2007/06 BC trip - Elk Bay |
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Monday July 16th
Although our camper has two additional lap seatbelts for the sofa, it’s really only a two-person vehicle. However, our grandson had been looking forward to his camping trip, so he was in the front in his booster seat, while Sandie had volunteered to perch on the sofa, sitting sideways, not comfortable at the best of times, let alone on a logging road!
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We were headed for the east coast of the Island this time. Most of the good beaches in the south are privately owned or part of organized campgrounds. We wanted something wilder so we were going north of Campbell River to yet another forestry site at Elk Bay.
Our grandson traveled well and Sandie survived. We had lunch at Oyster Bay, a stop we’d used in the past when making family trips up to the far north of the Island. The beach is full of trees washed up by the sea and the view across the sea is of the mountains on the mainland, north of Vancouver.
North of Campbell River, we turned off onto the logging main road and soon came to the track to Stella Lake, a typical BC lake with forests and a mountain backdrop. We found a single campsite on the beach with table and fire ring, and just enough room for the camper. If 
we’d had a boat it would have perfect, but we’d come out from Minnesota laden with the family’s presents for the boys and there was no room for the kayak in the pod. Without a boat there wasn’t much to do there, so we moved on to Elk Bay.
At the foot of a steep hill we came to a maze of trucks and signs. We finally got the message that we were going the wrong way, into the log dump, and we had to turn around to get to the campground. We found a spot on the beach just above the high water mark, with a view over the Johnstone Strait and what I think were the islands of Quadra and Sonora. Don’t think of little islands in a lot of sea. This is more like a 
mountain range with the valleys submerged by the sea. The islands are mountainous and big, ten or twenty miles long, and divided by a maze of narrow channels. The Johnstone Strait is the channel that carries the Inside Passage traffic: barges, fishing boats,and cruise ships. None of that traffic was coming into our bay, but it still wasn’t very peaceful. The loggers were building a new access spur just behind us and we had a back-hoe running and squeaking behind us until evening. It could have done with a little oil on its joints.
Across the bay was the log dump, where they take the logs from the trucks, dump them into the sea, and then tow them down to the lumber mill with a tugboat, but we couldn’t hear that over the backhoe. Our grandson loved it all, of course. We went down to paddle in the water until our grandson spotted an inch-long crab and ran for safety. I grabbed the crab, dropped it in his bucket, and told him it was now safe for paddling. We soon had a dozen crabs in captivity, and our grandson took the bucket up the beach to show Nannie, careful to only hold the bucket by the outside of its top edge. “The crabs might jump up or bite through the bottom.” At the first opportunity I quietly let them go, but then Nannie told him that I must been hungry and eaten them all. So, if you hear the story …
Along the beach one of our neighbors had just come in with his crab pots and was letting the undersized ones go. They were a still a foot wide, claw to claw and our grandson almost climbed up Sandie to get his toes out of range.
At bedtime, Sandie had read all the books to our grandson, and he still seemed more awake than us, so she let our grandson choose a movie. He picked “Cars” a car racing cartoon. As soon as it started he was pumping his fist in the air yelling “Yes, yes, yes!” at the top of his voice. Bad choice of movie! He lasted another 90 minutes.
I went outside to photograph a great sunset. At the water’s edge I heard a splash and a cough as a seal swam by, and then a shrill “scree!” from a bald eagle perched at the top of our tree.
Tuesday July 17th
The backhoe operator was back at work by 6 am. our grandson was pleased to see an even bigger backhoe coming down the road on a giant transporter. The morning was quite warm but cloudy with fine drizzle, so we thought we’d go look for a drier and quieter spot.
The map showed that there was another logging main road that hugged the coast and then wound back 
towards Campbell River, so we thought we’d give it a try. It was narrow and very steep, but eventually it climbed up the mountainside through clear cuts giving us a good view of the islands and channels far below us. Then we met a loaded logging truck that was coming down. Luckily, there was a short ramp to climb onto and get out of his way. Our grandson was having a great morning!
At the top of the hill we found the “Active Logging – Road Closed” sign, so we had to turn around and inch our way back down the hill. Then we met the giant back-hoe transporter going back! I had my wheels in the ditch and he was leaning on the trees and I still had to fold my mirror in to clear the transporter bed.
We went back the way we’d come in, stopping at Stella Lake’s other campsite for a break. This is where our grandson saw this boy with a water toy and started his Christmas list. I think he enjoyed his weekend of camping.
Wednesday July 18th
This was our last day in Port Alberni and it was cloudy and dark; the weather was changing. We all had lunch at the Batstar and then said our goodbyes. Steady rain began as we crossed the Hump and made our way to Nanaimo. There are two ferry terminals there for the mainland, and the big sign on the highway said that the only available space was at Duke Point. There we were told we might get on the 8pm boat, but there was more space on the 5pm at Departure Bay, so we went there. We didn’t get on so we made the 7pm from there instead. Waiting in a motor home is not much of a hardship anyway. Apparently, one of the ferries had broken down and its stand-in had less capacity.