Tuesday, August 29, 2017

TOUGH HIKE, GREAT VIEW

My brother in law and I made another trip to San Josef Bay yesterday looking for geocaches.  It turned into a bit of an epic journey as we put on just under 19 kms,   Much of it was under less than stellar conditions.  The trail to the top of Mt St Patrick was about 7.5 kms return.  It was the worst trail I have ever done as it was roots and mud holes and steep pretty much the whole distance.   On our way home, we stopped for supper at the Scarlett Ibis Pub in Holberg.
Our time here in North Island is winding down.  Tomorrow I am driving down Island to meet with Richard and Georgia and will bring Georgia back to stay a few days with us.  Saturday or Sunday, we will head down to Campbell River then to Seal Bay RV Park at Comox for our RV rally week.

Our hike objective was far beyond the left peak on that hill.  To get there, we waded past this point to reach the trail leaving the beach.  On our return, the tide was higher and we had to take a trail over the top which wasn't great.

The sign welcoming us to the only trail to the top

Typical trail conditions

The trail was crisscrossed with roots all the way

But, the view was pretty darn good making the trip worthwhile.  The main reason though for us old fools to head up here was a geocache on the peak right behind where I'm standing.  There was another halfway up on the trail.  This is looking down into Sea Otter Cove.

And 90 degrees to the left is San Josef Bay.  That little dot of sand in the top left is close to where we started.  The first forested hill is the left one we looked at from the beach where we waded.


Since we couldn't wade around the point, this is descending to the beach from the lousy trail over the headland.

I stopped at Beaver Lake the other day for a geocache and found these great reflections

A four legged water creature?


We had a bit of rain so I wandered around looking for water drops


Here's a Scotch Thistle that looks like a chicken

Evening light

Fireweed

Monkey Tree

River reflection




Thursday, August 24, 2017

A FEW MORE NORTH ISLAND PHOTOS

Life continues to flow along for us on the north Island.  Some geocaching, firewood cutting, some trail building on a friend's property and community suppers every night.  We came into town this morning to do laundry and took the opportunity to post this blog.  I gassed up the car and that was a bit on the pricey side.  Gas went up to $1.369 per liter today so for you Americans, multiply that by 3.785 to get the Canadian dollar cost per US gallon.
It rained in the night but we woke to a nice sunny morning with 10C (50F) temperature.  That's our coolest temperature in a while.   By midmorning, it was showering again.  We've had drizzles several times lately which I'm sure the rest of the province would love to have experienced with all the fires that are burning.


Quatsino Narrows in the center and Varney Bay on the left

Old fir tree on Varney Bay

The mouth of San Josef River

San Josef Bay

San Josef sea stacks



San Josef trail

Big old Western Red Cedar San Josef Bay trail

San Josef Bay trail

JR with large Spruce in a campground near San Josef Bay

JR with a large Western Red Cedar stump at Holberg, BC

Bald Eagle taken from the roof of a friend's motor home, I'm sitting in a chair he passed up to me.

Another eagle across the river but taken from the ground


Friday, August 18, 2017

UPPER VANCOUVER ISLAND

Life continues at an interesting pace.  We are parked with Aileen's sister Anne and her husband John at a friend's property.  My brother in law John R has been with us for a week.  He and the other John were school friends so we all have a long history.  We have been doing some ATVing and geocaching and have had lots of awesome meals together.  Every few days we drive into Port McNeill for showers and to replenish our larders.

John and John along the trail to San Josef Bay

I'm in the cave looking out at John taking a photo of John at San Josef Bay

Lots of fireweed blooming in this whole area

Evening light

Our current parking spot

Neurotsos Inlet on the way to a geocache on the distant point

Looking up Neurotsos Inlet

A huge burl on an old log

More Neurotsos  Inlet

And one more Neurotsos  Inlet looking to the west from closer to Port Alice

The lovely Alice Falls, there was a geocache here too

Sandpiper

What road?  John and John are somewhere in front.

Belted Kingfisher


Late afternoon

Coastal flowers

Off road trucks don't leave much road for us

Belted Kingfisher taken with my Canon 5D Mk2 and 100-400 lens

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

ON THE MOVE TO UPPER VANCOUVER ISLAND

Just a short post.  We left Errington this morning and are south of Campbell River tonight visiting Bill.   Tomorrow we will drive up to the Port McNeill - Port Hardy area.  We will be staying at a friend of John and Anne's in a bit of a remote location.  Not sure how the internet will be for us for the next while.  We lucked out and John and Anne were down to Courtenay today so they towed our RZR up there when they went home.  That means we can hook the car on behind the motor home tomorrow instead of Aileen having to drive it while I towed the RZR.

Friday, August 4, 2017

JELLO PLANS CHANGE AGAIN

Yes, good thing we RVers make our plans in jello so we can change as needed.  The planned BBQ party at Bill's in Campbell has been postponed due to the excessive heat so we are staying a bit longer here at Charlie and Sheila's where we are able to run the AC in the afternoons.  We are still planning to go to the upper Island next week.
Received word last evening that my Dad's last brother had passed away.  He was 93 and still has one sister living.  They were from a family of eight as I am.  He was the only one older than me with the same last name although I have four older cousins.
My brother in law John R and I went for a couple of walks yesterday.  We first walked down some trails along the Trent River from the freeway picking up four geocaches.  We then dropped down the steep bank to the river and walked up it to the falls.  We had to climb up a steep trail with ropes for assistance then dropped down another trail back to the riverbed above the falls.  We walked along the riverbed for a couple of kms before stopping for lunch.
We later went to Brown's River to a spot John had heard of called the Medicine Bowls.  It turned out to be a great spot, although very dangerous in certain conditions.  Best to go on a dry day like we did as the drop offs would be very dangerous if the rocks were wet.  There were plaques honoring three young guys who died there.  Two of them were the same day!  All were from jumping in to the pools from the rocks.  Sad!  I took all today's photos with my little Canon SX50 but would like to go back to the Medicine Bowls with my bigger camera and tripod someday.

Trent River reflections

Trent River Falls at low water.  

Trent River, nice walking in low water

The river mostly runs through shale.  I liked the patterns in this piece of shale.

John and I had a nice place for lunch on a warm day

The Medicine Bowls on Brown's River are the rest of the images

The previous photo was taken from where John is standing

Further downstream

Below the last photo

After having the area to ourselves for a while, four young people showed up

A quiet side pool in the rocks

The lower falls and pool

The steep trail up from the lower falls