Forget about Global warming, we were concerned with local warming!

Bear and Bud are waiting for Anne to drop something, anything

One benefit of all the rain was this thistle head filled with water drops

Salmon Berry leaf, flower and fruit

John and Anne with Bud in between

Aileen and Anne decided to try spelunking-for a few feet at least

Some of the colours in the limestone in one of the caves

Mama sent the cubs up a tree

One cub decided to come and cuddle with Mom

BACK TO CIVILIZATION AND OUR HOUSE HAS SOLD!

The Diamond Princess

Holland America's Ryndam traveling through Blackney Passage

The Mercury
The Mercury in Blackney Passage

The Broughten Archipelago with Blackney Passage the narrow spot

Looking down Johnstone Straight in BC's Inland Passage - Robson Bight is to the right of the white boat

We hit the road to Ida Lake Sunday afternoon (June 27^th). It started raining right off so we got good and dirty on the logging road. We had the Ida Lake site to ourselves which was nice. We spent the afternoon fixing Foster’s site up as it was a mess. John and I went to the far end of Bonanza Lake for a load of gravel which covered up all the old ash people had spread around. John sawed up the old picnic table which was all rotten and falling apart. It was totally unsafe to use and was just in the way. We went and got another table for there and one for our site as well. When I pulled out the awning, just before it was all the way the strap broke. Anne said Dennis had the same problem last year. Anne managed to get a replacement and some spares from Campbell River a couple days later.

Aileen had baked a couple spuds for supper and made a salad. I barbequed a couple of steaks to go along with them and it was a tasty supper. I took the ATV off and removed the rack so I could lock the generator and stuff up under the tonneau cover. Later, John and I went for a ride up the hill. We saw two bears (actually the same one both ways I think) and three does together further up the hill. The fire warden was making his rounds and stopped by, just as we finished supper. John used to know him so they had a visit.

On the Monday, I washed the trailer then the truck by carrying pails of water from the lake. Later I decided to go up the mountain to check for messages even though it was still damp. Put my rain pants on and vest and jacket and I was cozy. I went 3.2 miles and had a cell signal so got the computer out and fired up. Then, I remembered I hadn’t grabbed the air card – arrrrgghhhh! Oh well, no voice mail so nothing exciting I guess.

Aileen did roasted veggies and I grilled pork steaks so another tasty supper. Aileen had made an iced cake as well. After standing around the fire awhile since it was too wet to ATV, we played just over half a game of Mexican Train.

Tuesday was a quiet day for us. On Wednesday had a quiet start to the day then John arrived mid morning with Dennis’ trailer. He had Nikki with him so the noise level increased for awhile, until they went back to town. I went off up the mountain to check messages and the only one was from Bev telling me I screwed up again and forgot to send the home owner grant application with our property taxes.

John and Anne arrived mid afternoon with the kids. Dennis and April arrived late evening after he returned from his course in Vancouver. John remembered at the last minute there was a party for his retiring manager so he went roaring out and didn’t return until about 11 PM. I was reading and some time later Aileen got up and asked if I’d stoked the fire. John had been over and thrown a large chunk on.

Thursday dawned rather dreary looking again. We lay abed til nearly 8 then I zipped down and took a few shots across the calm water. I’d been and done it late evening last night too. I made porridge then we visited with John and Anne who had wandered over to the fire Aileen had lit. John and I went to Woss after supper to fax off my application to the city. John got gas, checked his emails (there was one from his son Mike, saying they wouldn’t be up but would go to Sproat Lake instead as Shaunee had a fish day on Friday) and he did a couple of work items.

John and I had gone ATving up the mountain to the south in the afternoon. We ended up in fog and heavy rain eventually. We did see a bear with two small cubs and I got a few good shots. On the way down we saw a larger one on the road ahead of us. We were quite wet when we got home. Yuck!!

We did quite a bit of campfire sitting today. Anne made her seafood spaghetti for supper and it was again very tasty. April made cheesecake tarts which were also yummy. I did the supper dishes in stages but there were no plates as we had paper ones.

Well we finally got a fairly decent day on Friday. The big project for the morning was unloading the firewood John and I had cut late last night on our way home. In the late morning, Aileen and Anne came with John and me up the mountain. I called Tracy at city hall in Salmon Arm to ensure she received my fax. She said everything was fine. We then went up the Kaikish Main and ended up with a great view of the Broughten Archipelago. After bemoaning the fact I only had my 100-400, we carried on up the road and ended up going though some snow and an even finer view to the west overlooking Malcolm Island.

We had a really late lunch when we returned about 2:30. About 4:30, John and I went back up with the other camera and wide lens. We lucked out and had the Diamond Princess (cruise ship) come by below us. We had finished up with it and just started down the road when a Holland America boat came by but we weren’t able to get pictures because we could only get a peeky view. We went way down the old road across the valley then headed home for a late supper of fresh buns and chili, courtesy of Aileen. We went with John and Anne for a short walk down the road before bed. We had seen a deer, grouse and bear this morning and this afternoon, John and I saw 2 deer and at least 2 bears.

Awake before 7 Saturday morning and got up right away since the lake was calm and the sky blue. Of course, by the time I got down to the lakeshore, the wind was picking up and the clouds moving in. I took several shots anyway. We’ve had several loons calling and showing off for us. It was my turn to make breakfast so I cooked ham, bacon, eggs and hash browns. Everybody seemed okay with them.

After breakfast John and Anne took the truck and I took the ATV and met them down at the marble quarry. Anne’s first time there. We went on down to the open pit quarries after. We came back and sat around the fire some more then after lunch, John and I went off on the ATVs up Branch 250 off East Main. We puttered down an overgrown road til we got tired of that then went up Kaikish 42 lower and then upper roads. Saw a bear and cub on the upper. Had a great view of Blackney Passage and just as we were leaving I spotted a cruise ship way up past Cluxewe so we waited. Before it got to us, I spotted a second one coming. The first was the Celebrity Mercury and the second was Holland America’s Ryndam. It took over two hours for the two of them to get past us. It was definitely a magic experience and fortunately John was very patient. We were 12.4 miles back to camp. I checked for messages several times but there were none. We had pork tenderloin for supper along with lemon pie with the last of Aileen’s Caliente lemon juice.

We were up about 7 Sunday morning to a dreary dawn. I had heard it raining in the night. We did get a glimpse or two of sun while packing up but that’s all. Dennis made us breakfast sandwiches today. I went up on the roof and poured a couple pails of water down the awning to clean it of needles. We said our farewells and hit the road at 11 AM. Needless to say we were pretty dirty before going far. It took us 25 minutes to the blacktop at Beaver Cove. We had rain off and on til nearly Nimpkish Camp and it was heavy at times which cleaned up the units enough that we didn’t have to find a carwash before parking at Cousin Bill’s.

We stopped just past Woss for lunch then stopped at Big Tree Creek for Aileen to have a two hour nap. It would have been longer except for my waking her. It was 19C so I sat in the sun and read.

When we were setting up at Bill’s I blew the fuse on the electric jack. I’m sure we have a handle for manually doing it but we sure couldn’t find it. We ended up cutting the fuse out and using vice grips to connect the wires as the fuse had broken and we couldn’t get one end out.

When I was checking emails, there was one from our realtor dated July 1 saying he considers the house sold. I would say yay!! but I think we’ll wait until the cheque is in the bank. So there were more papers to print and fax back.

We were up about 7 Monday and after taking Mitzy for a stroll around the block, I joined Aileen and Bill in the house for toast. One or maybe two of the houses in the neighbourhood have sold since we were last there so I guess the market is slow there too. We got on the road shortly after nine. First on the agenda was dumping the tanks at Miracle Beach then gas at Merville. I bought toilet chemical (safe for septics) and a hot water tank rod at Arbutus Trailers.

I stopped at the CanAm ATV dealer to inquire about the next service for the quad. Next we stopped at Buckley Bay and drained the water heater to check the anodizing rod and it was still pretty good so left it. We drained the fresh tank as well to get rid of the mud in the bottom. It was late enough to have an early lunch which we did. I had also called the realtor to talk about final papers. He had called us earlier while we were driving through Courtenay. I spoke at length with Debbie at LeTourneau’s Notary in Salmon Arm about the procedure we need to follow. I think we have that all straightened out. When we got to Charlie’s, I printed out the paperwork and had Chas witness it then we faxed it off to the realtor. He was getting antsy about it as he had been sitting on the deposits too long already. After that, we completed setting up.

While Aileen had a two hour nap, I went to town and washed the truck and ATV. We heard that one of my aunt’s down in Victoria had passed away last week and the service is this coming Saturday.

Today is Aileen’s birthday so we went to the Brew Pub in Nanaimo for lunch. We did various shopping along the way as well. The temperature is way warmer than we’ve been used to. It was 24C at 3 PM and it is forecast to be over 30C by the weekend. Two of my sisters and one of my brothers and their spouses arrived here after supper to wish Aileen happy birthday. She thought that was a nice surprise.

MORE HOUSE SALE STUFF

The lupines here in the park at Cluxewe campsite

The Salt Marsh is an interesting spot across the river from here in our camp

Is this a large lizard or?

Looking north west up the coast up past the Salt Marsh area

Along the Salt Marsh trail, the trees are all Western Hemlock, second or third growth

My picture of the Coral Princess taken with my big camera and wide angle lens

so I had to crop it to get the boat larger

Aileen's picture of the Coral Princess taken with Kodak point and shoot digital with long zoom so she was able to fill the frame

I noticed the foxgloves looking great Friday morning while walking Mitzy before breakfast, so I took my camera and played awhile. Downloaded them after breakfast and did three HDR processes while doing my morning reads online. Aileen cut my hair later in the morning. We’ve definitely paid for that clipper set already.

Aileen had just crawled into bed after lunch on Friday and I was packing my gear for a walk when our realtor phoned needing more papers signed. We decided to go right into Anne’s and take care of it, which we did. He said there are five or six of us involved this time. My understanding is that the first domino is a piece of bare land. The first three, starting with our buyer, are all really eager to buy, he says. We’ll see, I guess. We have allowed our buyer’s to move their stuff into the garage ahead of the closing which the realtor said was quite important to make the whole thing work as their buyer’s want to move in the same day our buyer’s move out and take over ours. The closing date is set for July 29 if everything holds together.

Aileen slept 3 til 5 Friday afternoon. I walked up the mainline and took the first road/trail down to the salt marsh then wandered all the way through to the north. I had to take to the bush a few times to get around ugly spots then worked my way through the bush, sometimes following rudimentary trails until I finally came on the good trail which went out to the road. I followed it out to the beach. I only stayed there about 5 minutes since the time was getting on. When I jumped up on a log to head back, I spotted a cruise ship way up the coast coming my way. It would have made me way too late to stay so I headed home at 4:44 arriving at 5:52. Aileen wasn’t around and when I looked toward the beach, there was a big white cruise ship bearing down on us. I grabbed my camera and ran to the beach and started shooting. That’s when I noticed Aileen and Mitzy along from me taking pictures with her Kodak.

We met John and Anne at the Northern Lights restaurant for 6:30 supper. We had a good meal which John insisted on paying for. Thank you very much! Anne had a seafood medley, Aileen and John had steak and oysters while I had ribs. We had coconut prawns and stuffed mushrooms for appy’s and they were excellent.

Back at camp, Aileen got the fire going then we all sat around it for awhile. Finally we got up enough energy to take our walk out to the point followed by more time around the fire.

We went ATVing this afternoon and found three more caves. We were going to have supper on the mountain but it started raining so we packed it in and came back to the trailers. It hadn’t rained here. Dennis and April came out with the kids and visited awhile.

Tomorrow we are moving out to one of the remoter lakes so will be off the grid for a week. I guess we’ll get to use the generator again. There may not be any blogs posted for the next week or more unless I am able to get a strong enough signal by driving up the mountain.

THESE IMAGES GO WITH THE POST BELOW

Approaching Sointula on Malcolm Island

Taken to the right of the above photo

Old boat houses

Rowboats drawn up out of the way

Matching cycles at the wharf

Sointula public wharf

A view back at the old float and boat houses

From the lighthouse beach on Malcolm Island looking across to our Cluxewe campsite on Vancouver Island. We are on the left behind the red roofs

Pultenay Point lighthouse reached by a trail along the beach

Two more images of the lighthouse created by merging three separate exposures

WE VISIT SOINTULA AND THE DOMINOS FALL AGAIN

These ferns are very abundant

Big Lake reflections

Salal is the dominant ground cover, there is a wild rose growing with it in this shot

Salal flowers

Mitchell Bay near the east end of Malcolm Island

This is a lively looking place, I loved the intensity of the blue

I thought this was a rather unique fence

The ferry coming to take us home. Port McNeill on Vancouver Island visible in the background

The ferry approaching the dock

We were up before 8 on Wednesday and on the road at 9:28 which was two minutes ahead of our schedule. We went by Anne’s to exchange our truck for her Jeep which she’d offered last night. It was reluctant to start as she hardly uses it then I hosed the dust off. We got in the ferry line early but there were only a few vehicles in the end.

We explored the town side of Malcolm Island then had lunch at a little café. After lunch, we took the lighthouse road and walked to Pulteney Point lighthouse. We were the only set of tracks on the road out there. Aileen was pleased to have finally made it there as her girl friend Winona Quinney had lived there for a time in the 50s. We went to Bere Point campground next and it has some great water view sites. We drove the spine road past Big Lake down to Mitchell Bay, which is a quaint little area. Coming back to Sointula, we ran into rain then had showers off and on. We got in the ferry line early again but there were even less cars on board. It was a neat place to visit but don’t know if we will ever do it again.

We put some gas in the Jeep before going back to Anne’s where I then used my Turtle Wax soap to give it a good cleaning. It was raining well back at the campsite when we got here then a few minutes later it was really coming down. It was warm though, about 16 or 17C so we decided to eat outside. The table was soaked as we had retracted the awning in the morning so we moved it out of the way and sat in chairs. We barbequed hamburgers again but also a wiener each to go with the bacon, onions and mushrooms Aileen had prepared inside. Yummy!

For more information on the history of Sointula the following book would be of interest. I have copied the info from the internet.

Sointula

An Island Utopia

by Paula Wild

The story of Canada's socialist-utopian community.

Sointula - it means "harmony" - is a tiny community on Malcolm Island, a short ferry ride from northern Vancouver Island. It was founded at the turn of the century by the Kalevan Kansa Society, a group of Finnish utopians, and Matti Kurikka, their charismatic but impractical leader. Despite serious setbacks, including a disastrous fire in 1903 that killed eleven people, the Finns built a thriving community. Even after the Kalevan Kansa ended, locals were blackballed all along the coast for their fervour in organizing loggers' and fishermen's unions. A fresh wave of utopians arrived in Sointula in the 1960s, and while they were shunned by many residents, some of the older generation recognized in the "hippies" the hopes and dreams of their forefathers.

Paula Wild lived in Sointula for many years. In researching her book, she talked to more than forty residents and translated innumerable Finnish documents and letters.

Our day ended on a down note as our realtor called with the news that the latest offer on our buyers’ property had collapsed at the last minute. They used something in the property inspection to bail out. Our buyers are still really interested in our house but just can’t seem to get theirs sold. We are again back to accepting other offers and our current buyers have 48 hours to come up with the dough or lose out. Apparently we have a showing of our house again today. We have to go to Anne’s today to print out the paperwork, sign it, scan it and email it back to the realtor. This is getting tedious!

ATVING AND CAVES

Roosevelt Elk

Black Bear shot with Canon Rebel XT and i18-125 Sigma

Male Blue Grouse shot with Canon XTi and 18-125 Sigma

Where we had supper on the mountain overlooking the ocean

Looking into Resonance Cave

Looking out of Resonance Cave

Looking out of Glory'ole Cave

John looking into Glory'ole Cave

The cave and creek go off to the left at the bottom

One of the two bears we saw in the evening. Shot with Canon 5D at ISO 4000 using Canon 100-400 lens

Chainsaw carved wolf howling at the sunset

We both slept past 8 Sunday morning. It was a pretty laid back morning. I worked on my blog and finally got it posted with 24 pictures. It was fairly late when John and Anne made an appearance then Aileen went for a walk with them. Finally, the decision was made to go ATVing again. We took Anne with us to town along with our share of lunch. John had gone earlier to drain the hot tub and finish his lawn mowing. Before we left town, Dennis and April and the kids came by with their Father’s Day stuff, then we had to go to the store for some supper makings. Aileen said it was 3:30 when we unloaded the ATVs at the same place at Noomas.

We had a great trip again. First off, we went and found my sunglasses which were right where Aileen thought they would be (I was missing them when we got back to the trucks on Saturday). The next road we went up turned out to be a good one. First off, we saw a herd of elk (12-15) then John found us a male blue grouse. I started taking pictures of it then John called me back up to the road as there was a black bear about 150 feet in front of the ATVs. I took some shots of it then went back to working with the grouse. The bear was difficult to shoot because of the contrast. The grouse let me approach within about 10 feet so my shots are sharp and well exposed. When the grouse decided to wander away from me, he went toward the road. It turns out Mitzy had staked out a place in the shade and the grouse came nose to nose with her and then exploded back towards me, too fast for a picture. It was exciting though! We carried on further up the road to a good viewpoint where we had supper. Bean, pasta and potato salads from the grocery store tasted great. We had Danish pastry for dessert. The forecast cloud was beginning to roll in so we lost the light.

John took us up an unused road being user maintained, and after some rough stuff, ie. corduroy, rocks and brush we came to a dead end. John poked around and found an unmarked trail which led to a natural cave within 100 feet or so. It was not quite high enough to stand in and ramped gradually down and had several bends in the first 100 feet or so. We found out later it is called Resonance Cave and is 314 feet deep and 4224 feet long.

When we were having supper on the mountain, I picked up a message from Georgia wishing me happy Father’s Day. Bev had sent me an e-card this morning.

It was fridge defrost day Monday and Aileen did a complete wash with baking soda. She took darks over to the laundry as well. After spending too long on the internet, I took Mitzy out to the sand pit for a stroll. It had been a Scotch Mist morning, dampness in the air but not actually raining. Aileen called and made an appointment for Mitzy’s haircut on July 7 in Parksville.

While Aileen napped Monday afternoon, I went to Anne’s and washed our truck and theirs. Then I did the grocery shopping. I took Mitzy along the river trail before supper and trimmed more brush with the pruners. John was here with a full load of wood when we returned. I helped with the last of the unloading. He then went home for Anne and Nikki and Travyn as Dennis and April were playing ball.

After supper, John and I took his truck and roared out to the Noomas area. He’d done some research and talked to a co worker so we found another trail which led us to the Glory‘ole Cave. It’s one of those big holes in the ground where a creek goes down into it. This one would have been easy to walk right down in and apparently it goes 1030 feet down and 6716 feet in length. . It was pretty steep going down the trail at times with notches cut in sloping logs to aid access. It only took about 10 minutes to return to the truck.

We went back up the road we saw the elk on the day before but none were there. We did see two good sized black bears though and a button spike. It was 10:30 when we returned home.

Today we have my cousin Chris bringing her parents, Mac and Nancy, down from Port Hardy to join us for lunch. Nancy is my Dad’s youngest sister and is the same age as my Mom.