On to Parksville

Next we drove to Parksville to visit our old friend John.  He's stopped by to visit several times over the years when he's been in the Cariboo but we have never been to his home since he moved to this area.

They're busy folks though, with two daughters, 4 horses and a rescheduled camping trip so we just came for breakfast one morning (and took no pictures). 

On our own we stopped off first at Englishman River Falls Provincial Park.

Nice forest in the park

 It was busy with visitors on this long weekend.  Years ago our kayaking friend Eva kayaked off the falls here, but when we came to the upper falls, it looked like this:

Upper Englishman River Falls flows into a narrow crevice

Sure death!  And when we got to the lower falls it looked like this:

No falls!

Puzzled, I later googled kayaking Englishman River Falls and the first thing that popped up was Eva's old blog complete with

A picture of Eva running the lower falls, and a note that the falls are now gone since the gravel beneath the huge rock that caused the falls had washed out and the river now flows out beneath the rock.  Mystery solved.

Our next stop was Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, also busy this weekend.  

The tide was way out

Rathtrevor Beach is quite rocky and full of broken clamshells.  I did find a chiton.

We walked down the beach one way and back on the trail through the woods.

Highland Games and Port Alberni

It so happened the Victoria Highland Games were happening not far from Dorothea's house so we had to check it out.

Individual pipers were competing all at once.   There's a piper and an adjudicator at each of these canopies.  It was hard to believe that the judges could hear the competitors with all the noise of the various competitors and others warming up at the same time.

This youth fiddling group put on an excellent performance.

Both men

and women competed in the heavy events.

And if you're wondering if the competitors are wearing anything under their kilts:

I'll let you tell this guy he's not a proper Scot!

The 7th Highlanders performed some classic pipe music.

And we sampled a haggis on a bap!

We were not able to see the massed band performance because we were heading up to Port Alberni in the afternoon to see our longtime friend Maggie.

This is my first visit to Port Alberni, other than driving through on the way to Tofino.

We had dinner at Port Alberni's German restaurant, the little Bavarian.  Mmm, mmm, Jaeger Schnitzel with spaetzle and red cabbage!  Followed by a driving tour of the town.

The next morning we visited Stamp River Falls and the surrounding area.

Leo at the fish ladder above the falls

Some of the woodland flowers in bloom:

Vanilla Leaf

Hookers Ferrybells, I think, with some bonus starflower in the back

Thimbleberry

Swordfern

Day 2 Victoria

The next day we met with another former Williams Lake couple.  John and Janice were down from Courtenay to housesit their granddog.

We hiked together up Scafe Hill and Stewart Mountain in the Millstream area.

More camas up here and lots of seablush

And death camus

And honeysuckle.

We finished off with coffee and a goodie at the Nest,

a popular spot located right next to the Galloping Goose bicycle trail.

In the afternoon, Dorothea had an outrigger canoe practice.   The Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club leases their clubhouse on the Gorge from the City of Saanich.

As a member, Dorothea gets to store her canoe here and use the club boats.  Also note the balcony with its excellent view of the Gorge.

 While she practiced with her crew

 we checked out the parks along the gorge,

Including Craigflower School.

Craigflower School is the oldest existing schoolhouse in Western Canada.

We got back in time to see the outrigger shooting the rapids under the bridge (caused by the incoming tide).

Paddlers have to time their outings with the tides.  If the current is too strong they can't paddle out to the Inner Harbour and have to stay above the rapids.  If the conditions are right, like today, they can paddle through at slack tide and get a rush coming back up the gorge with the tide.

 After the practice we made it a two goodie day at the Gorge-ous Cafe, just up the road from the clubhouse.

Visit to Vancouver Island

We took a weeklong vacation to Vancouver Island to visit my sister and several other friends who live there.

It rained most of the way to the Tsawassen terminal and the weather forecast for the week wasn't very promising, but the sun came out as the ferry was leaving the terminal.

On the first day we visited our friends George and Elizabeth who moved to Sydney from Williams Lake a few years ago.  They showed us their neighbourhood and then we checked out Island View Beach. Apparently, the only picture I took was of these shipworms(?) on a cement block at the beach.

Later in the day we joined in on Dorothea's regular Wednesday evening Club Tread walk along Dallas Road.  Last time I did this was 10 years ago in the pouring rain.  So of course it rained again.

We passed a big field of blooming camus.

And we finished off the evening with a burger in Bartholemew's pub.  Leo and I had our first date in the restaurant here.

How to Turn a Pleasant Mother's Day Excursion into an Adventure

In our last post I mentioned that we thought the balsamroot should be in prime bloom by Mother's Day, so on Sunday we headed out again with some friends.

Originally, we started out with 2 vehicles, but at the Sheep Creek Bridge we decided to park our truck behind and all travel in one vehicle.

At one point we stopped for a view over the Fraser River.

When we got to the flower fields we were a little disappointed as the bloom was not as intense as in previous years:

For comparison, here's a photo from last year:

But we made the most of it and continued on, with 4 of us driving in the truck.  Glen had brought his bike and he rode ahead of us.  All went well until we came to a little wet spot at the edge of a pond.  Randy gunned the engine to make it through but he slipped into the ruts and

We were stuck but good!  At this point we wished we had decided to bring our own truck.  And some shovels, and a tow rope.  And some planks.  And a jackall.  Or a comealong! 

We took off our shoes and socks and waded into the mud to try and push the truck out, but no go.

There was nothing to do but send Glen off on his bike.  He rode back to the main Farwell Canyon Road, hoping to hitch a ride to our pickup, drive back to town and bring some towing materials.

We had a long wait ahead of us.  Lots of time to photograph flowers,

Shooting star

Anemone

birds,

Vesper Sparrow

and scope out all the duck species in the pond:  Barrow's goldeneye, cinnamon teal, widgeon, shoveler and coots.

In a nearbye copse of aspen we saw bluebirds, a hairy woodpecker, wilson's and yellow-rumped warblers and pine siskins.

Fortunately, there was enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitos away (but not the ticks!)

Leo and I walked around the pond to scout out a possible route for Glen if he needed to drive around.

Just a few balsamroot here

Chilcotin Skyline

Hapless truck

Meanwhile Glen had been picked up by a nurse from the Okanagan who was doing a locum in our maternity ward (thanks to folks like her our ward has reopened after it was closed due to lack of staff and women don't have to leave town to have their babies).  She dropped him off at our truck but neither of them could figure out how to work our newfangled truck key to start the engine.  So she was kind enough to drive Glen right to his house.

After 3 hours, Glen returned with tons of tow cable

And before you know it,

We were out of the mud!

Beers all around!

A look back to the infamous mudhole (post left in hole as a warning to the next passerby)

There was one more mudhole on the way out, easy to skirt, and we were soon back at the road.  But first we saw three sharptail grouse.

What a beauty!

And that's how to make a morning excursion into a daylong adventure!

Scout Island Walk

Checked out the birds at Scout Island today. Saw this tree swallow.

There were two sets of 5 goslings out and about.

What's this wierd creature?