BC 2022

Trip List Calendar

2022-07-22 : Drive to Port McNeil
We left Charmaine and Geoff’s early today to afford lots of time for dawdling and sight seeing. Malahat Drive was awesome and then we did the Seaside Village Route including Cowichan Bay, Maple Bay, Crofton, Chemainus and Ladysmith where we rejoined the highway. We stopped and had breakfast at Brannon Boat Ramp in Nanaimo and then continued on our way.

Campbell River is kind of at the north end of civilization on the island. Beyond there the highway slows and narrows, and there are no cellphone bars to be had. It feels quite remote. I was very pleased to discover, though, that Apple Maps now has the ability to track you and give directions even when you’re not connected. I had forgotten to download the Vancouver Island map for Maps.me so we couldn’t rely on that for directions while we were in the dead zone.

Speaking of dead zones, I think my brain was one when I booked our Airbnb. I didn’t think to ask if the property has animals, and… of course it does - two cats (one of them a very fluffy Main Coon). Thankfully our host was very understanding and flexible and let us pitch the tent in the yard so I can sleep out there.

After we got settled at the Airbnb we took a drive up to Port Hardy to check out the ferry terminal and make sure we know where to go at 5am tomorrow. Then we went and had dinner in Port McNeil. At the Airbnb Brent slept inside and I slept in the tent. I could feel my lungs reacting to the cats already and he was really looking forward to spending a night in a bed sooooo….


2022-07-23 : Inside Passage
We reserved seats in the Aurora Lounge on the ferry so we could see out the front of the boat. Unfortunately we’re in the second row of seats, so not a great viewing opportunity, and we’re seated next to a grouchy German woman who keeps coughing. We’ve been standing up to look out the side windows which is much better. The decision to get seats in the lounge was a very good one. Since the weather was so great we probably didn’t need them - we could have spent most of the day outside, but you definitely can’t count on beautiful clear weather in this part of the world - we just got super lucky.

Our first whale sighting of the day was when we were near the Hedley Islands. We saw lots of whales today (orca and humpback) and a couple of enormous sea otters floating on their backs.

When we got off the ferry after midnight we headed straight for our motel, which ended up being in a pretty skeevy area (Brent says PR is pretty skeevy in general). The motel had no protected parking, and a sign up to remove all valuables so we ended up humping all of our stuff in from the car - not just what we needed. We had to make three trips to bring everything in, including food, camping gear, and Brent’s tools. Not sure if it was entirely necessary to take everything in but since we got up the next day and the car hadn’t been broken into, I’m happy with the decision.
We met a young couple from Switzerland on the ferry today. Floriane and… ? Floriane invited us to pitch our tent in their yard in Vessy (just south of Geneva) when we’re touring in Switzerland next year! Fun!


2022-07-24 : North Pacific Cannery with Calkins
Mechanical Butcher’s real name
Re the company store (pic below):

Workers were paid only at the end of the season. In the interim they were given coupons to use at the company store so they had no idea how much they were spending. Also the store manager would adjust prices based on whether or not he liked you. So, many workers ended up owing money to the company store at the end of the season and were thus forced to sign up for the following season to work.
We woke up this morning and did a load of laundry, had breakfast, and then headed off into the rainy morning to the North Pacific Cannery where the Calkins family was going to meet us for the tour. Lisette and the had been there before, but it was a first for Vince, Brent and me. It was really interesting. More interesting than I would have expected for a fish canning museum. My main takeaway was the astonishing level of exploitation of the fish population and the workers. They had Chinese, Japanese and First Nations workers, all who had their own jobs, and were naturally segregated by language. They worked in horrifying conditions and were, essentially treated as disposable. No surprise.
In the evening we hung out on Vince and Lisette’s covered deck where we sampled Vince’s fancy beer, learned to play otrio, and taught Maelle and Sabine to play Hawaiian music on their noses and bagpipes on their throats


2022-07-25 : Nisga Memorial Lava Bed
Today, Lisette, Maelle and Sabine took us on an awesome adventure day in the Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park, including stops at Rosswood General Store, Drowned Forest, Wilp T’aam Lax Sankw’ax Visitor Centre, Tree Cast, the lookout hike and suspension bridge at Gitwinksihlkw, Lava Lake, the Peeing Tree and Lost Lake. Then we went back to their home and Vince and Lisette made us barbecued chicken, beets and collard greens for dinner.


2022-07-26 : Drive to Quesnel, Break Nemo
Enroute to Horsefly (actually, Quesnel, as it turned out) today we stopped for looks at Ksan, historic Hazleton and Moricetown.
When we left Moricetown we realized that we were making ourselves pretty late to get all the way to Horsefly today. I messaged Cheryl and she suggested that we stay at her house in Quesnel tonight instead and finish the drive to Horsefly tomorrow. We decided to do just that.

Unfortunately, Cheryl’s driveway is better suited to trucks than to a little Nemo. We high-centered on the driveway ruts and broke the heat shield that protects the gas tank from the heat of the exhaust system. To make our adventure even more fun, Cheryl’s place, being in the boonies and all, has no cell service. It’s wifi only, but since they’re out at the cabin the wifi was switched off. Cheryl gave me instructions for starting it up, but we had trouble getting it working for about 30 minutes, so for a while I thought we had no way to contact the outside world (and a broken car). Finally I realized that I could use Cheryl’s land line at the house to phone her cell and got in touch that way. At the same time as I called her the wifi finally decided to work. Through Cheryl, Bob told us where to find some car ramps and we pilfered a piece of wire from his tool bench. Brent has straightened out the heat shield, attached it back to the car with the pilfered piece of wire, and pinky-swore that it would get us back to Edmonton where we’ll have to get it properly replaced.


2022-07-27 : Drive to Horsefly
We made the last bit of drive out to Horsefly to see Cheryl, Bob and Jack. It’s really hot right now so we didn’t do a lot beyond sitting on the deck. We went for a quick spin on Cheryl’s new-to-her pedal boat, Penelope Pédalo. We set up our tent without the fly on it and slept that way. It was nice and cool, and with all the mesh on the tent, just laying in it we could see a billion stars. It was awesome!
We’re now booked for a couple of important appointments as soon as we’re back in Edmonton. Monday: Covid boosters; Tuesday: new heat shield for Nemo.


2022-07-28 : Day at Horsefly
Another beautiful and relaxing day out at Horsefly. It’s kinda stinkin’ hot (or maybe that’s just me… at least the stinkin’ part).

Brent and I took another spin around on the pedal boat, and we did a lot of hanging around.


2022-07-29 : Drive to Edmonton
There was some beautiful ground fog as we left Horsefly early this morning. I guess it’s probably Groundfog Day every day at Horsefly if you get up early enough.

We left Horsefly at 5:30 local, shared the driving (via the Little Fort route) and arrived home around 19:00 local (one hour lost for time zone).


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