Exploring Beautiful Bay

Posted on Friday, 2022-Apr-1st by ralph

Beautiful Bay Trailhead PXL_20220307_233157405 I started my hiking in the Bere Point Campground by heading over to the Beautiful Bay trailhead, right across from my RV. Being this close was a minor negative to my campsite, as people going to walk the trail would be parking here close to my RV. But hey, internet signal where I am, and camper in the other direction. I decided for my first hike to just go to the viewing platform and to the beach access beyond that, coming back via the beach for a nice little loop. I planned to explore the rest of the trail when I had a full day to devote to it. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Bere Point: oceanside camping at its finest

Posted on Tuesday, 2022-Mar-29th by ralph
Haddington Island PXL_20220307_211938964

Haddington Island

My long stay around Kidney Lake was done. I was going to take a ferry to Malcom Island, and head for Bere Point Campground – one the locals had told me it was really nice. I could see that the town of Sointula was close enough to walk in, plus there were some trails and roads in the area to explore. I figured it would at least be worth paying the $35 for the ferry ride over.
Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Settled in at Kidney Lake

Posted on Saturday, 2022-Mar-26th by ralph

Damp road SR601164 I realized I had found a really good boondocking spot when I returned there for the third week. This spot had good road access, good internet, good access to towns, and two fishing lakes within walking distance. Plus, there was a ton of logging roads to walk down in the area. I wasn’t in a hurry to go elsewhere, and some rainy days kept me from finishing my explorations. Plus I really wanted to catch a fish at at least one of these lakes while I was here. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Oddities in the woods

Posted on Friday, 2022-Mar-18th by ralph
Kidney Lake calm PXL_20220218_191324662

Kidney Lake

I was parked in my new secluded spot, close enough to the lake to walk over and fish, but not so close that I’d get visitors in my spot. I had another nice day of weather coming up. I figured I’d go check out something I saw on the googles aerial and see what it was from the ground. Continue reading →

Tagged , , | Leave a comment

M stands for moving

Posted on Tuesday, 2022-Mar-15th by ralph
Steamy logging trash 7D2_6900

Not part of the interpretive trail, rather in contrast to it

I was on a nice little day hike that took me to Beaver Lake and an interpretive trail. Plus I had a great camping spot right by the little lake I had found on the aerial photos of the area. Where I was had two lakes to fish, one right by me and one within walking distance. On top of that, there were lots of logging roads around here to explore. So why would I bother to move camping spots? Well, let’s just say the weekend was coming… Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Fishing and boondocking spots found

Posted on Friday, 2022-Mar-11th by ralph

Kidney Lake PXL_20220215_000714386I had decided to move on from Coal Harbour, as my explorations did not reveal any other really good boondocking spots. I could try one of the spots I had scouted if nothing worked out in the new area I was going to check out, near Beaver Lake. Based on what I had seen in the aerial photos of the area, there were a few spots that looked promising, surely one of them would work out for some boondocking.
Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Little bit of fishing, little bit of tourism, little bit of fossil hunting

Posted on Friday, 2022-Mar-4th by ralph

Stephens Lake fishing PXL_20220210_234815633 The day dawned with barely a cloud in the sky, unusual weather  on Vancouver Island this time of year. I intended to take advantage of the blue sky day and get some fishing in. The forecast was for more good weather following today. My plan was to walk into Coal Harbour and play tourist, snapping pictures with my tourist camera and gawking at the sites. I also wanted to scout a potential boondocking spot near town – for future potential visits. That ended up with some disappointment, but an unexpected surprise as well. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I found more snow, but decided to run away from it

Posted on Tuesday, 2022-Mar-1st by ralph

Tree in the way PXL_20220203_191942861The weather at Coal Harbour was about to turn very rainy. I had one more day of better weather to go explore down a road and see if I could get to Ruperts Inlet from my boondocking spot. Would I be able to hack it or would the bush thwart me? Where would I find snow?
Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hiking and hacking the brush roads

Posted on Friday, 2022-Feb-25th by ralph

Dew drops on the brush SR601032My new spot was on the other end of the “time since logged” scale – an area that had been logged 30 odd years ago. It looked like a forest rather than recovering logging scar. I was at one of the few  large clear areas remaining – a former aggregate pit that was behind my rig. But how would hiking be down the roads, I wondered, too much brush to deal with?
Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hacking a spot

Posted on Tuesday, 2022-Feb-22nd by ralph

Coal Harbour branch entrance PXL_20220130_194615610
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!
Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment