The Sunshine Coast and a Visit with Richard Yeung

Last Thursday we left Vancouver Island on the ferry from Little River near Courtenay to Powell River. We had to take a second ferry from Saltery Bay to Earl’s Cove.

While the first ferry crossed the Salish Sea at the large Straight of Georgia,

the second one wove through inlets and islands.

It was an interesting sail, though as is so often the case here, the sky was overcast and hazy, making the distant hills indistinct.

After the two ferries and a drive down the coast on the winding, narrow route 101 we came to the Mid Coast RV Park, which is where the blue dot on the map is. This coast just north of Vancouver is called the Sunshine Coast and though it was rainy and cloudy when we arrived the sun came out for most of our stay.

This is another commercial campground with tight spaces, but at least we are at the end of the row.

When Bud and I were preparing to retire to our boat Richard Yeung, whose company I had worked with for over ten years in my job, told me he had bought a place on the Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver and it had a 50 foot deep water dock. He said if we brought the boat to the Salish Sea we should come by. Well that never happened, but I had been in touch with Richard off and on over the next years so when we planned to come to Vancouver Island we planned this visit.

Friday evening Richard and his wife Chloe picked us up at the trailer and took us to the Lagoon Restaurant in Madeira Park where we sat on their deck and enjoyed a very tasty meal.

The next two days Bud and I took care of housekeeping things. I washed the trailer and waxed the front cap, which takes all the wind and insect strikes when we travel. We changed the filter on our auxiliary fuel tank. Our skylight suddenly started dripping in the rain, so when the rain stopped I resealed it. We did wash, shopped and Bud emptied and cleaned the truck bed.

On Monday we took the day off as we were invited to Richard’s house for what he called “a light lunch”. We were a bit early, as negotiating the twisty roads and our couple of stops took less time than we had thought. We stopped at a public pier just before the Yeung’s place for a look at the beautiful inlet.

I looked to the side and realized I was looking at Richard’s house and that fifty foot deep water dock.

What a beautiful house,

with a beautiful view.

Richard’s daughter, Sheffield, was visiting from Vancouver and she took our picture with the shrimp and oysters we had as starters. Those huge oysters Richard had harvested off the rocks in front of his house.

Richard took this shot of all of us after we’d eaten the shrimp, oysters, Richard’s special chicken wings, rice dumplings and steamed ling cod that Richard had caught. Light lunch indeed. After eating Chloe’s incredible cooking Bud decided he needed to step up his game to be in her league. We finished off with a Japanese sweet made with rice and red beans and coffee. A truly delicious meal and delightful afternoon.

We had two more days on the Sunshine Coast and we wanted to explore a bit. We went to the Homesite Creek Falls Recreation Site right next door to us and walked a short loop trail. It started up the road…

and went through the small campground. These were beautiful sites, but alas, no electricity or water.

The loop then led down a trail to pretty little Homesite Creek.

Here it was a nice path in the woods.

There were some huge old trees.

The trail got a bit rugged as we came into an area of karst.

Karst is an area that has soluble bedrock like dolomite, limestone or marble.

We were walking along what appeared to be a seasonal stream…

that in places went underground.

There were small caves all over, some of which looked quite deep.

It was a pretty walk, but over too soon.

I decided to cut through the power line road and walk home.

Of course I had forgotten about the bears and had no bear spray or air horn. We need to start bringing those.

And I had forgotten that home was on the other side of the creek. I was very glad to see the pedestrian bridge.

It didn’t look like it was often used, but it kept me dry.

In the end I had an uneventful and pleasant walk.

Today, our last day here, we drove to the town of Gibsons and played disc golf.

There were lots of trees and I hit many. I lost, badly.

We then went into town to the Gibsons Public Market.

We were looking to buy some fresh fish, but the only interesting ones we saw were in this 13,000 liter tank.

It was a pretty little town. Notice the palm tree, this is a very mild climate here.

Tomorrow we leave the lovely Sunshine Coast. In fact we leave the west coast altogether. Sometimes it’s hard to leave a place, but there are always new things to discover.