HOT WEATHER ON VANCOUVER ISLAND

Trestle on unused rail line along Cameron Lake

The unused rail bed

The start of Little Qualicum River............................

The weather continues to get hotter here. While we were having no problem getting enough solar power for the batteries, we weren’t able to cool the trailer sufficiently last night for sleeping. I plugged into power today so we could use the air conditioner and some of the team is very happy. In fact they celebrated with a two hour nap this afternoon. I went off with Sheila’s brother Lorne planning to climb Mt Arrowsmith but the road was closed due to the high fire hazard. Instead, we walked the old railway tracks all the way along Cameron Lake (about 9-10 miles return). It was rather warm and I sweated well. When we returned back to the truck, I had a very enjoyable dip in the creek to refresh myself. Aileen went to visit my parents at the care home with Charlie and Sheila later this afternoon.

We have been doing some Island exploring the past few days. The first day we went as far south as Mill Bay, the second was to Campbell River and Cumberland back roads. Some of these areas we haven’t seen in 40 or more years. When Aileen and I were dating, many moons ago, we explored most of the mid and lower Island roads. Some of them have hardly changed while others are very different.

We were over to Sheila’s parents this morning for a great brunch with all her family. Last night we had steaks on the BBQ here with C&S and their friends Bill and Bonnie. We even played a few rounds of Mexican Train. None of them had played before and they seemed to enjoy it. We had hamburgers on Friday night with a big group to celebrate Sheila’s father turning 85. This is party central! We’ve been enjoying fresh veggies from the garden and fresh corn from down the road a couple of kms.

We are planning to head down to Duncan on Thursday this week then just a few kms Saturday morning will put us at the reunion. The plan from there is to work our way up to Port McNeill by the following weekend for a week or two. We’ll likely return to Salmon Arm by the last week in August. No guarantees though, we tend to keep our plans pretty loose!