PEI!

Connie and her friend Patti are off on their big walking tour of PEI!  We drove to Kamloops the day before and caught a flight to Charlottetown via Kamloops at 6 in the morning.  After a long 5-hour flight with seats that did not even recline (!). We arrived in Charlottetown at 5 pm and were picked up by our shuttle driver George and taken to our B and B in Victoria, a half hour drive away. 

We went for supper at the Lobster Barn on the wharf 

and ate out in the screened porch.

Note the sea view behind me.

I had fish tacos, not very traditional but they used haddock and they were very tasty.

Patty had a chicken burger (she doesn't like seafood) and we shared our salad and fries.

I really liked the woodcarving of herons on the wall.

Victoria is about 4 blocks long.  But there are lots of gift shops and several artisans. 

Our b and b was featured in a book about PEI's heritage homes because of its unusual asymmetric design. (Door is on the left not the centre.)

Our B and B hostess has a stained glass shop on the first floor.

I really liked the sign for the Ewe and Dye weavery.  The weaver's husband and son have a pottery a block away and there's a chocolaterie and a painter nearby.

This is the Community Centre and Victoria Playhouse housed in the former schoolhouse.

PEI apparently has an excellent climate for growing hostas; almost every house had multiple giant hosts in their gardens.

The next morning we walked out along the shore at low tide.

Red Sand!

We walked all the way to the next community along the beach and saw herons, eagles, black ducks and terns.

The shells were clams, oysters and periwinkles.

We checked out all the old homes. Here is Patti's favorite.

And my favorite is this house across the street  from the shore with a widow's walk to watch the boats come in.

Maybe we could afford this condemned old warehouse

I was impressed by the size of this woodpile.

Despite being such a touristy town, there is still an active fishery here. We watched a couple of fishing boats bring in their loads of lobsters.

After some ribbing from Leo for eating fish tacos in the Maritimes, I had authentic steamed PEI mussels for supper at the town's best restaurant, the Landmark Oyster House.

Afterward we walked down to the wharf and came back and ordered a brownie for dessert.

Tomorrow we walk!

August Roundup

Great berry crops everywhere this year, including the choke cherries.

Found this toad in my vegetable garden.

Walked out on Moon Road several more times in August.

Classic  Chilcotin vistas.

One of the beauty spots of the Cariboo/Chilcotin.

Speaking of beauty spots, Leo and Mark hiked out at Farwell Canyon one day.

Trip to the Prince George Area

We've been wanting to visit the Ancient Forest for years but every time we were driving by it was pouring rain. So what better time to visit than during a hotspell?

We drove to Purden Lake Provincial Park about 60 km east of Prince George and set up our trailer.

Then we continued 60 km more east to the Ancient Forest.  The parking lot is situated right next to a construction camp which is odd for a Provincial park.  Fire camp?  Road works?

But the trail heads into the woods and right away you are in an interior rainforest full of giant cedars. 

It was the perfect place to be on a hot afternoon:  cool and shady.

The devil's club had all been defoliated by a caterpillar (Leo thinks maybe hemlock looper).  We had never seen anything like this before. I blame global warming.

There's a 2.5 km boardwalk that loops around the forest sending you past some really big trees up to 2000 years old.  It was pretty busy on a Monday afternoon.

The next day we drove an hour and 40 minutes east to Eskers Provincial Park.

We did a 12.5 km loop around the park, up and down eskers with views down to the many small lakes

It was a good hike for a hot day as it was mostly shaded. Still we were pretty hot by the end of our walk. We didn't see anyone on the trail till the very end of the hike.

We had a close call at the end of the hike when we heard very large crashing about in the bush right below us.  We yelled and it took off down the hill so we never did see if it was a bear or not.

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When we got back to Purden Lake we went for a swim. This was the warmest swim we've had all summer.

Back at the campsite we had to put our down jackets on to stay warm!

Camping at Mahood Lake

It's been three years since we camped at Mahood Lake.  It was busy!  We could only get a 2 day reservation for a campsite so we drove down a day early and found another site for the first night.  Haha! Thwarted the reservation system which charges a fee of $5 a night on top of the campsite fee.  As if a three day reservation is three times more work than a one day.  And then our first campsite that we couldn't get a 3-day reservation for was empty  for the next 2 days. That's it for my annual rant about the BC Parks reservation system.

First Campsite

Our friends Mark and Patty were also camping and their sister-in-law Marie and her sweet St. Bernard/lab dog Pepper dropped in on their way home to Port Coquitlam.

Patti and Marie at the campfire

Of course we had to check out the famous Wells Gray waterfalls.

Obligatory waterfall shot

Yup, Canim Falls still flowing.  The fun part of this falls is you can walk right up to the edge.

Dead body at the falls? No, just Mark peering over the edge.

Mark and Leo and I later hiked to Deception Falls.  Saw some ghost pipes.

The view of Deception Falls is screened by trees.

Closer look:

We wondered what the white flowers were growing beneath the falls.

Pearly everlasting.

But most importantly:

Huckleberries!  We brought back some branches for Patti and Marie.

We also went for a short dip in the lake.  Brrrr!  And we played several competitive bocce games.

Ghost Lake to Barkerville

The next morning we packed up camp and drove to Barkerville.   We stopped several times to try and photograph the mountains.

We crossed the Cariboo River

And stopped for a photo of this spruce grouse on the side of the road.

Bird of the Day

We had lunch at Whiskey Flats rec site along Antler Creek.  

To quote the Goldrush Circle Tour brochure:

Whiskey Flats was the site of a large early-century dredge operation near Wells and Barkerville. When standing on the shore, you can see the remains of the Kafue Dredge boat, a floating bucket dredge owned by the Kafue Copper Development Company, a Service Corporation of London England, which operated in the 1920’s close to Barkerville. Today there is a  small three-unit rec site that is a perfect base for those wishing to explore the back roads of Barkerville and Yanks Peak. Be sure to always call or stop in at the Likely Tourist Information located within the Cedar Point Park and Campground to check the road conditions before you depart on your trip.

We did not read the brochure so didn't look for the dredge.  We also didn't check the Road conditions but the Road was in really good shape, perhaps because there is active logging in the Antler Creek area.

The rec site was burnt during last year's fire that threatened Barkerville so it's likely not as attractive as it once was.

We're not sure if the concrete outhouse survived the fire or if it replaced a wooden one.

A few more kilometers and we arrived at Barkerville's Lowhee campground.

We drove into Wells and had a Slammer at the Frog and Bog gift store, recommended by Mark.  It's basically a coffee float, espresso with a scoop of ice cream,

Then we walked around Wells past this wedge-shaped building.

It started to rain so we took the Frog and Bog's advice and checked out the Wells museum.  Lots of photos from Wells' heyday and a cool core sample showing a layer of quartz with flecks of gold.

Later we walked to the Barkerville cemetery.  The highlight of the hike was

the bumper blueberry crop!  We ate our fill.

The next morning Mark headed home and Leo and I headed into Barkerville.  We caught the Barkerville tour

and checked out the main street.

Barkerville from the balcony of the Tong House in Chinatown.

We had lunch in the Wake Up Jake Cafe.

Waiting for lunch.

It was good but not particularly authentic (I had a Mediterranean wrap).

Then we walked up to the Richfield courthouse, just missing the court session.  We also checked out the Catholic and Chinese cemetery nearby.

Road to Richfield

We stayed another night and drove home the next morning.