Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Yesterday we moved from Lamplighter Campground to Snowforest Campground in Mount Revelstoke National Park. We had a bit of a dilemma, check out time was 11 AM, check in here was 2 PM, and the drive, even with the trailer, was about 10 minutes. Bud suggested we just pack up and take the trailer with us for another round of disc golf as he could back the trailer into the dead end section of road which was the parking for the disc golf course. So we did, and you’ll notice we had clear skies over the Illecillewaet River this time.

Then we came to Snowforest Campground at the National Park. It’s nice to be in a public campground with more space.

Our site is at the end of the row, so that adds to our privacy.

But the best thing about the site is the robin’s nest in a little tree. It’s only about head high, but tucked in the branches.

You can only see the babies when they stick their open beaks up. I think there are two of them.

I need to correct an error. I thought all of these mountains were the Rockies and wrote that Revelstoke was at the western edge of the Rockies. Actually, it’s in the valley between the Monashee Mountains and the Selkirk Mountains, and Mount Revelstoke National Park is on the edge of the Selkirk Mountains. We’ll reach the Rockies when we move to Banff, tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we only had a day and a half to check out this park. I took a short walk on a trail just uphill from the campground once we were set up and ate lunch.

It was an easy trail,

but I thought I saw bear scat, so decided next time I hiked alone I’d take my hiking stick as well as the air horn. If a bear got too close I could wave the hiking stick and sound the air horn. If it didn’t run off it might at least be laughing too hard to attack.

This morning Bud and I drove the 26 kilometers up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway to the top of Mount Revelstoke. We went straight to the top and stopped at the overlooks on the way back down, but I’m putting them in the blog from the bottom to the top.

The first one is the Nels Nelson Viewpoint. This is where a famous ski jump was. Nels Nelson, a native son, set records here; first the Canadian record of 183 feet in 1916 and then the world record of 240 feet in 1925. This platform is at the top of that ski jump and there are metal replicas of his skis and knickers.

You can stand on the skis and lean forward into the metal knickers and get the view from the top of the hill that he saw…without the snow. That’s the city of Revelstoke and the Columbia River down below.

This replica of a newspaper page was done as a sign. I thought the story of “The Great Fiasco” and Bob Lynburne was interesting so I took a picture of it.

Further up the mountain at KM 5 was another overlook of the town and river.

Across the valley you can see Mount MacKenzie. In 1969 the downhill skiing moved there. Today in the winter townsfolk cross country ski on the Meadows in the Sky Parkway and snowshoe on the lower trails but the mountain is a quiet place.

Still higher is another viewpoint where you can see the Columbia River as it flows south.

Just around the mountain from that is a viewpoint a bit upstream. That’s the river in the lower foreground, and Eagle Pass, where the Trans Canada Highway comes in from the east.

I took this video at Panorama Point, not far from the parking lot at the end of the Parkway. You can see from the east, in an arc around to the south and then west. This area must have burned not too long ago.

And then we arrived at the alpine meadows…

and pretty little Balsam Lake.

Before the turn of the 20th century people from the town bushwhacked to the summit of Mount Revelstoke and found these meadows. It became such a popular hike that the Mayor had the public works department cut a trail. In 1911 the provincial government was persuaded to build a road to the top and in 1914 the area became a National Park.

We walked around the lake looking at the lovely flowers. Some on plants so small they looked like mosses…

and others on tall bushes.

We then took Eagle Knoll Trail that went a short distance through meadows and

stands of Engleman Spruce, providing glimpses of the mountains in the distance.

We ended at a lookout to the north, with Revelstoke Lake, the reservoir created by the Revelstoke Dam, spread below. That was my favorite lookout.

This afternoon I took the air horn and my walking stick and headed out to walk the Inspiration Woods Trail.

It crossed a couple of little streams.

At the larger of the two I took a few seconds of video, just to capture the sweet sounds of a brook running through the woods.

The trail circled through a rocky area where you caught glimpses of the distant mountains.

It was a lovely walk.

Tomorrow we leave, but I will not forget this place.

Revelstoke, BC is a small city of just under 10,000 permanent residents…

tucked in the western Rockies.

It sits along the Columbia River. I was surprised to see the size of the Columbia River this far north.

Mount Revelstoke sits on the northern edge of town and Revelstoke National Park is there.

In January I tried to book us for 6 nights there but this is a holiday weekend in Canada, so we have four nights here, at Lamplighter Campground and will move tomorrow for two nights at the park.

This is pretty, but sites are tight. I took this picture when the folks on either side of us had left. However every afternoon the place fills up again, so imagine this picture with two more RV’s, one on either side of us.

But what I like is that the area is so walkable. This is a trail along the levee that runs along the southwest bank of the Columbia River here in Big Eddy where the campground is.

The rest of the town can be reached by crossing this one lane bridge.

I’ve walked across it every day.

It parallels the railroad bridge and beyond that the newer highway bridge on Trans Canada Highway 1. It’s just a mile into the center of town, and people bike and walk a lot.

It can be easier than driving, especially if you need to go out onto Highway 1. Here we’re waiting to make a left turn and there is a steady stream of cars on the Trans Canada Highway.

Revelstoke is here because of the railroad. The first Canadian to buy land here was a surveyor named Farwell. He knew the railroad was going to cross the Columbia here so bought the land to sell it to the railroad at a profit. He named his settlement Farwell.

The Canadian Pacific management was not pleased, they thought they had an agreement with the Dominion that all the land for the right of way was theirs. They ended up going around Farwell’s land and built their terminal and work yards away from the river, here at Track Street. They didn’t even keep his name. The town became Revelstoke after Lord Revelstoke from England whose bank funded the completion of the cross Canada route. This is now a railroad museum, there is still a work yard nearby, but passenger service ended here in 1990.

Notice the mountains in all my photos look misty. That’s smoke and it still hasn’t cleared out so we have postponed visiting Mount Revelstoke until we’re camped there. We’ve been exploring the area.

We drove east to Glacier National Park (Canada has one, too.)

We went through several of these structures.

They aren’t tunnels, they are snow sheds. This area is an inland temperate rainforest, and in the winter that means snow. The mountains here get from 40 to 60 feet of snow each winter!

With the steep slopes, that means avalanches. The snow sheds protect the highways and drivers (and they have them on the railroad) in the most avalanche prone areas. They also do blasting for avalanche prevention.

We drove to a trail recommended by the nice young woman at the National Park Visitor Center in the town of Revelstoke. She had information on both Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park since there is only 16 kilometers between the eastern border of Revelstoke and the western border of Glacier. These are big parks, so our trip was 50 miles as we went from the western side of Revelstoke to the eastern side of Glacier. Anyway, this was Bear Creek Falls Trail.

It was a short, pretty trail,

leading steeply downhill to the creek.

Just a bit further along was the falls.

The trail went close enough to the base to get you wet from the spray. And it was cold, this water is melt from ice and snow.

We went to a second trail called Rock Garden. Bud turned back because he was being bitten by small horse flies. They didn’t pursue me, so I made it to the rocky piles, left here in the last ice age.

You were supposed to be able to see where Highway One reached the mountain barrier and Roger’s Pass, but with the smoke…

I could only look down at Highway One below me.

It was still a pretty little hike through the rocks. These symbols were along the trail here and there, no doubt meaningful to the First Nations people.

In places it was a bit hard to see the trail, but there were steps where you needed them and these railings, which I appreciated.

Revelstoke has a very nice disc golf course and we played 18 holes there one morning.

Each hole was named, often humorously.

The course abuts the Illecillewaet River, which flows down from the Illecillewaet Glacier in Glacier National Park. That’s an eagle’s nest on the pole.

Today we drove up to the Revelstoke Dam, the second dam from the start of the Columbia River. The parking lot is on top of the powerhouse, where the turbines are located. Those are the five races coming down to the turbines. On the right is the place where a sixth race can go.

This is the second tallest dam on the Columbia.

We took a tour which let us go up to that structure.

We started in a tunnel through the dam, then took an elevator…

to the top. This photo was taken through the glass of the room at the top of the elevator.

From the deck outside you could see the other side of the concrete dam to the earthen dam beyond.

You could also see the water racing down the spillway. They were letting water out of the reservoir for the first time in three years, because they had a full pool, but in areas south of here they need water.

Driving out I was able to get a photo of the water thundering off the end of the spillway into the river below. Our guide told us he thought the spillway gates were only open about 20% of the way. I wonder if they’ve ever opened them all the way and what that would look like.

This afternoon we went to the railroad museum. I liked the cars you could get into. This was a business car inside the museum,

They also had this engine.

It looked pretty complicated to run!

Outside they had a caboose.

I think I would have liked working on a railroad and riding up in the cupola of the caboose. Best seat on the train!

But then there’s that snow. This is a snowplow that could be put in front of an engine. I’m sure plows this size are still used.

We stopped at the store for groceries, Bud drove them home and I got to walk back through this pretty place again. Yes, I like it here (at least in the summer, not sure about 21 feet of snow each winter, which is the average for the valley).

When I booked our current site at the Kelowna Urban Farm RV Park I did not expect this town on Okanagan Lake to be this large or this urban.

The towns sprawl along both sides of the narrow point in the lake,

where this very busy bridge crosses.

And everywhere there isn’t town there’s farm. Not just the one where we are.

Looking at the blue dot on the map you can see that, although we are headed to the Rockies, we’re still pretty far south in British Columbia.

There are orchards and vineyards…

all through the steep hills and houses.

Our little RV Park has only nine spaces, and they are beautifully done.

And it has chickens,

and direct access…

to the Mission Creek Greenway. The path around us is pretty flat.

It runs along a dike on the west side of Mission Creek.

Today I drove a few miles to walk on the northern end of the greenway. Here the creek is above the flat valley.

It started as a level trail through the woods.

It crossed three…

bridges,

going upstream as the banks got higher.

The trail left the creek and climbed the bank.

There were some nice views up there.

I walked up along a grassy slope.

It seemed like I had left the urban parts behind until I got to the top of the ridge…

and found myself on the edge of a golf course.

That’s what the area is like, the wild along with…

the farms, all together with

the little city. Just like the name said, Kelowna Urban Farm RV Park.

On Thursday we boarded the last ferry of this year, a large one with two vehicle decks,

and left the Sunshine Coast behind.

We drove past Vancouver on Highway 1, the Trans Canada Highway.

We were headed to the mountains and the Sunshine Valley.

Our map program wouldn’t bring up a route at first, it kept insisting the road was closed. Luckily for us,

the closure was right at our turn into the Sunshine Valley RV Resort.

Southeast of us Highway Three was closed and empty. Under those cumulus clouds was a wildfire, about 20 miles south of us.

We were safely ensconced in our new site, nicely hedged for privacy.

I explored the area and found a path

to pretty little Sumallo River.

A side road took me to a bridge over it.

Nearby was the Tashme Museum, set up to preserve the history of the largest Japanese Internment Camp in British Columbia which operated from 1942 to 1946. Unfortunately it is only open on the weekends.

There was a nice community garden here,

and the barns, which had been a dairy, and then part of the internment camp is now a community center.

The place looks quite small,

but judging from the number of mailboxes there must be hundreds of homes in the area.

I did not wander out of the main community as I have no desire to meet a cougar while on foot.

Yesterday we drove to the nearby town of Hope for another wooded disc golf game, which I again lost.

We stopped at the site of the Hope Slide, a landslide that followed a small earthquake in 1965. 46 million cubic meters of earth, rock and snow came crashing down, killing four motorists, burying the valley and a little lake and the section of the highway under a layer up to seventy meters deep.

Makes you think twice about this quiet valley. I think I’d look up before I bought property here.

Today the wildfires have subsided, the road is open and we are leaving the Sunshine Valley behind.

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.

We came back east to the central coast and stayed two nights and a day at Campbell River;

just long enough to restock on food, including fish from Crabby Bob’s…

on the harbour.

We also took the opportunity for 9 holes of disc golf, which we hadn’t played in ages. I’m happy to report that I won by one shot.

On the 11th we drove north to the end of the road at Port Hardy. We stayed at Port Hardy RV Resort and Log Cabins, which was hardly a resort, it had tight spaces and questionable electrical service.

But it was a short walk down a lovely little trail…

from Port Hardy, the little town at the end of the road.

On Saturday Bud and I went to their Farmer’s Market. Each time we went to town I walked back.

The path went along the waterfront.

One day I saw this seaplane come in and dock.

Another this eagle.

Between the town and our campground there is the estuary of the Quatse River. I walked along it or across it several times, and I almost always saw eagles.

The trail continued upstream from our campground.

Where it made a loop along the Quatse River.

The far end of the loop crossed the wooden road bridge.

Like the rainforest on the west coast the growth here was lush.

This ancient stump was supporting two full sized trees.

Even when the trail went straight down the old road it was pretty.

On the one sunny day we drove to Port McNeill to park and take the ferry on foot to Cormorant Island and the town of Alert Bay. While waiting for the ferry we spotted this monkey puzzle tree at the marina next to the ferry dock.

Here comes our ferry. It’s much smaller than most we’ve seen. It only goes from Port McNeill to either Cormorant Island or Sointula Island, both small islands in the Georgia Straight of the Salish Sea.

Small though it was, it still transported this loaded log truck.

We had a pleasant, short ride on the top deck.

Cormorant Island is the home of the ‘Namgis First Nation.

The whole island is only three miles long and a half mile wide.

But it goes up steeply from the shore.

We walked along the waterfront,

which seems somewhat frozen in time.

It’s an odd place,

struggling to transform itself from a fishing powerhouse,

to a tourist destination.

There were shelters along the waterfront…

with beautiful carvings.

And throughout the island…

there were totem poles. The figures on the poles represent the history of a family group. Not a history of their actions, but a religious history, how that family relates to the sacred beings.

This huge pole looked like it was being worked on.

It was on the grounds of…

the U’mista Cultural Center. If a person was kidnapped or stolen in a raid and then returned to their family the ‘Namgis word for their return is U’mista.

The Cultural Center is named U’mista because it is the result of the ‘Namgis peoples’ efforts to regain possession of the sacred goods stolen from them in 1921. From 1885 to 1951 Potlatches, the sacred feasts of the northwest peoples, were outlawed. In 1921 Chief Dan Cranmer held a Potlatch which was raided, and all the sacred items taken.

The beautiful Transformation Mask opened on display and closed in the picture and explanation above was one those pieces. Although the Transformation Mask is just on permanent loan, many pieces have been fully recovered and these are now held in the U’mista Cultural Center. These sacred objects are held in a large room, the Potlatch Room, where no photos are allowed. Perhaps because this piece is not fully theirs it is not in that room and I could photograph it. There were many more beautifully carved masks and costume pieces.

There were also examples of the people’s crafts,

stories about their traditions,

and the very moving story of the end of the residential school here on the island. I was astonished to learn that a native child had a greater chance of dying in a residential school than a member of the Canadian Armed Forces did in World War Two.

I know the First Nations still struggle but the evidence of the resurgence of their culture is everywhere up here and it is heartening.

Too soon we had to catch the ferry back off this lovely little island…

and the next day drove back south to get ready to leave Vancouver Island.

There is only one highway that goes to the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island, highway 4, the Pacific Rim Highway. Last Sunday we drove this winding road through the interior mountains,

past lovely lakes,

to the rugged western shore. We didn’t actually see more than a glimpse of the shore until Tuesday, because Monday we were dealing with Matey. We were fortunate that there was a wonderful Vet Clinic in Tofino, just seven miles from our campground.

On Tuesday we went to buy a National Park Pass because we wanted to explore the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. We found out that from June 19th to September 7th admission to all the National Parks is free, even if you’re not a resident. We’ll be in Canada all summer, but the last National Park we visit is from September second through the ninth, so we may have to pay admission for two days. Since we plan to visit five National Parks over this summer that’s a good deal.

Our first stop in the park was two short Rainforest Trails.

The trails were on built boardwalks with amazing construction. This bridge was a single log planed on the top side.

The boardwalks were necessary because there really was no forest floor, just layers and layers of logs…

with the undergrowth growing right on them.

It looked like if you left anything in this environment for long moss and seedlings would start growing on it.

This being a Canadian National Park there was a strategically placed red Adirondack chair. There aren’t many vistas in a rainforest.

This chair was placed near this bit of a stream which signs explained was an important stream for salmon fry. It’s hard to imagine adult salmon making it all the way into these tiny streams to lay eggs, but they do.

There were also some massive trees including this 800 year old western red cedar (Thuja plicata, not a true cedar). But we saw no banana slugs, which was disappointing.

However, I saw several at our campground, including this fine specimen. Supposedly if you lick them your tongue will go numb, but I wasn’t tempted to try.

We also drove the short distance to the village of Ucluelet, where we got our first good look at the shore. We took the trail to the lighthouse and saw a couple of sailboats out on this gloomy day.

I walked the short loop trail for some more views of the rugged coast.

It was misting so the ocean views were muted.

In between viewpoints the trees were thick enough to keep me dry.

There was a short loop through a bit of a bog, but the only carnivorous plants were tiny sundews.

Wednesday we went to the Kwistis Visitor Centre in the park for a guided beach walk.

The beach there is really beautiful and as it was just past low tide a lot of sand was exposed.

We had a good time and I learned a lot, including how to tell a male from a female Dungeness crab. The picture in the sand is a male. You’re only allowed to harvest males.

The shell our guide is holding is the shed exoskeleton of a female crab, though you have to flip it over to see the difference. I didn’t think to get a picture of that, but the flap of shell opposite the claws is rounded, not pointed.

These are giant barnacles. They were still alive, but were doomed because their shells tore loose from whatever they had been attached to.

This may not look like much, but the rangers were excited as we found a number of these mole crab shells. Apparently they used to be common but had disappeared for unknown reasons. They were glad to see them back.

At the end of the walk we went to a couple of small tide pools that could be reached without walking on too many critters, like the barnacles encrusting these rocks. We were lucky to find this purple sea star.

Since it was still almost sunny Bud and I made a stop at Radar Hill before we returned to the camper. It looked like an old radar installation and gave a good view of the hills and inlets to the north.

With its forests, rocks and beaches, the Pacific Rim is a beautiful place, but my memory of it will forever be saddened by the link to Matey’s death.

We’ve been in Canada since July second. I was ready to start a new post when Matey took a turn for the worst. We spent the next morning at the Veterinary Clinic where we had to put him down and I haven’t been willing to write about the trip since. Today I will try.

We took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC on July second. This is the first ferry we’ve been on where loading began while some vehicles were still coming off.

It’s also the first ferry we’ve been on that loaded from the stern and the side of the bow, so some vehicles were parked crosswise in the boat.

One bow door was open as we approached the dock and we watched Victoria slide by.

We came up from the ferry right into downtown…

and Bud got to tow the trailer through streets crowded with locals and tourists.

We stayed right at the edge of the city in the dense, but well done Fort Victoria RV Park.

Both Bud and Matey were worn out from the trip so the next day I went to Butchart Gardens by myself. These 100 year old gardens are famous and are a Canadian Historic Site. This pond…

and walk were on the way to the entrance from the parking lot.

There were lots of people…

and lots of flowers.

I especially liked that the natural setting was incorporated.

The first garden planted, and my favorite part of the garden, was a quarry from Mr. Butchart‘s cement business that Mrs. Butchart transformed into the Sunken Garden starting in 1904.

She was rich and had designers and staff and a head gardener to help her, but her dedication to the project is shown in that she hung from a bosun’s chair to insert plants into the crevices of the quarry walls.

Colorful flowers abound.

She was helped by the climate of Vancouver Island, cool and wet with 222 frost free days a year. The lowest part of the first quarry became a lovely pond.

A smaller, lower quarry became the site of Butchart’s grandson’s inspiration, the Ross fountain, installed in 1964. The show put on by the spraying water is mesmerizing.

After the Sunken Garden more formal gardens were added. This is the entrance to the Japanese Garden, the first and my favorite of the formal gardens.

I loved the rambling effect and the little stream.

You could almost get lost in its (relatively) small area.

The rose garden was too formal for my taste,

but the beauty and…

variety of the roses was impressive.

The Italian Garden was my least favorite,

but I did like the whimsical frogs…

of the Star Fountain.

Three of my favorite things in the gardens were between the formal gardens.

There were two Monkey Puzzle trees, natives of the lower slopes of the Andes. These odd gymnosperms, with their triangular, scale like leaves are endangered, so it’s nice that they are here.

And I loved this dragon fountain, presented by China to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Victoria and Suzhou.

Finally, I was delighted to find this gorgeous coast redwood planted in 1934 and now towering above everything.

We only had one more day in Victoria and Bud and I went downtown. These are the provincial government buildings.

We visited the Royal Museum of British Columbia,

which gives a great view of the harbour.

This is a beautiful city,

with the Empress Hotel facing…

the busy harbour.

The whole area is very pedestrian and bike friendly, but after navigating around with a Dodge Ram and a thirty-five foot trailer this is one place I would say is a better place to live than to visit.

In September of 2014 we adopted a four year old poodle mix and brought him back to Earendil, our 44 foot cruising sailboat. The pound where he was brought as a stray called him Pierre, because he was part poodle. Poodle Rescue of Houston, who took him from the pound, dubbed him White Angel and treated him for heartworm. In August a family took him home and they called him Woodstock. But he wasn’t right for them, they brought him back.

Because he was meant to be my dog, and he was Matey.

Right away Matey and I started walking together. I got a day pack to carry drinks and snacks for both of us. The folks at Poodle Rescue of Houston told me about Woof Trax and I got the app and started to track our miles together.

Matey learned to Kayak…

and in October of 2015 when we moved back on board Earendil full time Matey came along…

and learned to ride in the dinghy.

Matey liked harbor life, meeting new friends and sharing treats.

But he was really happy when we found him a house in Port St. Joe, Florida in the summer of 2016.

He liked exploring the beaches and meeting the crabs.

A hurricane tore through our little town in October of 2018, but Matey and I kept walking.

He walked with me and the Garden Club in the Christmas Parade that year.

When we started camping he got to walk in new places.

He was happy to walk in the cold and the wind.

And then we sold his house and moved full time into the camper, and he was okay with that.

And if you’ve followed my blog…

you know that Matey led me by leash…

on sidewalks…

and rough trails,

through deserts…

and lush forests.

By the time we’d logged 15,000 miles together Matey was slowing down. He had heart and kidney disease and doggy dementia.

He was still willing to walk, but on longer walks…

he rode in his stroller at least part of the time.

His stroller was becoming one of his favorite places. The last couple of months we even took the wheels and handle off when we traveled and put the body in the back seat of the truck so he could ride there.

The last picture I have of Matey he’s riding in his stroller. And the day before he died I took him in his stroller for a mile walk around the campground. If Matey was with me I logged those miles on Woof Trax.

And now, after 9,170 walks and 15,687 miles our walks are done.

Goodbye, Matey, we loved you.

Our base camp for the past week was Salt Creek Recreation Area, a county park along the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington and Vancouver Island. I was checking something on the roof of the camper when I took this shot. As you can see, the sites aren’t huge, but the view of the strait is fine.

The park and campground has a well deserved positive reputation. It has a resident herd of black tailed deer…

that are quite blasé about sharing their space with human campers; they are even pretty laid back about dogs.

It has an incredibly beautiful shoreline.

My favorite spot was Tongue Point. Not only is this sweet little island there,

but there are stairs you can take down onto the rocks.

You can get a closer look at the wave carved shore…

and get down to see the creatures in the tide pools.

During WW II this was Fort Hayden, and the gun bunkers that protected the strait are still there.

Just south of our campground was Olympic National Park, and we visited several places there. On Sunday we drove up to Hurricane Ridge for a fantastic view of the Olympic Mountains…

While we were there the clouds were wafting by,

and we were sometimes…

walking in the clouds.

There were enough clear areas…

for some fantastic views.

I walked out as far as Sunrise Point.

The trail up was pretty dramatic.

Though at the top, which was above 5,600 feet, the view was obscured by clouds,

there were some great views along the way.

On the way down I took pictures of the three…

tunnels you drive through…

in quick succession.

Just after the tunnels was a vista point where you could see under the clouds to the strait below.

In between the clouds and the shore west or Hurricane Ridge was the Sol Duc Valley and the Grove of the Ancients.

With its moss…

and ferns…

and giant trees…

this short trail was a real treat for me.

We also visited Crescent Lake, a 600 foot deep lake carved by glaciers.

U. S. Highway 101 runs right along the south shore of the lake.

We took East Beach Road, along the eastern shore, several times, the first time towing the camper on the way in. That was a challenge. Fortunately there was almost no traffic.

On the north shore was the Spruce Railroad Trail.

It went along beautiful, lush woods with trickling springs. There was supposed to be a tunnel, but after about a mile Bud despaired of finding it and turned back.

Not five minutes later I came to it.

It was a bit spooky to walk through, but just as you got to where it was really, really dark,

you got far enough around the curve to see the other end.

I was walking along with another couple, which helped, and they took a picture of Matey and me at the tunnel exit.

It was a pretty spot.

Matey and I walked back on our own, but having been through it, it was easier.

There were few places to see the lake, but it was still a pretty trail and it was nice to take Matey.

While the rest of the country was sweltering we’ve had a pretty nice week on the cool, green Olympic Peninsula.