Month: September 2024

We ended up having pretty great weather for most of our days on Vancouver Island. We headed to Palmerton Beach and Raft Cove and enjoyed these beaches more than the more popular San Josef beach. They were more rocky and rugged and just felt more secluded.

There was a short hike to get to Palmerton beach and it opened up to a rocky shoreline. The hike to Raft Cove was longer and very rugged. It brought us through what felt like a rainforest. There was a little more scrambling over trees and climbing around mud holes. It opened up to a huge beautiful beach.

Our last stop of the day was at Grants Bay. Another short hike to another beautiful beach. It was really windy and getting chilly so we took a few pictures and called it a day. We found an iOverlander spot that brought us up an old, very narrow logging road and we had an awesome view of the bay.

We headed to Winter Harbour and grabbed showers at the Outpost. It was raining again so we didn’t hang out long.

It looked to be a full day of rain so we went back to Holberg and grabbed lunch at The Scarlet Ibis, which is the most remote pub on Vancouver Island. Another further place reached!

We started to head to the middle of the island to see some viewpoints that a local had mentioned to us. We saw the Eternal Fountain, Devils Bath and the Vanishing River which all exist due to karst topography. Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the bedrock has created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, and springs.

We found a nice little spot on Kathleen Lake for the night. The next day, we drove up on some logging roads for great views.

We ended up on the other end of Kathleen Lake and found a fantastic spot. We decided to call it a day and just enjoyed the sunshine. The sunset was incredible that night!

Our next stop was to Little Huson Caves and this was by far our favorite stop. We did the short hike down to the caves and were in awe. This place is a hidden gem! We should’ve worn our suits and did a polar plunge because it was a perfect place for that.

On Tuesday, we made our way to Comox and Courtenay on the east side of the island to go to some breweries. Craig had picked out the ones he wanted to go to and there were too many to hit in one day.

Wednesday was Craig’s 55th birthday! We headed into Nanaimo and hit a bunch more breweries and had a fantastic lunch at the Rusted Rake. It was a great day celebrating!

On Thursday, we had reservations to get on the ferry from Duke Point to Tsawwassen at 5:45 pm so we had some time to kill. We had boondocked down another forest service road that was close to a trail with a suspension bridge. We checked out the bridge, went to two more breweries and then it was time to get in line for the ferry.

The ferry ride was pretty much like all the rest that we have done so far. The sunset was beautiful and we enjoyed the two hour ride. We got to Tsawwassen and decided to find a place to camp instead of trying to cross the border. We found a gravel parking lot at a tennis club. Kinda random but it worked.

Friday morning we got going pretty early and headed to the border. We decided to cross at Pacific instead of Peace Arch because we had read it would be less busy. There was no line and we thought we would sail through. They asked more questions here than on any other border crossing we had. We had to park to the side and go inside to see the Agriculture Police and declare everything we had. We racked our brains, hoping we didn’t forget anything because they would fine us if we didn’t list out everything. We handed the agent the keys and we were told to stay in the building. That was the first time we had ever had a search without us being present and we were not fans of that. She came back having just confiscated our eggs and said we were good to go. We had never had any issues crossing borders with eggs, but we were on our way.

It’s hard to believe our time in Alaska and Canada is over. We had waited for so long to get back to the further places and it felt like the summer went so fast. We enjoyed seeing and doing so many new things and reminiscing about places we had already been too. It was a fantastic summer!! We’re excited to explore some mountain  areas while the weather holds.

Off to explore in the lower 48…

 

We hung out on Trapper Mountain for the holiday weekend and just enjoyed the scenery. We went and checked out the public use cabin. It had a woodstove and tons of wood ready to warm up a cold hiker. Overnighting here is not allowed but you can tell it gets plenty of use.

We watched as others arrived and kayaked on the lake or buzzed around on their quads. Overall, it was pretty quiet considering it was Labor Day weekend.

On Monday morning, we continued on and took another side road that took us over the river a bunch of times and eventually ended. Then we were on our way to Telkwa Pass. The road was basically a forest service road and it followed a power line for quite a while.

It wasn’t a hard road but was rough in spots and had us driving up and down some good inclines. We crossed many small water crossings and we were in awe of the glaciers above where the water was coming from. The trail was in pretty good condition even in these spots where it is obvious water is constantly going over the trail.

We were almost to the first lake when it got really tight and we were scraping both side mirrors against small brush. It looked like someone had been through recently to trim back the larger branches which was so nice. The smaller ones  just brushed our truck lightly but still left some new pinstripes.

We finally pulled into the beach spot that everyone talked about when we researched this trail. We were happy to see that nobody was there and we settled in. It was a little windy and chilly so we took a few pics and started to make dinner.

With a place so beautiful, it really didn’t surprise us that we didn’t have it to ourselves the whole time but it was kinda late when a Jeep and a side by side arrived and didn’t really try to park too far away from us. They unloaded their coolers and chairs and it appeared that they were going to be there a while. We were busy making dinner and it was cold out there so we did our thing while they did theirs. They finally left and then the place was ours and we were able to enjoy the beauty all around us.

We continued on the next day into the even tighter trail that was filled with water. Once again, we were thankful that the larger branches had been trimmed back but the truck still took a beating.

We finally emerged from the brush and climbed up and out of the valley and continued on. There were some decent climbs and descents but all in all, it was an easy trail.

We were told not to miss going up Microwave Tower trail. So we headed that way and climbed up a mountain once again. We got to the public use cabin which was actually really nice and had a stellar view.

 

We continued on because we could. We followed a rutted, bumpy trail that seemed to go forever, until it didn’t. The mountains along this entire trail were breathtaking! We got to the end of the trail a couple times and finally found our spot for the night with the mountains in sight.

We headed out the next day and made our way into Telkwa and got gas. We drove a few more hours and stopped just shy of Prince George.  We camped on a forest service road with a dead end. We woke to warm sunshine and were happy to be able to use our outdoor shower. We drove to Prince George in the morning and did laundry and got groceries. It was awesome to finally have a Costco and some other bigger stores to get some of our favorite things. It was getting late in the day, so we grabbed a quick lunch and then continued on our way. Our original plan was to head to Williams Lake and stay at a recreation area just south. As we drove on 97 south, we were both getting sick of the traffic and I found a side road that was a touch longer but would get us to where we wanted to go.

This was such a neat detour. It brought us through some really beautiful farmland next to the Fraser River. We always enjoy getting off the main roads and exploring the countryside. We drove through beautiful farms with cows hanging out on the side of the road and saw old barns barely standing. We got to the recreation area just before dark and found that all the lake side spots were occupied. We found a place in the middle to park and called it a night.

Friday we continued south on 20 toward Bella Coola. Most of this drive was uneventful. We finally got to the mountains and started down the steep, narrow shelf road.

We came across a bear cub just laying on the side of the road. He didn’t move as we got closer to him, so we thought he was hurt. But then he sat up, looked up the road and lumbered away as we got closer.

He was looking at mom who was in the middle of the road just up a bit. She didn’t give us much attention and started walking toward her cub. My window was open to take pictures and I was a little nervous because of how close we were to her.

We made it to another free recreation area and set up camp. It was on the river but we didn’t have river views because of the trees. It worked for the night and we had the place to ourselves.

Saturday we made our way to Blush Road which would take us to Odegaard Falls. We did the short hike which still didn’t bring us anywhere close to the falls, but it was a fun hike through the woods and the falls were amazing to see even from afar!

We continued up the road to Purgatory Lookout which was an amazing spot overlooking Purgatory Glacier. It felt like there were 10 different glaciers in view! You can camp out at the lookout and it has 2 actual fire rings for 2 campsites.

We set up camp just as a SUV pulled up. We chatted with a nice couple from California for a couple of hours before they had to make their way back to their campground. It was windy and cold so we hunkered down in the camper with the views of the glacier out our back door.

About 8:30-9pm, a truck and a dirt biker showed up. Four people got out of the truck with a dog, took in the sights, and then left. We were hoping that would be it. Apparently they had to have a pow wow about their options and decided they didn’t care if they encroached on a campsite that we were at first. They came back, with another truck and another dirt biker. They parked right next to us and there were about 8-10 people milling around us. They then started setting up tents in front of our truck and behind their vehicles which were now blocking the walkway to the bathroom. They also were not quiet about this whole process. We don’t camp like this. If we had arrived and someone was already in the awesome spot, we would’ve left them alone and said, dang! Cool spot! Wish we had gotten there first. They absolutely had every right to stay but it just stinks when there is no respect or courtesy to others. So we did a quick packing away of loose things and left with the top of our camper still up now looking in the dark for somewhere else to camp for the night. We ended up on just a shallow pull off but it worked.

We made our way into Bella Coola and parked at a  pull off next to a river so I could watch the Indiana Fever women’s basketball game. After they won, we drove through Bella Coola which didn’t take long. There is not much here. It’s a small little community tucked into the mountains. We headed toward an iOverlander spot on a forest service road. The road continued up into the mountains so we kept driving. It started to rain like crazy and we were driving through clouds and could see nothing. We finally had to make the decision to just turn around. We camped just 3 miles from the main road because we had to get up bright and early to try to catch a ferry.

We got up at 4:45am and made our way to the ferry terminal. When I had made our reservation, there were no spots immediately available and we were waitlisted. The email said to arrive 120 minutes before sailing. We arrived and there was no activity at all at the terminal. It was so weird until we saw the sign that said we had to go to the Co-Op in town. We drove back into town where we found the lines of cars waiting for the ferry. A nice gentleman told us the boat was not full and there would be no problem getting us on the ferry. We didn’t wait long and then we were all driving back to the ferry terminal.

The ferry ride was pretty uneventful. It was supposed to be a 10 hour ferry ride, 7:30am-5:30 pm. We had a pretty good breakfast and lunch in the small cafe on board. We meandered around the boat and settled in. The captain announced when he saw whales and the whole boat went outside to see them. It was nice that the boat wasn’t very full so everyone could have some space. I stretched out over a few seats and took a nap while Craig read. We grabbed a couple beers toward the end of the trip and were happy to hear we arrived in Port Hardy almost an hour ahead of schedule.

In Port Hardy, we got groceries, gas and water and headed to another free recreation site for the night. There are so many of these in B.C., it’s pretty awesome. We are on the north end of Vancouver Island and there are forest service roads everywhere. We have no plans or things we have to see so we just started driving.

We made our way to the small town of Holberg and stopped at the gas station/convenience store. The owner was so nice and we had a great chat with him. He recommended that we go to Cape Scott which we were heading to anyway, but also told us about a couple other rustic beaches that we should visit. We made our way to Cape Scott and hiked the 3 mile round trip trail out to their award winning beach.

We are so spoiled in Michigan with our white sandy beaches. We’re glad we went but we’ll never stop bragging about our awesome West Michigan beaches!

We were on our way to the next beach but instead of turning off, we continued up the road into the mountains. I had another WNBA game I wanted to watch so we explored to the end of the road and found a nice quiet spot to settle in for the night. The weather has been overcast with a little bit of rain and it looks like that’s what we’ll have for the next few days. We’ll continue to explore as we make our way south.

Exploring Vancouver Island…