Northern Vancouver Island

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Sunset near China Creek fishing Marina (We don't do sunrises - well tequila, maybe - the other ones start too damn early in the morning) A couple of neighbourly fishermen with a nice catch just going into the boat.<br>(The picture was taken before the sun was fully up -dark!- So I have highlighted the action area a bit.) Bamfield. All of these small coastal villages have these boardwalks along the waters edge. Makes it easy to walk over to visit with your neighbour without having to walk along the dirt and mud road, also gives it a bit of quaintness. (God, now I'm getting poetic!) Coast Guard base in Bamfield. This is the entrance/exit to Poet's Cove. Talk about a safe harbour. This is the <a href='http://www.ladyrosemarine.com/' target='_blank'>MV Lady Rose</a>. She has been sailing the coastal waters of BC for quite a few years and falls into the 'Heritage' category. (There's a few of us that can relate to that.) Ahhh, this is what it is all about. It's a Spring salmon and weighed about 44 pounds. It was caught by Larry the day after our Bamfield trip. He caught this one as well as two 8-10 pound Coho that day. Last year Joanne, Larry's wife and Elaine's sister, caught a 41.5 pound Spring the day after the fishing derby. The winning fish was 41 pounds and first prize had been $10 000. Somedays you win ... somedays you don't! This is a view from near Campbell River looking across the straight to the mainland and the Coastal Mountains in the distance. This series of pictures is from a display at the side of the highway just going into <a href='http://www.campbellrivertourism.bc.ca/' target='_blank'>Campbell River</a>. The name of this sculpture was listed as 'Catwalk'. I just can't believe that an artist as creative as this would name it anything other than p...y, but then of course that's only my opinion. Didn't get his name but he sure looks important! This one is the front and the back or the yin and the yang or the wild and the mild or the beauty and the beast or the ... ahhh, you get the picture right? This is a replica of an Indian headdress but I don't know for what occasions it would be worn. This seagull's working on Island time. <a href='http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/explore/island/cities/tahsis.htm' target='_blank'>Tahsis - 'Birthplace of British Columbia'</a> - or so they say. Who am I to argue. Check it out. You just never know, you might get inclined to take part in their 'Great Walk', after all it's only 63.5 km. Good luck! This is Tahsis. Sorry for the poor picture but the weather just didn't want to cooperate that day or at least at that time. Man, can it rain in there!!! On the good side of that coin was the fact that the rain allowed the grader operator to finally get out and grade the road. The trip out was much better than the trip in. Apparently they couldn't work on the road because of the fear of sparks from the grader blade setting off even more forest fires. On our way back out to Gold River we were entertained by a black bear running across the road in front of us. On the road between Tahsis and Gold River. Pretty healthy run-off considering it was September and one of the driest summers on record. This is a 300 year old Douglas Fir. It was left standing when they logged this area in the '70's as a dedication to the Tahsis Co. president of the time. Although there are some older trees (800-1000 years old and significantly larger) around this one is still a fair size and a rather imposing sight at the side of road. Also on the Tahsis-Gold River road. This is the picture looking left. If you followed the inlet out through pass at the end you'd eventually end up on the Pacific Ocean - next stop the Orient! This is typical of all the fjords or inlets up here. When you look at them from the inland end they almost appear as if they are lakes and you have to keep reminding yourself that you're looking at salt water. Rainforest anybody.<br> This was also taken along the Tahsis-Gold River road at a small Forestry campsite that we checked out. It was alongside a small river in which a father and his kids were flyfishing. As the salmon were just about to start their migration (we could see a few of them in the water) we wanted to stick around and see what the dad and kids did when the bears came by to fish. Bears love spawning salmon! Hey, everybody has to eat! How high is up? This is Lake Schoen which isn't very far from Port Alice via logging road. There are 8 sites in the forestry campsite here. The water was very clear as can be seen in the photo but, nope we didn't go in for a swim. (That's a low lying cloud in the background not smoke.) This is <a href='http://www.zeballos.com/' target='_blank'>Zeballos</a>. Main claim to fame was a claim, gold claim that is. You'd never know it now. It lives (barely) off of logging, fishing and dumb tourists that travel the 60 km over one of the worst roads we were on. Funnily, I was talking with a neighbour yesterday and it turns out that he was living there when they first put the road through from Port McNeil. It was a private road controlled by the logging company, as most of the logging roads are when they're first created. It means that the public can only use the roads at night when the logging trucks aren't running or on the weekends. He was telling me that it was standard equipment to carry two spare tires with you when making the journey out to Port McNeil. It certainly isn't quite that bad now but ... On the other hand we had lunch at the Zeballos Hotel restaurant and it just so happened that they had a load of fresh halibut come in that day. There had been a seal swimming in the water almost at the shoreline. He kept us entertained for a while. This is a view from the campground on Malcolm Island looking across the Johnstone Straight to the BC mainland and the Coastal Mountain range. If your ancestry is Finnish or you just want to find out more information about <a href='http://www.island.net/~sointula/' target='_blank'>Malcolm Island and Sointula</a>. Had to throw this one in for artistic effect, did it work? <a href='http://www.vancouverisland.com/Regions/towns/?townID=65' target='_blank'>Ecological Park on Cormorant Island - Alert Bay</a>. Pretty boring eh? Just thought I'd throw this one in to try to make some of the others look interesting by comparison. Ecological Park walk on Cormorant Island - Alert Bay. This type of flora seems to be very appealing to this type of fauna. I don't know but I didn't see anything trying to eat them. Totem poles at the 'Namgis burial ground in Alert Bay. The poles are not maintained after they are erected. They suffer through the rigors of natural decay and erosion. If pieces fall off (arm in this one) or the pole falls over it is left to finish out its time on the ground. 'Namgis Burial Ground - Alert Bay Interestingly, when I took this picture we didn't know that that night we were going to be camping right across the straight at Alder Bay which is pretty much directly behind the fish boat. Taken from Alert Bay. Totem poles - 'Namgis Burial ground - Alert Bay. A potpourri of Potlatch masks at the U'Mista centre in Alert Bay. This <a href='http://www.umista.org/collections/index.php' target='_blank'> Potlatch information</a> is quite interesting. Weather wasn't the most agreeable. A few of the fishing boats in the marina at Alert Bay. How's that for a sunset!! This is from the campsite at Alder Bay looking back across the straight towards Alert Bay. This picture was taken in Coal Harbour and this site is about the only thing that Coal Harbour has going for it nowadays. What's that - you don't know what it is! Well, Coal Harbour used to be - many years ago - a busy whaling station and that is the jawbone from a Blue Whale. Maybe the story about Jonah had some truth to it???? Another view of it. (It has taken me over a week of washing and waxing to get the Bigfoot looking respectable again.) In the Emirates you see the road signs that tell you to "BEWARE OF ROAD SURPRISES" but they never tell you what the surprises might be. Well, over here in God’s country we tend to be a little more graphical and actually show you what to watch out for. On the road into Winter Harbour.