Day 1 – Fly to Victoria

When you plan around the cheap seats on WestJet, flying from Regina to Victoria can take most of the day. We took off from Regina early in the afternoon, but with a two and a half hour layover in Calgary, we weren’t scheduled to land in Victoria until 7:15 in the evening. To top things off, the connecting flight from Calgary to Victoria was a half hour late because of headwinds. That wouldn’t have been such an issue, but we were on a tight schedule once we landed on the Island. We planned to camp on the Gulf Islands, but, of course, we couldn’t take camp fuel on the plane. And to tighten the timelines even more, we planned to take the ferry to the Pender Islands at 8:30 the next morning. Translation: once we finally landed, we had to retrieve our luggage, locate our rental car, and drive down the Saanich Peninsula to downtown Victoria to pick up camp fuel at Mountain Equipment Coop before it closed at 9:00 p.m. So we were a bit tense when we hit the tarmac at Victoria Airport at around 7:45. And when I say “hit the tarmac,” I mean that literally. We were surprised by how small and quaint Victoria International Airport is. We actually unloaded from the back of the plane, down a set of outside stairs onto the tarmac. While I picked up the luggage, Irene went to get the rental car; fortunately, neither one took very long, and we were on our way into Victoria shortly after 8:00 p.m. We actually made MEC and picked up our fuel with about 20 minutes to spare. Then we headed back towards Sidney and the ferry terminal, to a small private campground on the ocean, Island View Campground, where we had pre-booked a campsite. We knew the place from a previous trip we had made to the coast with the boys back in 1997. Although we had to set up the tent in the dark, we were relieved that we had camp fuel for the next few days of camping

Day 2 – Pender Islands

Having to catch the 8:30 ferry didn’t leave us much time in the morning, but we managed to stroll down to the beach at the campsite with our coffee cups for a few minutes before
taking down the tent and heading out. The Island View Campground hadn’t changed much since our visit ten years ago, although they had cleaned up some of the broom that had previously surrounded the campsites and done a bit more landscaping. The main assets of the campground are its proximity to the beach and its convenience for popping into Victoria or Sidney or catching Butchart Gardens or the Ferry. We made it to the ferry in lots of time, although when we loaded, we were one of the last vehicles to get on. The early start meant that we made it to Pender Islands before nine o’clock, so we drove to one of the commercial districts and stumbled around for a while. We discovered that Pender has a great little bakery/restaurant. We sampled the “egganini,” which we would highly recommend (on the sourdough). It seems like one can’t buy a sandwich these days that hasn’t been squeezed in a panini pan.

Pender Island Campsite	Gnarled Maple in Campsite	View from Mt. Norman

After that, we found our way to the campground where we had pre-booked a site and set up camp. Then we drove to South Pender Island. (Brief History: The two islands were originally one until a navigation canal was dug between them in 1903. A bridge now connects the two.) There, we hiked to the top of Mt. Norman, all of 244 m above sea level. Nevertheless, it was a nice view of the bay below. After the hike, we took the rest of the afternoon a bit easier, driving out to a vineyard on the east side of North Pender Island and spending an hour or so sitting out on the patio and sampling the local vintages. After supper we did a bit more exploring by hiking a short trail near our campsite.

Day 3 – Saturna Island

The next morning we caught the ferry to Saturna Island, our next destination. Before we caught the ferry, though, we decided to get a snack at the “The Stand,” the concession at the ferry terminal on Pender. If you ever get the chance, you have to visit this “4.5 star” culinary wonderland (their rating). We don’t necessarily recommend it for the food, although that was fine. The most interesting part were the proprietors, who, I think, may have smoked a bit too much that morning. It took over half an hour to get two coffees and a toasted bagel. It was a riot. We never had a chance to sample some of the more exotic things on the menu like the oyster burger or such burger add-ons as ostrich and lamb. We had another treat before we got to Saturna. While we were still on the ferry, the Pender Highlanders band picked up their instruments and played a couple of tunes on deck.

Pender Highlanders Entertain ferry-goers	Irene admires the shoreline fauna at low tide

Saturna Island couldn’t really be a more stark contrast to Pender Islands. Far less commercial, it evokes an air of travelling back in time, right down to the General Store which has everything from booze to hardware. Despite the varied product line, we were impressed with the selection of food, including the ubiquitous Gulf Island emphasis on organic foods. Actually, we found the emphasis on environmental concerns on all the Gulf Islands very interesting. None of the islands has a dump or nuisance ground, so the locals must pay for all garbage to be hauled off the islands. That leads to a pretty high priority on garbage reduction, recycling, and composting. For the morning, we drove to the south end of the island, where we were able to watch seals just off the shoreline. For the afternoon, we went for lunch at the local Saturna Island Vineyard, a great place. In a way, it was a blessing that a labour shortage made for some slow service, since that allowed us to waste the whole afternoon slurping back wine while looking over the vineyards and the bay beyond, not to mention the golden eagles soaring over the cliffs behind the vineyard. To top it all off, the food was worth the wait. Unfortunately, Saturna has no campgrounds, so as soon as we were done our meal, we had to get going to catch the ferry to Mayne Island, our next stop. We arrived at Mayne and drove to Mayne Island Eco-Camping, where we had a reserved spot.

Day 4 – Mayne Island

Mayne Island Eco-Camping just may be the neatest camping spot ever. A list of selling features include:

• campsites only two or three meters from the shoreline
• a hot tub
• an open-air tree shower
• a gorgeous view of the bay
• and feature we’ve never seen in a campsite before – a compost heap

The tree shower may have been the most interesting feature. It was an open, raised platform which was screened from campsite view but open to the bay. Since we had been rushing around and camping in campgrounds without showers, we got over our shyness and made the most of the opportunity. It was raining the next morning when we took these pictures, so they’re a bit blurry.

The compost pile	The campground owners’ house	The tree shower

Our day on Mayne Island was August 19th, our anniversary. We woke up to a very rainy day, so we packed up as quickly as we could and headed to the local bakery for breakfast. Once again, a great little place to eat. After that we walked a short trail around Bennett Bay, It was still raining, but that just brought out the colour of the arbutus tree bark and made for some great photo opportunities. By the time we returned to the main business district, it had stopped raining, so we wandered around the gift shops and art galleries. In the end, we decided to treat ourselves to some anniversary presents: two prints by Jim McKenzie and a metal tree sculpture from a local gift shop. We had lunch at a neat little bistro, the Wild Fennel Food & Wine, where one of the owners was also an artist who did some absolutely amazing three-dimensional caricatures. After lunch, the sun came out, so we drove to the shop of a a local Glass Artisan, Mayne Island Glass Foundry, where the owner makes some very interesting pieces from recycled glass. Then we drove to the Japanese garden, which commemorates the local Japanese population who had been interned and had their land seized during the Second World War. The garden was beautiful, but the impetus for its creation rather coloured the enjoyment of the experience.

Arbutus tree bark	Road splits around arbutus	Japanese garden

Days 5 & 6 – Galiano Island

After our whirlwind one-island-a-day tour of the previous islands, we decided to spend two days on Galiano Island. Our campsite on Galiano was a gorgeous location adjacent to Montague Harbour. When we were there, low tide occurred in the morning, so we spent both mornings ambling along the beach with our coffee cups, admiring the starfish and crabs, and being squirted by submerged clams.

Tree stump on shoreline made entirely of seashells	Starfish	Sunset on Montague Harbour

Galiano combines the commercialism of Pender Islands and the strong artistic community of Mayne. We spent most of our time on Galiano being prime tourists, wandering through gift shops and driving to local artists studios. Galliano has some amazing artists. Two that we were particularly impressed with were Sandra Dolph Pottery and Marci DeVicque Glass Works, but since we had blown our souvenir/artwork budget on Mayne Island, we had to settle for window shopping. On our second day, while we waited for the ferry back to Vancouver Island, we took advantage of one of the most intriguing ferry-side concessions on the Gulf Islands, Max and Moritz Spicy Island Food House, where the specialty is a peculiar fusion of Indonesian and German food. (Yes, you read that right.) Where else on the planet can you get Curried Bratwurst or Pad with Bratwurst?

Day 6 & 7 – Vancouver Island

Midday of day 6 we took the ferry back to Vancouver Island. When we arrived at our hotel, Irene was a bit concerned. She had booked the hotel with the airline tickets, and hadn’t had a lot of time to research the location. As it turned out, the location was excellent for walking around downtown Victoria and for access to the inner harbour. However, it wasn’t in the most desirable neighbourhood; the hotel shared a parking lot with the local Liquor Mart, and the receptionist at the front desk advised us to remove any items from the car, including chewing gum. That really got Irene’s paranoia going, but, in the end, everything was fine. The hotel room itself was a mixed bag. It had been re-done, but in the manner of a bad home reno; the finishing left much to be desired. But, it was clean and critter free, so we made the most of it.

With what was left of the first day, we mostly just stumbled around downtown and visited the harbour. We spent a portion of the evening watching the buskers at the harbour, always a treat. The second morning, we walked over to the Craigdarroch Castle, an immense, garrish edifice built by coal baron Robert Dunsmuir, who at one time owned half of Vancouver Island. The tour was one of those mixed-emotion experiences for both of us. While the architecture and detailing was amazing, the experience was coloured by the history of a man who built his fortune on squelching any attempts by his workers to unionize or seek any benefits, and by a family who managed to squander his fortune within one generation.

Moon over BC Legislature	Dining Room at Craigdarroch Castle	Killer Whale breaching

In the afternoon, we splurged on booking a whale watching tour. This was one of the highlights of the trip for a number or reasons. The day was beautiful and warm, which is important when spending three hours on the water in a Zodiac that travels like a bat out of hell. Unfortunately, Cal didn’t think it was wise to wear his hat and have it blow off, so he burnt his bald pate in the sun. The best part of the tour, though was the fact that we saw many killer whales – very close up. While our guide didn’t exactly break the rules of whale encounters, he certainly stretched them a bit. Rather than paralleling the whales, he would move ahead of them, stop near their anticipated path, and shut down the Zodiac, while they passed by. As the picture above would suggest, we had whales breaching withing ten meters of the Zodiac.

Day 8 – Butterfly Garden and the Flight Home

On our last day on the Island, we had enough time to visit the Victoria Butterfly Garden before catching our flight back to Regina. Cal was a bit skeptical about this, but in the end it was a good way to pass an hour or so. The day before we arrived an Atlas Moth had hatched, so we were able to see the world’s largest moth (8 inch wingspan) up close and personal. Since it’s a nocturnal beast, we could get right up to it to take pictures.

Atlas Moth	Blue Clipper	White Tree Nymph

After the Butterfly Gardens, we got on the plane, flew to Edmonton, and then on to Regina. We spent the next couple of days shingling Aaron’s garage, the last of the reno jobs that he wanted to get done.

This year the boys decided that we should do something different for Christmas, so they planned a ski trip for after Christmas and arranged for us to have Christmas with my nephew Richard and his wife, Lauren. Aaron drove to Gull Lake after work on Friday, the 22nd, and then we travelled to Calgary on the 23rd. We sort of bummed around on the 24th, doing a little shopping at MEC (just two blocks away from Steven’s apartment). Then on the 25th, we drove to the north end of Calgary to have supper with Richard and Lauren.

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Lauren prepares the Yorkshire puddings	The feast	Irene & Aaron digest	Richard & Steven ponder the intricacies of the fondue pot

In the 26th, we drove to Banff. Not too much has changed in Banff in the last few years, except that skiing has become bizarrely expensive. It’s still a Mecca for Aussies, who comprise 90% of the workers at the ski hills and at least 50% of the service industry workers (waiters, …) in the town itself. We skied on the 27th and 28th. We had one day of fresh snow and poor visibility and one day or gorgeous, clear weather. The crowds were quite bad, but we were skiing Louise, so at least we could go to the back side and avoid most of the insanity.

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Supper in Banff	Steven & Aaron on the hill	the Bow Valley From Larch

After two days on the hill, our legs were tired enough, so we travelled back to Calgary on the 29th and back to Gull Lake on the 30th.

Day 2

In mid-August, Steven and I travelled to Kootenay National park to do some backpacking on the Rockwall Trail. It was the first time Steven had been able to strap on the backpack for quite a few years.

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I drove to Calgary on the 17th, and Steven and I did some shopping at Mountain Equipment Coop to fill a few gaps that had developed in his equipment and clothing over the years. We got up at 5:30 the next morning to get an early start. We were out of the city by 7:00 and got to the Floe Lake trailhead before 9:00 a.m. The first part of the trail is a slow, steady climb through a large burn area from a forest fire in 2003. The second half of the trail, though, turns into a steep grunt. Steven and I kept thinking that we would stop at a good lookout point to eat lunch, but before we knew it, it was 1:00, and we had grunted our way to the Floe Lake Campsite.

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So, we had lunch, set up camp, and tried out a new coffee press I had bought at MEC. Around 3:00 we had our legs back, so we decided to do some exploring by hiking up a ridge above the lake. When we left, the campground was empty, but by the time we got back, it was crawling with people. One of the things that I found it interesting how many people on this trail were well into their middle age. On this first night we met a group of about eight women (the youngest in her late forties) who were on an annual excursion. With out early start, we were ready to hit the sleeping bags by 8:00 p.m.

Day 2

We didn’t push to get going too early on the second day, but we were still on the trail by 10:00. The trail climbed quickly, so we soon hit the meadows below the Numa Pass early. Unfortunately it was too late in the summer to see many wildflowers; they were past their prime. We made the pass by 11:00, and then it was downhill all the way. One thing about this trip, there was no trivial up-and-down. We were either grunting up or doing a rapid descent. On this particular day, we climbed 400m and dropped 700m. By 2:00 we were in the campsite. We just lazed the rest of the day away.

Day 3

The hike on Day 3 began relatively gradually, but with a lot of vegetation bashing. That was one thing that we found odd about this hike – considering the considerable traffic, the trails were quite overgrown. As treeline approached, though, the trail rose steeply up a grunty series of switchbacks until it broke at the meadows. We ate a snack on a large rock there before making a last push to the pass. Only when we reached the pass did the splendour of Tumbling Glacier and The Rockwall, which gives the trail its name, reveal itself. * WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *
Unfortunately, half-way through the descent, the lateral moraine of the glacier obscured a considerable amount of the scnenery. The drop to the campground was rapid, so we ended up in camp by 1:00 p.m. again. The campground had a good view of the Rockwall and the glacier, so that was rather nice. We set up camp, had lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon goofing around. We made inukshuks out of the rocks along the creek and went exploring along the creek banks. We probably spent half an hour just skipping pieces of shale – of all sizes – off the rapids above the campsite.

Day 4

In the middle of the night, I awakened to a rustling sound outside the tarp that Steven and I were sleeping under. Considering that we were just in a tarp and not a tent, a wildlife encounter took on some added dimensions, so I thought I had better investigate. I picked up my newly purchased headlamp to shine it out the opening of the tarp. Unfortunately, in the total blackness I made two “blind” mistakes. First, I pointed the headlamp the wrong direction, and second, because I had it turned around in my hand, I hit the “strobe” button instead of the “on” button. The result was that I blasted a retina-burning flash of light into pupils dilated by total darkness. I fell flat back in my sleeping bag in agony.

When I finally recovered, I stumbled out into the darkness only to find a small black porcupine just five feet from the mouth of our tarp, gnawing on some branches that some idiot had piled in the campsite. Now, porcupines in general are rather inflappable, but mountain porcupines are particularly phlegmatic, so this fellow wasn’t interested in going anywhere on anyone else’s timetable. While he continued to munch, I quickly rounded up any equipment that he might find tasty and made sure it was well under the tarp. (Porcupines crave salt, so they love to chew on pack straps, hip belts, hiking boots, and hiking pole handles.) Then I went to the outhouse, hoping that the little bugger wouldn’t choose to stumble into the tarp while I was gone. When I returned, he had moved on, but I spent much of the night lying there wondering what the heck I would do if one of the spiny little devils lumbered into the tarp. None of the scenarios I envisioned had a pretty ending.

When we got up the next morning, we had a long hike ahead of us, but it was all downhill. We came upon several avalance slopes with considerable expanses of snow to cross. On this particular slope, we could even walk underneath a large snow bridge.
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We added a little excitement to the hike by losing the trail on one of these slopes, but we were lucky enough to get back on track without any mishaps. The large spring runoff had also claimed one of the bridges on the trail, so we had to make our way across the creek the hard way. That, too, was uneventful, but a bit time-consuming. The trail met the highway near the Paint Pots, strange cold-water springs that burble up murky water laden with ochre.

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When we made it to the parking lot, we still had the biggest challenge of the day ahead of us – hitchiking back to the car. We tried different tactics. I tried the traditional, thumbs out approach on the highway. That bombed. Then Steven tried to approach people in the parking lot. That wasn’t any more successful. Finally we prevailed upon a couple eating lunch nearby (who had a massive rabbit cage in their van) to take Steven with them, crammed into the back seat beside the rabbit cage. They actually specified that they would only take Steven; I guess I looked too sinister.

At any rate, we were finally able to get on the road after about an hour and a half delay.

After that, it was a quick drive back to Calgary, where I dropped off Steven, and then I continued all the way home on the same day because I had a meeting out at Lac Pelletier Park the next day. Blecch! Work had started.

In August, Irene and I decided to repeat a trip we had done a few years ago, a short canoeing route in PA National Park. We took it extra easy on this trip, only paddling for a two to three hours on any given day, and using the rest of the time to lounge around camp and fish. Unfortunately, the fishing was less productive than on our earlier trip, but the lounging was good. Physically, the loop we did could be done in one day. We took four days to do it instead.

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We had good weather the whole trip. We were especially fortunate to have low wind on the two days we had to canoe on Kingsmere Lake. This was especially critical since we were using our old fibreglass canoe, which doesn’t ride all that high in the water. We were also lucky enough to have the campgrounds to ourselves in the smaller, backcountry campgrounds.

Every year the Deobald family gets together for at least one weekend of camping. Last year, because of mom’s 85th birthday, we gathered at the exotic Morse Campground, where we were serenaded by the ear-splitting blasts of hourly freight trains passing, only meters away. So this year we returned to Outlook Regional Park.

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Richard & Lauren

Richard and Lauren (Cal’s nephew) came down from Calgary early and brought Steven with them. After they spent the night, we all travelled together to Outlook on July 27th. All Cal’s siblings made it out this year, and many from the next generation as well: Richard & Lauren, Cindy & Rick, Derrick & Rachel, Nicki & Aaron, Kurt & Judy, Steven, and Aaron. Regan & Maureen made it out from Saskatoon for one day.

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Good thing we went for a walk, so Derrick could get his exercise Old railway bridge converted to walking path

Before we left for Outlook, I had spent a day making a “Kubb” set, an outdoor game purportedly dating back to the Vikings. It’s a great game in that it is incredibly simple to learn, yet it lends itself to some interesting strategy. The adults got about one game in before the kids claimed it for their own.

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Dayton moves in for the kill	Hannah shows off her form	As Hayden looks on

While some people took advantage of the proximity of the golf course, for most of us, the weekend consisted of eating, drinking, lazing around, a little shopping, some visiting, and a whole lot more eating.

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Nicki and Dayton load up	Lauren, Richard, Kurt, & Judy

Today, Irene and I decided to take advantage of the fact that there was finally some snow in the country Rumour had it that Cypress had received a foot of snow in the past few weeks, so there was actually a chance of some decent cross-country skiing.So we packed a lunch and headed off. We arrived at the park just before noon and skied until 1:00 before we stopped for lunch. The snow was all right where it hadn’t been disturbed, but there is a lot of logging activity in the park right now, so a number of roads and trails had been plowed to allow access. (The logging is part of a new “forest management” policy; the park is full of old-growth lodgepole pine which are overdue for a burn-off.)

[Editor's note: picture lost in computer "incident"]
Shortly after lunch, we encountered this girl just a few metres off the trail. She had been bedded down, but she managed to stand up as we slowly skied past her. But she wasn’t going anywhere, and we probably took close to five minutes to ski by and take 16 pictures, most of which were of her hind end.
The Moose Checks Us Out

After we were done skiing, we had coffee at the resort and watched the birds and the squirrels at the feeders (chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, red crossbills, and a downy woodpecker). The pictures of those didn’t turn out so well, as I had to take them through the window, so you’ll just have to trust me.

We finished off the day by having supper at Fred and Barney’s in Maple Creek. taking advantage of a gift certificate some of my karate students had bought for me.