ATVING IN THE SNOW

Right after my last post, John and I went to Telegraph Cove where we found the Blinkhorn Trail that John heard about the night before at a campfire they went to after we came home.  It turned out to be rather a brutal 4 kms each way.  There was lots of elevation change and much of it was mostly up without the benefit of using contours. There were six or eight spots with assist ropes to help you up and down the steeper spots. We took a side trip to a viewpoint about 2/5 of the way in.  We had a sandwich while there and enjoyed the hammock that someone installed.  A college age girl from North Vancouver working at the kayak shop, came zipping up while we were there so chatted with her a while.  I waded across the big creek at the spit on the way out and it was quite chilly.  I hopped across on rocks on the return and found my supposedly water proof Obos aren’t!  I barely covered the left toe and got wet toes.  We went right out to the navigation light at the end of the trail and there were lots of chocolate lilies growing on the rocks.  We were treated to a couple of dolphins playing just before we left.  We saw a marten on the spit on the way back but it was too fleeting for getting a picture.

We ran into a group of 5 hikers just coming down from the viewpoint and another college looking girl headed up just as we got to the junction of the trail, the only others we saw.  We old guys, suffering as we were, still managed to leave the younger ones in our dust heading down.  John found a kayaker’s geocache near the spit and another at the Telegraph Cove mailboxes.  We made it home about six and we cleaned up all the food the girls had prepared for supper.  Anne had put two pounds of ground venison into a meatloaf and we ate it all.  After supper I whined enough that we got to go to Foster’s hot tub.  Aileen had a tub bath in the house.  She got caught up a bit on her emails too as we took her computer with us.

On Friday, John and I went ATVing up Kinman Road after lunch.  We ran into quite a bit of snow at a surprising low elevation.  We had fun powering our way through until we ran into too much.  We had to pull each other loose once.  The weather was fairly nice and the road was dusty in places.  Supper of crab and salad then John and I went down to watch the ship being loaded with gravel and sand just along the beach a mile or so.  It will probably end up in LA or San Francisco or maybe somewhere else down the US west coast.  Dennis, April and kids were at John and Anne’s trailer when we returned so we all visited around the campfire.

I was awake at 5 Saturday morning but managed to doze til nearly 6:30.  I got up and at ‘em and walked over to Foster’s before 8.  John and I went up the bush road to Elephant Mtn down near Beaver Cove.  There was surprisingly little winter damage that required sawing.  There was one ten inch alder than John axed out and several small ones he dispatched with his little saw.  We broke off quite a few salmon berry branches but that was it.  We explored around up top but the views weren’t that great because of fog.  We decided to return via the bush road since it was more interesting than the boring logging main road.

We met Dennis at the mouth of the Nimpkish and went geocaching, finding four of the five listed in that area.  There were several people crabbing at the low tide.   We came back to John and Anne’s for a beer and rest then I brought John’s truck home as he was going to wash the Jeep, cut lawn and watch the hockey game during supper.  I unhooked my ATV trailer and unpacked my stuff out of John’s truck.  I was just finishing up a snack since it was now three pm and I last ate about ten, when my cousins Christine and Donna drove in.  They had been quilting.  We chatted awhile, then since they were interested in Colorado, I showed them my last Colorado show.

I read til just after midnight last night.  Aileen had put her book down earlier.  The yahoos next door were still whooping and hollering so next thing I know, Aileen is outside in her nightie reaming them out.   They did quiet down some but not completely.  We were glad to see them pull out this morning!  We had a gorgeous day yesterday but we awoke to rain this morning.  The planned ATV outing didn’t happen today.  Aileen went to help Anne plant some flowers on the bank behind their RV site which they park in most of the year.  John went home to town to work on some projects while Mitzy and I stayed home to put this blog together for posting next time I get to a stronger internet signal.  We have no signal in our site this morning.  I was able to get on with a very faint signal last night but not for long.

We managed to push our way through this snow by taking multiple runs at it

This stopped us though

Well, we'll just play then

A bulldozer had pushed this snow up and it was still solid ice

I tried to go around and got hung up.  After digging out underneath, John had to tug me out

This Western Hemlock has a branch that mutated sending up eight sucker limbs

Lots of snow in the mountains still

On the old abandoned road up Elephant Mtn, John disappeared into that

Oh, there he is

Cutting off one of the many small windfalls

Wild Gooseberries, I think, up on top of Elephant Mtn

Blooming Moss up on top of a rock cut.  The water drops are from the dense fog that just cleared and the sun is shining through from behind (known as backlighting)

Oops, narrow road

Then it got narrower and that was the end of our travels there

GEOCACHING

Brother-in-law John and nephew Dennis are both into geocaching so I’ve gone with them twice this week.  The first one was out to the World War Two plane crash.  For those able to make the two km hike in to the crash site, the trail was quite rugged but well defined and a good outing.  It is, however, more strenuous than many geocachers would be able to do. After getting to the plane, it is to find a clue in the plane telling you the cache was actually back at the start of the trail.

We have basic weak internet out at the site we’re in, sometimes.  However, the reason we are in this site is the fabulous ocean view.  We have water and power but part way through our two week stay here, we will have to go to the dump station to empty tanks,  We will be moving back to the main full hookup sites next week and should have somewhat more dependable internet, or at least we hope so.  I went into town the other day and managed to sit outside of the library and get an excellent signal.  Since we are still members of the Okanagan Library system, I was able to get a reciprocal library card for the Vancouver Island Library.  This allows us to take books out from any library in the system and return them to any other.  Since there are 29 affiliated libraries, we’re covered pretty well for our time on the Island.

Yesterday was a glorious morning with no wind and pure sunshine to start.  This morning was the total opposite.  The wind has been blowing a gale all night and not letting up this morning, plus it has been raining off and on.  John and I were going to take the ATVs out today but changed our mind on that.  John heard about a new hiking trail running along the coast south of Telegraph Cove so we may give that a try later today.

John put his hip waders on yesterday and went crabbing down at the mouth of the Cluxewe River getting his limit of two.  We had the crabs for supper last night.  He went there again this morning and while he’d hoped the wind would ease off, it didn’t, so there are no crabs today.

This image from last post's beaver pond reflections wouldn't load with the poor internet connection  but I wanted to share it with you

Our awesome RV site 

Part of the trail in to the plane crash site

John is writing down the co-ordinates for the geocache

More of the trail

The pine trees are blooming

Sunset two nights ago from our site

Yesterday along the old telegraph or telephone line trail.  Just to the left of Dennis is an old pole with the insulators still on.  There were five geocaches along this trail

Mountain bikers built this trail which is a series of logs laid through the bog

Five year old Travyn found this geocache

Aptly named Bear, Travyn, John and Dennis who is recovering from shoulder surgery

The last cache was named Frog Hollow and was inside this frog which was hidden under a stump

IMAGES WITH THE FOLLOWING POST

Last night's sunset at Cluxewe campsite

The eagle trying to get airborne

 

He finally made it but he was slow gaining elevation

Some reflections in a beaver pond this morning

SETTLED IN AGAIN AT CLUXEWE

With Aileen’s sister Anne having the weekend off, she has been out at the campsite with us so the girls have been catching up on visiting.  We were playing Mexican Train last night when Aileen spotted a nice sunset happening.  I abandoned the game for a little while and ran out along the beach with my camera.  I had the 100-400 mm lens on so that’s what I used.  Aileen stole a win from Anne in the last set while I was in my usual spot well out of the running.  We’d played SkipBo earlier with one win each, I think.

I happened to look out the window after breakfast this morning and spotted a mature bald eagle out in the water struggling with something.  He managed to swim to shore as he couldn’t get airborne from the water.  We weren’t able to identify exactly what he had caught and it was much too far for even my 400 mm lens to capture sharply. 

Later, I rode my bicycle out along and across the highway where I found some nice reflections in a beaver pond so I happily shot another stack of pictures.  I put some of the reflection images into a digital slide show with music.  After lunch, I showed my recent shows to Aileen and Anne using our new 32” TV.  We have had a wide variety of weather so far which is fairly normal for this part of the world.  Some sun, some wind and some rain.  Sometimes separately and sometimes all together.

Our first cruise ship this year

RETURNED TO CLUXEWE

We had a good trip yesterday from Campbell River up to Port McNeill.  As is normal on moving day, it seems, we ran through several showers so the motor home needs cleaning.  We stopped at Eve River Rest Area for an early lunch and after Aileen had a long nap, she left ahead of me to stop and visit her sister Anne in Port McNeill.  I was just getting started setting up when she arrived at the campsite to help.  We saw two cruise ships returning from Alaska in our first two hours but none since.

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning.  Unfortunately, it didn’t last but we did get to sit outside in it for a while after breakfast.  Anne came along while it was still sunny and spent the day with us.  She and Aileen went for a couple of walks.  While Aileen napped, Anne and I went to town for a few groceries at IGA, water and lawn chairs from the house and a few things Anne needed.  

We’ve had several showers during the day.  John called from Cache Creek late afternoon and they’d had a good day weather wise.  He will be home late tomorrow if things go according to plan.  Several of them from the North Island plan to ride home together.

MOVED UP TO CAMPBELL RIVER TODAY

We moved on up the road to Cousin Bill’s today.  We’ll be here two nights then move up to Port McNeill where we plan to spend June and July visiting and hopefully, ATVing.  Aileen is driving the truck which we will attempt to sell while in the Port McNeill area.  I am towing the ATV on its trailer behind the motor home.   Bill has planned a barbeque with friends here tomorrow evening but with the weather forecast, we’ll be eating inside.

We were down to Victoria yesterday for another acupuncture treatment for Aileen and it seems to have helped considerably.  At least, Aileen says her back feel much better today.  We picked up our friend Bev D and brought her up to Parksville to visit her mother.  

It was very easy getting our passport renewals looked at and sent away from the Service Canada office in Nanaimo.  I filled out our 8840 Closer Connection forms online this morning then printed them out.  This form is highly recommended for Canadians traveling to the US to prevent being taxed by the US government on our Canadian earnings.

We saw this nice waterfall on the Saltery Bay - Earls Cove ferry last week

You can see how windy it was up on the top deck on the ferry last week

This is Niagara Falls in Goldstream Park near Victoria, BC on one of our trips down to visit the acupuncturist

These Harbour Seals know how to relax

This seal just caught a thrown fish

Here comes a treat

Even houseboats can have a lawn!

Another houseboat

FIRST ATV RIDE OF THE SEASON

After lunch yesterday, Aileen slept most of the afternoon away as she was still recovering from our busy trip to the Sunshine Coast.   I took the ATV up Nile Creek for a ride.  I put on 48 kms and ran into snow twice.  I did see an owl on the way back and he let me get some pictures.   I had an interesting ride with even a challenging creek crossing.  It was mostly tee shirt riding too, which was a bonus.  The flies were pesky up high when I stopped for pictures out across the islands.  I had cut the front lawns in the morning.   Brother Charlie and Sheila arrived home late last night so that’s it for my lawn cutting for now.

We went to Duncan this morning for Aileen to go to church.  Mitzy and I drove around the Glenora district and found a section of the Cowichan Valley Trail where we went for a about a 3.5 kms stroll.  We met several big dogs and Mitzy is very nervous with them since her second attack in two months.  We came straight home after lunch.

I filled out our passport renewals online then printed the forms which we’ll take to the passport office in Nanaimo tomorrow. 

A pretty little waterfall where there used to be a bridge across

These are wild huckleberries in bloom

Looking across the Salish Sea.  Deep Bay on Vancouver Island is in the lower left.  Next is Denman Island with the Chrome Island lighthouse off the right end. Hornby Island is next then Texada with the huge rock quarry highly visible. Directly beyond the quarry would be Powell River on the Sunshine Coast.  Sechelt, where we visited Auntie Ann is way off to the right. 

A closer look at Deep Bay boat harbour, Denman, Hornby and Texada Islands and on to the Sunshine Coast (which is mainland BC) 

Looking down the creek

My owl posing