so time to go back south.  We parked the motorhome at a gas station along the highway and drove the car about 40 miles west to see the small company town of Port Alice.

Wow, talk about being out  in the middle of no where...this is a gorgeous location, the jump off point for those going to the wild west coast using either logging roads or traveling up the inlet often in kayaks.  The mill is back in operation and about 800 people make up the community. It was once a booming forestry town and is now a picturesque rural village, named after Alice Whalen, whose family owned and operated three local pulp mills in the 1920's. In 1965, Port Alice became BC's first instant municipality...it was decided that the former town right next to the pulp mill was maybe not the best location to live so the original company town was moved 4 km up the inlet.  Then the old town was burnt down. 

 It was still such a wet and cloudy day we didn't get to see much of the mountains and spectacular scenery but it was a lovely place for our lunch.  If we'd had a four wheel drive it would have been fun to take the driving tour out to see some sites in the forest, but can't do it in our SAAB, so we drove back along the forested roadway to pick up the motorhome and go south once again.

Whales, bears and fishing....the main attractions of the northern coast of the island.

CAMPBELL RIVER, BC August 9-10, 2013

Oh, my...woke up to another fabulous day along the coast of Vancouver Island.  If this gorgeous sunny, warm weather keeps up we'll never leave here to see the rest of BC. But, that's ok with me. There's so much to see and as we move north we only drive about 120km or about an hour before pulling into a new campground. 

Friday morning our move was from Qualicum Bay north to Campbell River continuing along Route 19A, the Oceanside Route and alternate to the Highway 19. We hung around the campsite till about 11 before getting on the road, no big hurry since we only drive a short distance. I've started a new book, Gone Girl, and took my coffee and read for an hour down by the river. The night before I had dropped my iPad (book reader for me) as I was coming out of the motorhome and shattered the glass in the upper corner. It also dented right at the volume button so the volume sign was staying on right in the middle of the page, but with a little lifting I got that to disappear. ipad still works, just a little cracky on one side. 

We came to this beautiful Union Bay and stopped for a tea break to enjoy the view.

 We had driven on only a mile or so when we came to the town itself, with many of its historical buildings restored and open to view. I needed to get some postcard stamps and mail a couple of notes so we pulled over again and I took a walk around.  The town was a coal transporting area until 1961 so the community was built by the coal company, all company built housing, company store.  Hard to believe there was a wharf and train out into the middle of the lovely bay to load the coal from the north of the island onto barges.  Today none of that remains and instead we saw several divers walking into the water, maybe collecting oysters as that's a big industry along this coast.

The original jailhouse, a combo two-cell jail and home for the jailer. 

The Post Office still in use, built in 1901

Community Church.

 From Union Bay we passed through the larger city of Courtenay with all the big services and stores, a population of 23,000.  Then on to Elk River Provincial Park, just 3km north of Campbell River.  A little piece of heaven!!! Our site was enormous and totally wooded. There are 120 sites in the park but it's so spacious you don't see anyone other than someone across the road.  There are river sites and ours was just across from the river, so easy to get to. I think I'm finally figuring out how the reservation system works here in Canada. I had reserved the Friday night site but wasn't able to book a whole weekend, so I figured the whole park was full.  But it turns out that only half of the sites are available on line and the rest are first come, first serve. Plus, even though we are big, it looked like we could fit into almost any of them.  We set up by 1:30 and an hour later the campground was full. There truly isn't anything better than camping in a Canadian Park.

 We took a walk along the river before dinner and saw many fly fisherman in the water...this guy was resting on a log. This area is known as The Salmon Capital of the World, so fishing is what it's all about.

 Saturday morning we moved into the Driftwood RV Park in town, great owners who told us all about the busy weekend in Campbell River. The park is right on the Highway so a little noisy but great location with a view of the bay right across the street and an 8km bike path to ride. They even provide you with a bucket of kindling and a blanket to take to the beach for a campfire, evidently you can have a campfire on the beach, just not in any campgrounds.

The big event in town this weekend is the Campbell River Salmon Festival and Logging Sports. We stopped at the Visitor's Center for maps and info and went out to Nunns Creek Park.  For $5 entry we had a fun afternoon watching all kinds of competitions and eating salmon.  It's a small community event but had competitors from as far away as New Zealand as well as eastern Canada and the US.

After checking on Foster and having dinner back at our place we thought we'd catch some more of the competition, but by 6:00 it was finally wrapping up.  We did see the closing where a clown dressed "Tourist" climbed the 80' pole to stand atop and do stunts while keeping up a commentary on his microphone. Pretty amazing.  From there we drove out to Painter's Lodge for a little boat ride across the water to watch sunset from the deck at April Point Resort. Clouds were coming in so there would be lots of color in the sky.

 As we were crossing over to Quandra Island we passed behind this container barge being pulled up the bay by a tiny tugboat.

 Then dessert on the deck as we watched the sun set over Vancouver Island. Pretty neat!

 About the same time we saw the Celebrity Century cruise ship making its way south. This is part of the inland passage from Vancouver.

 Finally the evening came to an end, we took the little boat back to Campbell River and called it a night.