THE BIG REUNION

After spending several days in Errington at my brother Charlie’s, we moved down to Duncan on July 30^th. We spent two nights at Garry and Barb’s and were fortunate to be able to plug into hydro to run the air conditioner. One day Garry and I walked into the Kinsol trestle which is an amazing old marvel. It is 125 feet tall and 615 feet long. There is a concerted effort to restore it so it can be used as part of the Trans Canada Trail. Government has committed to $4,000,000 and fund raising is underway for a further $1,700,000. On July 31^st, we were invited to their son Al’s for a birthday BBQ. Great meal and a darn nice house they just bought.

When we moved to the reunion site on August 1^st, Garry lent us his generator so we were able to keep Aileen and the cat cool as the weather was fairly hot. While attendance was far less than I expected, there was a good crowd and representation from many branches of the family. There are close to a hundred people in the group shot and lots had left before or came after. There was lots of visiting in the shade by the campers and it was fun meeting many unknown relatives and meeting others after 50 plus years. It was the 125^th anniversary of my great grandfather’s arrival in the Cowichan Valley from Scotland. He, a brother and a sister were actually heading for New Zealand and stopped off to attend the local Fall Fair. They were so impressed with the quality of the produce and friendly residents they decided to go no further. William, my forebear, had 7 daughters and at least five of the daughter’s descendants were in attendance. I made and sold 10 13x19 inch prints of the group shot on Sunday morning using up my mat and glossy paper. One of the highlights of the Saturday was one of the younger relatives who had just returned from a highland dance competition in Scotland and a friend who gave us a dance exhibition complete with a very accomplished bagpiper. The real highlight was many of us sitting in a circle sharing memories or thoughts on family or things of interest to family. The idea was similar to having a talking stick where only the person with the stick is permitted to speak. Our stick was invisible but fairly effective. Because of our association with the family Drummond, it was mentioned we are 23^rd or 24^th cousins to the Queen of England. Mind you, no bragging as we are probably more closely related to a lot of worse people!

Richard and Georgia (our son and grand daughter) are with us for a few days. Sunday afternoon we moved back to Garry and Barb’s for one night. After setting up the trailer, we went to Fuller’s Lake at Chemainus where we met our daughter Bev and Kevin for a swim. Later, they took us for Chinese supper in Chemainus. A, R, G and I stopped at Al’s on the way home as Al and Richard hadn’t seen each other in about 25 years.

On Monday we moved back to Charlie’s for a couple nights. We went and visited my parents in the care home Monday afternoon and A, R and G went in again on Tuesday. I was a little undisposed for awhile in the afternoon. R and I had gone to Nanaimo in the morning for paper and ink. I made a few more prints and ran off a bunch of CDs to give to various family members.

This morning we moved further up Island. We visited our friends Perry and Lynda in Cumberland. They enjoy seeing R and G as Richard was great friends with their son many years ago. We are parked tonight in Aileen’s cousin in law Bill’s driveway just south of Campbell River. Tomorrow we will drive R and G back down to Buckley Bay to meet daughter in law Robin and they will then go across to Hornby Island for a few days at Robin’s sister’s. We then plan to drive up to Port McNeill to visit family for several days. The weather is cooling off and rain is forecast. Hopefully not too much as northern Vancouver Island can be pretty wet.

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!

RETURN TO VANCOUVER ISLAND

We left Smithers and put in a longer day than usual, stopping for the night a few miles south of Prince George at a Good Sam park. We even had a swim in the heated (somewhat) outdoor pool. The drive was quite boring after all the beautiful north country we have driven through. All the traffic is not appreciated either as it seems there is always a lineup behind you and lots of people having to pass you even though we’re doing speed limit or better. I guess some things will never change.

Leaving Prince George we decided to put in a short day so we only went as far as Lac La Hache Provincial Park. The highlight of the day was seeing an RCMP patrol car off the road at quite an angle with an unhappy looking cop standing beside it waiting for the tow truck. I couldn’t reach my camera and there was nowhere to stop so, no picture. We were surprised how few campers were in the park. Being a Friday in July, next to a good swimming lake, one would have expected it to be full early in the day. We were holding our breath when we arrived at lunchtime thinking it would already be full. There certainly seemed to be a lot of RVs on the road everywhere. Looking on RV dealer’s websites at all their sold units and how many obvious new ones we’re seeing along the way, the Canadian RV business seems to be flourishing.

The weather was heating up the further south we got so the next night, Saturday, we stopped at a commercial Good Sam park just north of Boston Bar so we could run our air conditioning. It did cool down nicely after supper so we were able to sleep with the windows open. We did have wi-fi, though very slow. There is no cell service for most of the Fraser Canyon so our air card was no use.

On Sunday morning, Aileen drove for the first couple of hours then it was my turn to get us to the ferry at Tsawwassen. The trip across was under mostly clear skies and clean air. The clear coastal air is so nice after the smoky interior and north where there are so many forest fires creating fuzzy air. We are parked in “our” spot at brother Charlie’s and will probably stay here until we head down to the reunion toward the end of the month.

Last morning at Meziadin Lake taken from our campsite

Out croppings north of Cache Creek, BC known as Maggie's Mine

An old cemetery above the highway south of Spences Bridge

Leaving Tsawwassen bound for Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

Nanaimo viewed from the ferry

BACK TO CIVILIZATION

The plane that landed on the gravel airstrip right beside where we were having lunch

Fireweed at Meziadin Junction

Mountains on the way in to Stewart, BC

A little waterfall beyond Hyder, AK

Glacier beside the highway

Bear Glacier

Close up of the toe of Bear Glacier............................................................................

And some of us aren’t too thrilled getting back to the hustle and bustle and crowds and traffic behind etc.! It’s so easy to fall into the peace of the north country even with the nasty bugs. However, the long cold winters would be something else all together. We spent two nights at Meziadin Lake Park. Our site was right at the lakeshore and it is a very pretty lake. Interestingly, when we first arrived, I got chatting with the guy two sites over who happened to be from Duncan (for those not family, that’s where I was born as was my father and my father’s mother). Anyway, the long and the short of it is that his wife lived on the farm next to us back in the late 50’s and she played with my siblings. She is in even in group pictures of my siblings and neighbour kids I took in 1959 with my first camera. I hadn’t seen her since 1961. For those in the know, I’m speaking of Terry Middlemiss. We had several great visits with her and her husband Terry. Terry and Terry have done the same as us and rented their house out and hit the road for a year at least.

We also had several great visits with a couple from Montana, Susan and Hal who were parked next to us at Dease and again at Meziadin. We also met them at a lunch stop beside Bob Quinn airstrip and were all amazed when the plane landed beside us. Meeting so many friendly people has been one of the real highlights of our travels.

Yesterday was spent in traveling into Stewart and Hyder. Hyder, Alaska was a real disappointment. It just seemed like a grubby little town that didn’t know what it should be doing. I just couldn’t work up the ambition to take pictures in either town. We drove a ways beyond Hyder but it was dusty and overcast and I didn’t think we’d get any glacier shots. We saw one black bear just north of Meziadin on our way from Boya and that was it for the whole of Highway 37 which people had told me was a hotspot for wildlife of several types. We only traveled about 140 kms yesterday but with all the photo stops we were gone from 9-5! The lighting was very good and the mountains are great with their many glaciers and snow fields.

We left Meziadin Lake this morning and drove to Smithers where we are in the beautiful little city park and campground alongside the Bulkley River. Aileen managed a nap while I went in search of a truck oil change. We decided to go out for supper but it turned out to be not the best plan. The restaurant we went to had good food when we finally got it but we waited over an hour. We did get free dessert out of them (not that we needed it!) and later Aileen and I talked to different people who told us they are notorious for that. Why can’t we talk to those people before we decide where to go? After supper we did some grocery shopping. It’s taking a bit of getting used to having dark nights again.

TODAY'S PICTURES

Boya Lake

Indian Paintbrush along the road

Fireweed

Bunchberry aka Dwarf Dogwood

HELLO FROM DEASE LAKE, BC

Arctic Fireweed

Evening shots of Boya Lake in front of our campsite.................................................

That is hello today, if we get on the internet tonight. We are at Water’s Edge RV Park just north of Dease Lake community, almost at the top end of the lake. They claim we should get internet after the generator is turned on at 5 PM. There doesn’t seem to be too many bugs here which I hope continues. Last night we stayed at Boya Lake Park and the mosquitoes were wicked but the lake was very pretty when the sun peeked out. Aileen and I went for a quick dip in the lake after supper. I said dip, not swim, as it was very cool and we weren’t in long enough to call it anything else. It did feel good though and we slept better than usual. It was a mad dash back inside the trailer afterward because of the bugs. The Stewart-Cassiar (Highway 37) is by far the roughest road we’ve experienced this trip. There are lots of dips and dives gravel stretches. We were often driving at 20-40 kms per hour in the supposedly 80 km zone. We stopped for lunch today at the Cottonwood River Rest Area and the mosquitoes swarmed us. We have seen no wildlife at all so far on this road after people had told us often, there are lots to be seen.