Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that areas which have not been logged in a while are likely to have over grown roads? Well, it turns out the area I had scouted out was in this category. My time here was to be characterized by hacking back vegetation to get my RV in, and hacking my way through bush to get where I wanted to go!
I had decided that on the way into Port McNeill to do laundry and resupply, I would scout out a couple of spots that looked promising by driving out a longer way that would take me down the logging road main that went from Rupert Inlet to Coal Harbour. I had already been down this way once before, encountering my first fully loaded logging truck on the road and having had to backup a ways before I came to a spot I could pull off. I decided to try and time my explorations for Saturday or in this case, Sunday, when the logging trucks are (usually) not on the roads. Read the signs when you go in an area – the times vary.
My first stop was quicker than expected. I wanted to check the road at Frances Lake, but it turns out it is part of the Island Copper mine area and definitely closed
My second stop was the entrance to this somewhat grown in branch road going off the Coal Harbour main. There were a couple of small trees blocking the entrance, and a fair bit of scrub encroaching on the road. I decided to walk in for five minutes and check out two openings I could see on the aerial.
The first opening looked pretty good, I’d have to hack a bunch of scrub out to not have my RV get too scratched up. The former pit area had a good level spot beside the road I could fit in, plus it had washing water to boot from the pit. I have found having some sort of water nearby is nice, just to clean windows a bit and rinse of the worst of the mud from my RVs travels down the gravel roads. Even just to clean the worst of the dirt off the hands is nice rather than using my precious tank water. Unexpectedly, even though I’m surrounded by some pretty good sized trees, I have decent cell service here.
Hard to see the hole with the snow, but it would swallow my tire no problem
The second opening was a no go. There was a small collapsed section at a creek culvert on the way there. While I could have avoided the hole, who knows how firm the ground is near it? To add to the uncertainty, the hole was mostly covered in snow still. It was difficult to see how badly the road was damaged. The first spot looked good, why risk it for a spot three minutes walk down the road? I returned to my rig, pretty confident I’d be back here tonight.
But first I’m heading into town to resupply, and do laundry. There is only one laundromat in the area, in Port McNeill. So you take what you can get, but out of eight machines, 5 are out of order?! Good thing the place was empty or I’d be waiting for a machine. I was there for the big machines, two for two operational. Except the one I was using would only accept quarters. Five dollars of quarters. Yes, it normally took loonies, but that side of the coin slot was broken. But someone had tried anyways, and I managed to fish out a free looney with my handy dandy knife. I also made sure I didn’t need propane this week, or else I’d have been traveling forty minutes to Port Hardy. Remember, if you are in the area, Port Hardy is the only place with propane for a fixed RV tank. Port McNeill is the only place with a laundromat. I’m sure there are lots of other things that only one town or the other has, but those are the big ones for Nomads on the road.
Pre-hacking section. One tree to take out here, another right back at the RV already done. A bunch of branches to be broken off as I work my way in 200 m to the site.
Done hacking. Doesn’t look like much, but there were two trees here, and some branches to break off.
I return to the spot I had selected, first chopping the small trees apart and moving them out of the way, then getting rid of the worst of the brush branches sticking into the road. But it still required putting the mirrors in, and moving very slowly past the brush that was still scratching against my rig. I know the picture doesn’t look that bad, but trust me, those trees overhanging would have hit my roof, and already damaged awning for more damage!
In the snow, but that melted eventually.
My spot is well earned – having road cleared for 200m of chopping, hacking, and branch breaking to get to my new spot. The roads around here go quite a ways back here too. See you in my next post for my hiking adventures on the overgrown roads.
