Today (Thursday) we hired Jude and his boat to take us up to Canouan so that we could take some water samples around some of the resorts. It as very rainy and windy, and quite a bumpy boat ride. Some highlights were a stop at Charlton for brunch (bake macaroni, salad, rice, Kingfish. That fish is pretty darn good. The interesting yacht I posted earlier was spotted, it is the Kamaxitha. The rain and the wind interfered with much picture taking, so did running out of battery power.

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Outside getting burnt at midday testing the parafoil and kite aerial photography equipment on Big Sands beach, north shore of island. Then wandering around Clifton (conch shell corrals for live conch holding, finding sea turtle bones), and in the evening giving 3 folk a ride to Chatham Bay (west end of island where their boat is moored, their blog here) and being treated to lobster, mahi-mahi (dorado), plantains, salad.

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We drove the road east from Clifton, through Ashton until the road ends abruptly after a steep hill. Back tracking a way we headed up a newly cut road in the hillside and had a look around. We found a tamarind tree, with pods full of the super sour seeds and pulp.

Caught the fast ferry from St. Vincent to Union Island yesterday, arrived here about 6 pm. Spent some time today looking around the island a bit, checking out the cottage friend Stephen rented, and having lunch (conch stew and rice). A day of firsts for me – first time touching the water of the Caribbean, first time seeing a coconut palm, picking fallen coconuts (most were dry, one still a bit green and had water inside), first time eating conch. I am quickly turning from the whitest guy on the island to the pinkest.

Panorama of Clifton area this morning between rain showers.

My first coconut, cottage behind is where we will move to tomorrow.

First wading in the Caribbean – was a strong rip right here

Pink house on the hill where I am staying right now, taken from restaurant in Clifton.

Nice chicken grill set up

There a re a few impressive yachts around, but this one is especially interesting.

After a quarter of the rum had gone, I got all “Hitchensy” and stood on the roof top patio in the warm humid air feeling world weary and bottle-wise.

I’ve finally arrived in St. Vincent, all in one piece but for one bit of luggage lost by LIAT on last leg from Barbados to St. V (the bicycle, yes, I was humping a fekkin bike with me). Plane was a Dash 8, almost a bookend to the Air Canada Jazz Dash 8 I took from Victoria to Vancouver the day before, but this one had more legroom and a teeny bit shabbier. Not as much concern about cockpit door security too.

On Airbus 319 from Montreal to Barbados I got punchy and bored (understandable after the hell that was the red eye from Vancouver to Montreal). Suddenly I saw clouds. I mean “saw” them. Look, by that time my neck was sore from all the head-snaps of micro sleeps and I probably had moved on to an alternate realm of common sense, but crikey didn’t the clouds around Bermuda and on south look text book?

Now hold on, before I even got as far as Bermuda I had grabbed the GoPro to shoot what I thought was the last part of N. America I’d see on the trip. The flight line goes straight down past Boston and out to run over Bermuda and on to Barbados. I can’t be arsed to id this part of New England, but will post the riveting vid.

And then the clouds just south of Bermuda…it got even better as we closed in on Barbados, but even in my fevered state I knew that lots of cloud pics would, in the morning, seem silly

I thought I could make a circle route coming back on the north shore of the Diversion and Bear reservoirs, but active logging and an unexpected gate foiled me. Ran out of daylight and camped in slash. Next day was raining and I had brought the wrong fishing rod so I had no real excuse for not coming home.

Still had skinny summer road tires on (Agilis 81). They look like train wheels.

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This last weekend I went on a short trip with 2 other Vanagon owners. Explored a bit of the south Island and camped one night at north end of the beach at Port Renfrew.

Courtney on the Vanagon list asked about the back roads north of Pavillion. I’ve travelled around that area a few times and here is a brief description of route and some pics. This is all form memory and google maps to jog my old mind, I apologise in advance for  any mistakes.

You leave paved roads near Pavillion, up and west through the village.

The road climbs moderately until you get onto the bench lands. The road when I travelled on it was dusty and in places muddy. I can see how it could be quite messy and difficult in wet weather. Follow the meandering road as it heads roughly northward toward Jesmond. The Fraser will be to your left, down out of view, but the other side is visible. Then the road turns north east, away from the Fraser towards Kelly lake. There is a small campsite at the lake, Downing Prov. Park. Continue on the Jesmond road, through forest and you might come across a road branching off to the west. I think its the first road on the left. If you want take this road for a more scenic route.

That road goes through forest then down towards the Fraser, steep (25%) and narrow. Once out in the open the road turns north, following the Fraser. The Big Bar Creek cable ferry is down there. Spectacular view across the river, colourful eroded hills on the other side. Follow that road north along the Fraser, sage brush, cactus, dusty roads, rolling up and down until you get to Big Bar Creek.

We then turn north east up Big Bar Creek until we get back to Jesmond road. Turn left and drive north. You’ll get to an intersection, to the right (east) will take you to Little Big Bar lake (forestry campsite there, was nice until the trees cut down due to pine beetle kill) and further east is Big Bar Lake Prov. campsite. But we are heading northwest, on and on until we get to the Dog Creek/Canoe Creek road. Turn west and down that valley to the village of Canoe Creek.

Now we are back at the Fraser and I have some pics of just north of  Canoe Creek.

And then you come to the suspension bridge across the Fraser.

If you cross the bridge you head northwest through the Gang Ranch and finally end up at the Williams lake to Bella Coola at around Lees Corner. We have taken this route to get to Nemiah Valley, a very worthwhile trip. But Courtney wanted to stay on the east side of the Fraser and head north to Dog Creek and further on to Alkali Lake. So don’t cross the bridge, drive north on the dusty road – and in places the dust is like talc – and you will get to both destinations.

Some more info on this area here, “Vanishing Jesmond” and here “Bicycling High Bar road…“

I”m just home from another overnight trip, with my son this time. I switched tires to the Nokian CS set and hoped to do a tire comparison, but the snow at spot where I had camped 2 nights before had softened and so i really could not honestly compare the tires with the Vredestein Winter Comtracs used before. We decided to move on, and we ended up camped on a pretty dismal part of Granite main logging road (I had got stuck just a little further up this road 2 days before).
Here is the google map ref link for the camp spot on road. The sort of sideways heart shaped logged logged area to the west of the green arrow (“campsite”) is where we skied to the next day.
google maps ref

On the way to that spot we had to drive past Port Renfrew . By the way, you might know Port Renfrew as the southern entry point to the west coast trail.

It looks almost tropical, not typical, in the first two pics. The eastward looking shot is where we were heading, not much snow visible. We went up “Granite Creek main”, not quite as far as where I got stuck previously and decided to camp overnight by the side of the road. Next day one of us decided to sleep in. Then on to slog along logging road to the heart shaped cut block seen on the google map ref. The snow was heavily covered in rime/hoarfrost, and the area was mostly second growth with a few reminders of the size of trees there before. Looking back to where the van is parked, near the base of that vague diagonal line at the left of the picture, then looking forward at the cut block… pretty close to a 45 degree angle, hard work cutting trees on that, eh? Then found some sun to have some chocolate and on back to the van. We headed home via Cowichan Lake, just as I did the trip before.

Just back from an over night trip around the south tip of Vancouver Island. Starting point of the slideshow is the one overlooking a gravel pit, tiny dot in the ocean is an optimistic surfer. Left the paved road at China Beach day use area and then headed up northish towards San Juan ridge. The snow is old and hard, and icy underneath. Spent the night up there (48.47573 N 124.06610 W), the jury rigged platinum catalyst heater helped to keep van interior above zero. Next day, defrost inside of windscreen and then back down to paved road and on westward to Loss Creek. Up the road alongside the creek/river, getting more brush scratches on the van, found someone’s hunting camp and then 100 metres further the road is out. So back out to pavement, on past Port Renfrew and on to road heading to Cowichan Lake. I took a look up Granite main logging road as far as I could go, saw shotgun shells, got stuck in the snow, saw wolf tracks, and came back down to paved. Further along the road went up logging spur mentioned in the April trip report. The road too steep and slippery to be able to get to where we camped before, came across a pretty tough obstacle, lots of ice. Back then to the main road and on to Lake Cowichan then back down the island highway to home.

Back to blogging, catching up… here is short trip report I posted on the Samba about recent trip. Back from 6 days of exploring Nitinat and Klanawa watersheds on Vancouver Island. Started with us heading to long time fav spot on Nitinat river. Stopped the van to check on access trail and found it to be well blocked. We were pretty disappointed, and then more so when the van would not start. I discovered that the red/black ignition wire had come adrift from starter solenoid, and on the syncro its a bear to re-attach. Light was fading so we managed to push the van back up traill a bit and then push start. We headed to higher ground, up Worthless creek logging spur road, to about 500 m elevation and camped over looking Nitinat river valley. Google map ref Pics show low clouds around around 8 next morning. I’m sure some of you know what this is: After a lot of cursing I managed to get wire onto solenoid, and we headed down and then north to the Klanawa watershed. We were looking for a nice secluded riverside spot, and went down a lot of old dead end spurs, most of them with alders overgrowing the sides, so the van got a lot of scratching and rubbing. no one else on the roads there, maybe due to the fire restrictions? Who knows, but we stayed away from “central main” logging road which I think gets most of the traffic to Bamfield. We ended up at an ok, but not great spot by a bridge on Tsucowis river/creek, right where Gorge creek enters. No traffic went by us when we were there (infact we didnt see or hear another vehicle for the 3 days in the Klanawa). Google map ref Then on to explore more of the Klanawa, heading west, almost to pacific rim national park boundary… we thought we might be able to get access to Blue lake, but no luck, road that might have done it was blocked on purpose by large cedar log, active logging not far away (logging right up to park boundaries.) And again, more fruitless spur road exploring (btw, lots of berry laden bear poop around). We were getting really frustrated and finally, after a long, and again, failed attempt to get to a map target (this time Dorothy and Arthur lakes) we headed back toward Nitinat. On the way we stopped at Flora Lake forest service camp site, just for a look… Years ago we had discounted this site as too close to “main” roads and very dark and buggy. But this time, it was sunny and no one was about. So we stayed a night. The lake was lovely, but the forest around was still buggy despite the recent dry weather, and really looked like “Mirkwood”. Next day back into Nitinat valley and west to the village of Nitinat to get some gas. Then eastward, back up the river and we found a road down to the river. It seemed like a popular spot for locals, road was clear of brush and there were signs of camping. But no one else there and we set up camp. We spent a couple of days there. You can see the trail from the main road, and it ends at the top of the google maps ref, at the wihite gravel bar on the inverted V of the river. Google map ref Further upstream you might be able to make out the rocky “falls”, we walked up the river to do some fishing there, you can see the large trout in the clear water, quite amazing. No luck landing one, but some fun had hooking then loosing 🙂 Well that’s about it. It was a real shakedown trip for the van, the roads were pretty harsh in spots. Scratched van, right hand side mudflaps hit and loosened from body, front right bumper strip lost, couple of dents here and there, sort of par for the course. No real trouble apart from starter wire except some periods, when van hot, of bucking and jerking on part throttle and acceleration. I looked for all the usual suspects but found no smoking gun. It went away after we gassed up in Nitinat, so for the time being I am putting it down to bad gas. Oh, and the Dometic fridge worked flawlessly 🙂

Went on a quick overnight trip with my son. Ended up on a logging spur road between Cayacuse and Port Renfrew.

Then on to Port Renfrew and back around to home. Snaps below, note: roads were steeper, and snow deeper than they appear in the pics 🙂
The big Sitka Spruce (Harris Creeks spruce, and Harris creek also shown in the rocky sided gorge pics, taken at different points on the creek) is bigger than it appears. Base of tree as wide as the Vanagon is long.
Hey you trendy modern free heel skiers, don’t laugh at my mismatched poles and 80’s vintage TUAs with those wimpy bindings.
Oh and one more thing, skeleton pic… we found this just off a logging road. Looks like 2 skeletons in that pic, a third was a few feet away. No legs or skulls.
Update: looking at skeletons again, I’m guessing Black Bear. Lack of feet and skull good clues too.