The trip home

The last of our trip diary.

Our first stop in the Mountains, Manning park, off season rates. Salt water pool, steam bath, hot tub, and morning frost, still in my shorts.

The small furniture

One last attempt at some trout (none here either)

The last of BC , Osoyoos and the farmers market was open, with everything but some cherries.

Sparwood, BC, for Canada's largest truck

Alberta's Frank slide. It took out the whole town in 1903. The miners survived after digging themselves out through the rubble. It's hard to describe the view of the slide. It was something we felt.

A few wind farms.

Camping on our last night at Superior lakes, Pancake Bay provincial park. It gave us a warm night with no bugs. 

The local tourist trap offered an example of their wildlife.

And that pretty well sums up 4 months on the road and water - 866 photos that we are willing to share and describe :-)

The End.

hanging around Nanaimo

No photos for my recent fishing trip to Cameron river with our boat buddy. It was a 3 k hike to the river and then a 4 hour walk down the river. The only fish were in the first small hole and only 3 small trout, real small. The river wasn't really a river, more of a creek with lots of slippery rocks to keep us on our butts, now really wet. We stopped at a large log jam and headed into the bush to find the road, the deaf guy leading claiming he could find the highway by sound with the other half deaf guy agreeing?  We did eventually, but we had to crawl most of the way over blown down trees and the one that broke under my foot that left me hanging upside down by one leg, lots of fun. Our bush was more dense than this

We rented some kayaks for the day to paddle around Newcastle island on a sunny day to maintain our tans. Our stop at the town center left us right in front of Trolls fish and chips, yep, they are on our top five list now.

Ammonite Falls

Another fun day. We drove to the trail head and started our trek, to find out that most of the trail isn't marked. Travelling on the most well worn path (mantracker style), ignoring all the side trails and maybe short cuts, to reach the falls. We almost missed them, they weren't  marked , and the water was very low making the falls hard to hear. It required a hand over hand rappel down the slope on a conveniently placed rope to get to the lower pond.  The "danger" sign was right there  at the bottom.

 We found a few obscure ammonites, but it was still a pretty location, even had a small (what else are there) trout in the pond.

Local fauna at the Marina

catching small  fish of course

unusual blond raccoon's, well, as unusual as raccoon's can be 

Heading home tomorrow (september 25) :-(

Maybe some camping, weather (Amy) dependent.

Honey do list

It's not all sailing, there is some work involved with my invaluable helper and photographer.
Our generator, although only used to make popcorn, needed a small part, always in the most accessible location.

Our head/macerator managed to "dump" into the  bilge, that clean up was done without any help.

Our hot water tank had been added to the list of repair items. We don't normally use it, but it is nice to have after motoring for a while. The engine cooling system heats the hotwater tank for quick shower.

And our final luxury item, the ice maker churning out cooling briquettes for a Friday night rum and coke,.

And this is the view with the rum and coke in hand. All is quiet now, there is only one other boat anchored in the bay, as of September 4th 

We also snuck a photo of a photo of the blue moon from the little cafe here in Mediera park.

It was just as we saw it the night we stayed up past our bedtime

Out Sailing

Our trip up to Teakerne arm. We spent a week there, reading, swimming at the nearby lake and the odd boat repair, so nothing big to really  report just yet, more photos to "develop" for the next update. The swim required a bit of a hike, involving some ropes and short climbs, but well worth the cool clean clear waters.

I did catch a fish off off the boat, it should last a week?

Some of our neighbours.

Not feeding this guy.

                     Quite often the float plane flies into the docks at the lake, I suppose for that 150$ swim.

Our anchorage for the week in what is supposedly named "good sex cove"

At one time there was a sign signifying such according to our neighbour. She mentioned that her children read that to them, before they were supposed to even be able to read.

 A pod of dolphins came through, about 30-50, hard to tell because they are just a mass of movement. 

At this point they were almost close enough for me to contemplate going for a swim.

Pender Harbour

Some of our trip has been meeting with childhood friends with the conversation from my end going "do you remember ".
The names will always be anonymous.
Do you remember the kid who had his finger cut off by his brother with a hatchet. Yes, I was  there he replied. The brothers, 7-10 years old, both had hatchets , and one was blindfolded, who knows why, but he wasn't the one who lost the end of his finger. Rushing home with the bleeding boy, the parents quickly sent them back to look for the finger. No luck, one finger is an inch shorter.
My friend was a movie buff( the story to his parents), traveling to New Westminster quite often, by train. He was 10 so he didn't have to pay any fare. It was a rather short distance, to the  train yard where they hopped a freight. They went first class as well, because CNN would ship new cars by train, unlocked, which would allow them a panoramic view from the top tier of cars. I laugh now every time I see a train, thinking of some 10 year sitting in a new car, just his head showing.
Now his good friend not to be outdone, had a rope swing that arced out over the train tracks. Fine, but they always waited till the train came along and tried to see who could swing out in front of the oncoming train observing the whites of the engineers eyes, horn blaring. They are alive to talk about it.
We are sitting here in a cafe, started talking to the next table, and none of the above was new for him, he was the  same vintage from Surrey. Mom's sent us out for the day, knowing we would be home when we were hungry, never asking where we had been.

The car show when we finished laughing

Similar to the  bosses car I drove for deliveries, right out of high school. Only warnings, no tickets

Amy had a truck like this once, at least the same year and model.

Newcastle Isand

We dinghied over to Newcastle Island for a hike around it's 10 k circumference. This island hosts a campground for those who want that experience so close to the city. It doesn't come easy as you have to take the water taxi to the island with all your gear and then carry it up to the sites.
The photos shows  one of the functions of the land over the years

The mainland from the lookout

August 8, tomorrow we go where the wind takes us.

Real snowbirds

Wednesday night the Snowbirds gave an example of what they will be performing in Abbotsford for the long weekend. There was a big turnout all along the city pathway and into the downtown area. All they needed was the ferry to unload another 200 cars to add to the confusion of vehicles, we walked of course