Today began with another of Jim's excellent breakfasts and a good chat about a wide range of subjects, from salmon farming to fracking. He's a really interesting chap to talk to and we wish we could have spent more time getting to know him better.We then packed up the mobile wardrobe with walking gear, swimming gear, food, water, maps etc and headed off to explore a little more of the local area. Our first stop was Mount Washington Alpine Resort, a ski area which is popular in the summer with hikers and mountain bikers. After our training at Whistler last time we were fearless about hopping onto the chairlift and were soon whisked the mile to the top of the mountain. The views were amazing although there was quite a bit of cloud swirling around, but we were plagued by clouds of flies so didn't hang around too long. After a quick picnic lunch we then drove a short way down to Strathcona Alpine Meadows where we really enjoyed walking on the beautifully maintained trails, many of them on boardwalks as the meadows are largely fenland. There were loads of wild flowers, and we encountered squirrels, a StellarsJay, and most excitingly a garter snake sunning itself on one of the boardwalks. The photos are all below as it's very challenging to use Blogger successfully on the IPad!
Our next port of call was the town of Campbell River, about 40K north of Comox. We had quick look round then drove out to see Painter's Lodge, which I've definitely heard of via Julian I think? Finally we visited Elk Falls which has a stunning new suspension bridge paid for by the local Rotary Club.
Fish & chips on the harbour back in Campbell River rounded off an excellent day. We will be sad to leave tomorrow as we love both our accommodation and the whole area.
Snakes and chair lifts.........wonderful! Not got Jon on a mountain bike?
ReplyDeleteare you both over the jetlag? Enjoying blog. Joke alert - When you see bear tracks in the wood, how can you tell if it's a brown bear or a grizzly bear......... Well you look carefully at the poo, the brown bear poo has berries seeds etc whereas the grizzly bear poo has bells and pepper spray in it.
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ReplyDeleteGreat to see that all is going well. Jon is certainly looking the part on the trail. We did indeed stay at Painters Lodge and we were lucky enough to have a waterside room with nice view, we could watch the float planes take off and land from our balcony.
ReplyDeleteVery good photo of the snake and very brave, not sure we would have hung around long enough to take a photo.
Know exactly what you mean using Blogger with an iPad, can't your IT support fix it.
Looking forward to the next post x.