Around and about Parksville

                                  On Qualicum Beach. Just hot dogs.

                           View of main land mountains from Parksville Beach

      Hiking in Cathederal Grove Provincial Park. The Douglas Fir trees are up to 800 years old.

                                          Harbourfront in Port Alberni, which is about 45km inland from Parksville on a very long inlet off the Pacific Ocean.

The view inland from Parksville beach.

                                 Country Market in Village of Coombs

    "Goats on the Roof" is a neat collection of shops, all of which grow grass on the roof where the goats live. When we went on the weekend, there were hundreds of people, so we went back on Thursday to a much smaller crowd.

South to Parksville

After two busy days in Port Hardy, we set out on the last leg of the trip. South on highway #19 to Parksville, about 350km. It was surprisingly mountainous giving us more of the winding and hilly roads we had become used to. Logging is very active in the north end of Vancouver Island. We saw many active hillside logging sites, as well as some logging sites right along the highway. 30 years ago I had flown over the BC mountains many times and I remember seeing mountain slopes totally stripped of all usuable trees and then just left, as the loggers moved along to another hillside. Now what we saw, was all the cleared areas were being reseeded with young, healthy trees. This has now become a truely renewable resource.

  We  turned off  hwy #19 at Campbell River, onto #19A. This is the old highway and a much more scenic route, following the east coast of the Island.  We stopped and had lunch in one of the many parks along the waterfront in Campbell River, right on the 50th Parallel. 19A took us about 120km south to Parksville

Once in Parksville we found the park where we will stay for the month of September and got set up. Parksville is a beautiful town on the water, with many sandy beaches. From anywhere in town you can see snow capped mountains. To the east on the main land and to the west the mountain range that runs down the center of the island.

It will be good to stay in a beautiful place like this for a month, but we will miss the travelling. The three of us in the truck early in the morning, heading down the highway to experience new places.

                                      Summary of the trip West

We have travelled 11,000km, (6,835miles) since leaving Cambridge. 5200km in the the van and 5800km in the truck.

We achieved about 13 MPG average in both van and truck.

Cost of gas averaged about $1.35/lt  With a high of $1.86 (we did not fill up!) Right across the prairies, prices ranged from $1.06 to $1.18. Yukon was surprisingly low averaging $1.33. $1.29 in Whitehorse.

We also saw no difference in grocery prices in the Yukon than at home.

The days that we travelled, we usually covered 350/400 km, with the rare day of 500km(300 miles). We seldom drove two days in a row, but normally stopping 2/4 nights in each place to explore the area

Parks were more reasonable than I thought they would be, averaging less than $30 per night. Every park had electric, water and sewer hookup and laundry. Most had wifi and many had cable TV. Whitehorse and Dawson City where we stayed longest had everything.

Our best memories and places we enjoyed most are numerous, but to pick a few favourites: Sault Narrows on the Lake of the Woods, Drumheller, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Tatooga, Port hardy, but we enjoyed every place we went. Every place had something of interest. There really were no disappointments.

I spent a year planning the trip, spending many hours on the internet. Arranging Health Insurance for an extended time out of the province was frustrating and took several months before it was finalized. I joined the Good Sam club, a camping club. They have roadside assistance which we bought, and I bought their camping book which has 1500 US and Canadian campgrounds listed. I already belonged to Explorer Club which have hundreds of Canadian campgrounds listed. I selected the parks and made reservations as early as late April, this assured us a site every night without worrying about where we would stay. The only time we changed reservations was when we stayed two days extra in Grande Prairie to buy the truck.

Vancouver Island was selected by us to spend a winter due to the fact that we did not want to pay the very high cost of  medical insurance to travel to the US.

Staying within Canada meant we were covered by our Ontario Insurance, OHIP.

The temperatures in the area we will be staying over the winter should seldom drop more than 1-2 degees below zero C, with rain.

Vancouver Island is 500km long from Victoria to Port Hardy, so has everything from rich farm lands in the south to rugged mountains through the center. We have seen a lot of the island over the years, but hope to revisit some of our favourites.

I hope some of you have enjoyed the "blog", I have enjoyed doing it.

                                               NOT THE END

Port Hardy, British Columbia

From the beach at Port Hardy

  











                                                                    Pretty park at the beach in Port Hardy

Even Port Hardy had Totem Poles. They were in every place we visited in BC, telling the history of the local Indian tribes. Some of them, like this one were painted in bright colours and were really very attractive. 

     We landed in Port Hardy at about 11.30pm. Obviously we were last off the ship, as we were last on, so it was midnight when we drove off the ship. I read the directions to the park where we were to stay and drove down the dark road, that I thought was in the right direction. Well we had a difference of opinion as to whether we should have turned left or right at the intersection. I over ruled and turned the rig left. Well it did not take long to realize we were going the wrong way, Bev reminded me. Pitch black, forest on each side and how far would we need to go to find a place to turn around? We could be hours. Most often we have driven for 50 to 100 km without a cross road or a driveway large enough to turn around in. Luck was on my side that night and we soon came upon a sideroad wide enough for us to turn around. No need to be concerned with traffic, who else would be on that deserted road at that time of night? We drove back into Port Hardy and easily found our park. The owner was in the office waiting for us. Quickly checked in and set up the trailer with electric and water. By now it was 1 am and time for some well earned sleep.

Ferry to Port Hardy

Since it was required to be at the ferry dock by 5.30am for a 7.30 departure, we decided to camp at the ferry dock. No rush in the morning. We were in company with one other trailer. When I took Cassie out at about 5.45am there were lots of them in line. Most of them were little motorhomes which were rented. In all our travels we have never seen so many, as we have in Yukon and Northern British Columbia. When it was time to drive onto the ship, of course, we were last. Cassie stayed in the trailer for the 16 hours and we were allowed to take her out on the car deck every three hours or so for 15 minutes. 

Almost ready to leave. Not many on board only 50 vehicles in total, she was built for 120. The price has almost doubled since last year and they measured us at 50ft........ The route through the islands was beautiful, even though we had lots of cloud cover. The route is about 300miles. Departure from Prince Rupert was at 7.30am and we arrived in Port Hardy at 11.30pm.

The map showes the route through the islands.

Fishing boats off Bella Bella where we stopped to pickup and drop off passengers and cargo. Bella Bella is one of the many isolated villages along the coast. Access is only by boat or fly in.

It was a long day, but a great day.

Prince Rupert, BC.

The water front in Prince Rupert. Several of the usual gift, clothing shops and eateries waiting for the cruise ships to come in on their way to Alaska. I read that 150,000 passengers arrive there every year. That is a lot for a town of 14,000.

Local fishing boats in the Prince Rupert Harbour. We found no fish to buy though. We were later told that all the fish goes to the canneries in Vancouver.

                                                             Nice place to eat overlooking the harbour    

The drive from Stewart to Prince Rupert was over two days. Day one we finished the drive south on the Cassiar highway. It was all newly paved. After all the stories we had heard and the written word on the net, even the AAA new maps show 260 km of gravel roads. This was far from the truth as it was one of the best roads of the entire trip. We are so glad we decided to take that route. In retrospect it was a good thing that they messed up the sat phone delivery, as we certainly would not have needed it. $200 saved!!

We stayed in a very nice park in Terrace on the Yellow Head highway. In the middle of nowhere, Terrace is a main hub for shopping in and out of Prince Rupert. There was a huge rail yard filled with trains loaded with hundreds of shipping containers. Many obviously from China destined for all over Canada ond US.

The highway to Prince Rupert followed the wide Skeena River for 100km. On a beautiful sunny day we cruised along loving every km. Well almost: the speed limit was 100kph, 60mph, and just two lanes which stayed with the river as it turned and twisted on it's way the the Pacific. On one nice straight stretch, we were doing our usual 90kph when I saw two double trailer transport trucks bearing down on us in the rear view mirror. Having a clear road ahead the first one pulled out and flew by us. I had slowed to about 85, far down the road I saw lights of an oncoming vehicle. To my utter shock the second truck was also passing us. The car approaching us was too close. I had slowed again, but to avoid a head on collision, the truck swung to the right and as he did the back of his second trailer clipped our mrror and folded it forward. No it is not designed to fold forward, just backward.

We had no idea what company the truck was, but Bev had the name off the plastic wrapped lumber he was carrying. I tried to catch up to get a plate number, but at  110kph, go Ram, they were long gone. I quickly realised my folly. Soon after, we pulled off at one of the many beautiful rest areas beside the river with the snow capped mountains beyond the south shore.

I looked at the front of the truck and there were no marks. The mirror had suffered damage. We were shaken, but so very thankful that we were not knocked off the road. When we were in Prince Rupert I reported the incident to the RCMP, but without a plate number probably nothing will come of it. 

We were three nights in PR so had 2 1/2 days to explore the area. We drove out to Port Edward, about 12km to see what was there. We discovered an old Salmon cannery, now open for visitors to tour. It had opened in 1880 and closed down in 1940, as did almost all the others along the rugged north coast. There was a raised boardwalk out over the water running parallel to the shore. Along the left side of the board walk, also raised on poles above the water, were the little homes that had been the employees homes. I think they were built like that due to the solid rock on shore. When a young woman came along to take us for a tour, we said that would be nice, but we needed to eat lunch, it was getting late. She said, "Oh you can go and have lunch in the mess hall, they serve lunch and it is all home made". Inside was the way it had been in the early years complete with the long benches and tables. Big windows allowed a wondeful view across the water to the mountains beyond. The Salmon chowder, salmon cakes and salmon biscuits were all as delicious as we had been told they would be. We chatted with two women from Alberta and an elderly couple from Arizona who were waiting for the ferry to Alaska. We could have just sat in the trailer, but we prefer to get out and explore each area we go to. It is amazing what you find when you venture out.