A RAINY DAY OFF

Being a waterfall enthusiast, I was delighted to stop and spend some time at this waterfall near O'Connor Lake while John and Dennis searched for a geocache

John and Travyn going through a washout that stopped all regular vehicle traffic 

Playing in the snow

There was a geocache hidden in this face on the back of a hemlock tree

Sitting around the campfire in the evening.  From the left me, Mitzy (in her own chair wrapped in a blanket), Aileen, her sister Anne and brother in law John

Our sunset a few evenings ago

Looking across the ocean from Elephant Mtn near Beaver Cove

Looking down into Beaver Cove

Alert Bay on Cormorant Island from Elephant Mtn

Closeup of the little side bay in Beaver Cove which also has a log sort and booming grounds

Northland Power Chips and the Western Forest Products Log Sort in the Beaver Cove.  Telegraph Cove is the next little bay

Life has been very busy for me lately.  Most days John and I are out on the ATVs exploring new areas and sometimes looking for geocaches.  A couple days ago we took John’s son Dennis and grandson Travyn with us on the ATVs.  It seems most of our rides end up finding some snow.  In some of the protected areas on the north side of the mountain, the snow is still several feet deep.  We’ve been seeing quite a number of bears on our rides but it is nearly impossible to get pictures of them as they take only a couple of steps to disappear into the forest.

Aileen and Anne take turns creating culinary feasts for us.  John had much success finding crabs up the beach from us so we ate crab for days.  We eat outside whenever the weather permits and most evenings are spent around the campfire.  I’ve been able to show some of my photo shows to family and friends on our new 32 inch TV in the motor home.  We continue to work on my Mom’s diaries as time permits.  Aileen types them while I proof and print them.  Currently we are in 1994 and I have printed up to page 4,637!!!  That is one huge pile of typing!  We’ve managed to see all but a couple of our assorted relatives in this area so far.

Today has been quite wet so no ATVing or wandering about.  It was a good opportunity to go into the Port McNeill library for some books for Aileen.  I decided to make use of the trip to use the faster internet at the library to post this blog as I was unable to do so at the campsite.  I wondered if the wet weather had more people using the internet in the campsite as the service was very slow and didn’t want to accept most of the pictures even though I had four and five bars of reception.  

EXPLORING MORE MOUNTAIN LOGGING ROADS BY ATV

On June 19, we went out along the road to Zeballos, a gravel logging road that winds through some beautiful mountain scenery before dropping down to sea level on the west coast of Northern Vancouver Island.  These are named Mason's Falls according to a sign alongside the road

The area gets a lot of rain and the high country gets many feet of snow.  It is still very deep on top

Another beautiful falls near the main road 

On June 20, we went to the top end of Bonanza Lake and drove as high as we could on the ATVs.  These pretty little May Flowers are June flowers as the snow just melted where they are growing on the edge of the logging slash

This large Yellow Cedar fell across the road and prevented us from going any further on that road.  If you look closely after clicking on the picture, you will notice the really flat spots where it was growing on solid rock.  The solid rock is why the root system is so shallow and the reason it couldn't hang on in the extreme wind

More carpets of Bunchberry

There were some nice little waterfalls hidden in the timber

I climbed up to the waterfalls while John was chopping this cedar tree off the road

Yet another cedar we had to whack pieces off so we could get by

An uneven creek crossing

New forest in abundance

ATV RIDE - REFLECTIONS, DEER AND GROUSE

We took a drive to Coal Harbour yesterday.  This is along the Quatse River.  There is a lot of tannin in the water giving it the dark tinge

We had a couple of these mudslides to navigate over while riding today

These are reflections in an alpine lake

This little buck may not have seen people before as he seemed pretty curious about me.  This picture didn't want to load properly but it will not be distorted when you click on it to enlarge 

This willow Grouse let me change to my telephoto lens to take his portrait

MORE PICTURES FOR THE PREVIOUS POST

This is the new view from our front window.  It was raining hard so had to use the windshield wipers to clear the window to take the picture

In the early 1990’s a homemade twin engine aircraft crashed near the south end of Port McNeill airport.  The cause of the crash is believed to be that the wing spoilers were still deployed.  The plane was very large, some described it as having a cabin the size of a mobile home living room, and was covered with a lightweight fabric.  Four people were on board and none were hurt.  In fact, one of the men was on his knees fixing some film equipment and wasn’t even aware they had gone down until being told to get out since they had crashed.  The men were filming the west coast.     

This plane was able to land on land or water.  Note the boat hull

The very large cabin, you can see the re-enforced floor for landing on water

The amount of work that went into building this plane was enormous.  The wings were at least 30 feet each and about every 6 inches there were these mini wooden trusses built to hold the skin fabric.  Every join had these little gussets on each side

Nephew's wife April trying to keep the bugs at bay

There were 11,000 Coho fry in this tub

The fry were caught using the net

Then dumped into pails for the youngsters to carry to the river

Where Les, all the kids grandfather, supervised the release

This is the youngest on her way to the river

Another attempt at keeping the bugs away

Hungry as a bear!!!

BEARS, EAGLES AND FISH

We had quite a rain storm Friday afternoon and evening and most of the night.  Saturday turned out to be fairly pleasant with milder temperatures.  The ladies did some laundry at John and Anne’s house in town.  John and I went and found a geocache near the airport in the afternoon.  In the evening, we went down to the hatchery John volunteers at to help release 11,000 Coho salmon into the river.  John and Anne’s daughter in law April’s parents and two of her sisters and their spouses and children were all there to help as was my Cousin Donna and her husband Ken.  I documented the procedure as my contribution.  We watched some bears after and I managed to get a few shots that were worth keeping out of many I took.  The light was getting low and the bears tend to keep their heads down since they are totally concerned with eating as much as they can.  We had been out for a drive on Thursday evening and saw a sow and two yearling cubs as well as a single mature bear. 

John and I were out ATVing Friday morning and John spotted an eagle that seemed to be attached to something it didn’t want to leave so we did a bit of stalking.  I managed to crawl up a little hill after struggling through the slash and I was pleased with the sharp shot I got of the wild eagle.  Of course there were a lot of pictures that I deleted before getting the one I liked.  We managed to get back to the truck just as the rain was starting which was a bonus.  In addition to several eagles, John saw two different bears and we saw a grouse of which I managed one picture.  When using my Canon Rebel XTi, I really miss the high ISO capability of my 5D Mark 2.  My images taken at the hatchery last night and the bear shots were mostly shot at ISO 6400 and my shutter speeds were still slow.  Back in my film shooting days, I wouldn’t even have considered shooting much of what I do now.  

John and Anne are heading south to Robert’s Lake this morning on their Harley to have lunch with their biker friends to celebrate Father’s Day.  While we were stuck in the motor home Friday evening, John helped me figure out the wiring for the DVD and TV cables.  Just when I was about to get into bed Friday night, I discovered the rain was soaking the carpet on my side of the bed again.  So far, the leak has proven impossible to find.  This has been going on infrequently for over a year.  I started up the motor home and lifted the driver’s side and rear of the motor home just a little and that stopped the leak.  I don’t think it has ever leaked when the slide is in so somehow water is running toward the motor home from the slide then finding its way in at the floor level in the rear of the bedroom.  I have ripped up the carpet and can see where the water is oozing out but haven’t discovered its route to get to that point.  It could be coming from anywhere over the length of the slide which is 12-14 feet long.  When we finally get the leak taken care of, we intend to replace the bedroom carpet with more solid flooring.  It has been quite frustrating dealing with the leak.

We have moved into the main part of the campground as of Friday morning so now we have full hookups.  We still have a view out to the ocean through our windshield but the are some RVs and cabins limiting the view.  We are much more sheltered from the wind though which is nice and it is much closer to John and Anne and their campfire.  We have a much better internet connection as well but it is still iffy at times and slow all the time.  Aileen was hardly able to get on out at the point but is having more success here.   

A little deer at Telegraph Cove

A visitor on the way into the hatchery

The next four are a pair of yearling cubs still with their mother

Willow Grouse

This bald eagle was reluctant to leave his treasure which was a bear carcass, I presume left by bear hunters

A Shooting Star