The sky is slowly fading to a pink glow as the sun begins to set. The mountains across the Strait become different shades of gray depending on the distance and the weather on the mainland. The scene is never the same.
This photo, taken at the end of our drive, leads down a short hill to a beach. We often take a walk after dinner to watch the sun go down and the skies turn pink, yellow, or orange
Trying to stay out of the shops as much as possible during the pandemic, we started ordering meat and fish online and joined a farm coop for fresh produce and the sooo tasty farm fresh eggs. The first fish we ordered was a 10 lb. halibut which we was delivered 8 hours after it had been caught. With a little help from You-tube, we were able to successfully fillet it, and doing the math we determined it is much more economical than buying fillet’s at the supermarket. Next time we will get a much larger one.
We continued to enjoy our walks and hikes, then in June the campgrounds started to open again. We took a few short camping trips to the Northern parts of Vancouver Island. There are a lot of Rec. sites that offer free or cheap camping throughout BC – many are owned by logging companies, and some by BC Hydro. Our camping spots were a mix of Rec. sites and Provincial campgrounds, all dry camping, which worked out great. In July, the COVID restrictions loosened somewhat and we started golfing again, and doing TaiChi classes.
Jun 1 – We drove as far as the paved highway allows on the North island – highway 19 is a 2-lane, very well maintained road with little traffic and was a great scenic drive through valley’s and mountain passes. We explored Port Hardy, where the paved highway ends, as well as Port Alice, Port McNeill, Woss, and Sayward – all these are small and remote communities relying on the logging and fishing industry and tourism. Like all of VI, there are hiking trails everywhere and tons of lakes to camp or fish, although getting to many of these spots require a vehicle with good ground clearance. We plan to return with the truck to explore some of these areas. On the way back home, we stayed a couple nights at Quinsam Campground near Campbell River. We walked a trail from the campground which led through forest and to a couple ponds displaying great wildflowers. Across the highway, another great trail follows the fast flowing Elk river and leads to a Hydro dam with a great viewing platform and interpretive signs. The river is a popular fishing site during the salmon runs. One direction the trail leads to Elk falls, but was closed due to COVID. We had been to Elk Falls previously and it is gorgeous – this hike would be well worth the effort in future. In the other direction the trail follows the Elk river canyon and leads to a man-made diverted river channel for aiding the salmon spawning.
Jun 20 – Our next trip was along Hwy 28 to Gold River where the paved highway to the North-central island ends. We stayed in some nice rec. sites along the way and ended our trip at Ralph River Provincial Park for a couple nights. Hwy 28 is is a narrow and winding route which follows Campbell lake for a long way and has great mountain and lake views.
We took another day trip in the truck a couple weeks later back to Hwy 19 area, to explore some back roads and find rec sites that we could safely drive Portage into. We found some great remote places we will be trying out in the fall.
As we hike/walk through the seasons on the island, it is fun to take pictures and then identify all the “new to us”, or not, flora and fauna.
