“Want to go for a ride”? She said. “I thought, ‘Geez, Lady, I’m a Lab! What do you think?’” Well, that was back in May and we didn’t get on the road until July1st, but what a ride it has been so far! We pushed for two days to get to Anacortes, Washington to be certain we got on the ferry to Sydney, Vancouver Island, BC on July 4th. We did it and I tell you ferrys are a blast. Really nice people from all over the world who think big yellow dogs are really swell, which suits me just fine because the rubs, scratches and hugs are great. Small children are easy for an up close and personal “hello” and seem to enjoy a wet salutation for the most part. The bigger parent types are a little funny about kids and dogs ex-changing saliva, but how else is a guy to know who they are? You can’t always greet two-leggeds in a proper canine fashion – they really get funny about that! We spent one of the nights when we were going up boring Highway 5 at Shasta. We found a great spot at an abandoned sawmill with great trees and bushes and a grand view of the mountain. No cost, no hookups, no problems until the trains came by – big surprise. The next night was in Ridgefield, WA. Again we found a spot to make a Lab’s heart sing; a wildlife reserve with a gentle river, birds, marshes, wide open spaces, you name it. Great, except NO DOGS ALLOWED and they close at 9 pm with no overnighters. Oh well, we found a sweet spot in a new subdivision development, with level pavement, tall, fun grasses and again really quiet until the train came through! So what is this train stuff? Back to the ferry-
I must say I am really starting to find this water thing sort of exciting. The Pod drives onto a big platform and then everything gets quiet and doesn’t move at all. We can get out and walk all over and sniff tires and ‘hello’ kids and the air is really interesting to smell and then, WOW, everything starts to move – not the Pod - everything. The whole boat moves. First time, I sort of got shaky and not sure where things were, but then I got it and I figured we were on water,( too bad not in it), but on it and moving too. Cool. The wind came up and things really smelled interesting. So we got lots of wind, people, kids, good smells and movement then back in the Pod, off load at Sydney, traveling toward Victoria and the south island.
We went over to Sooke, actually East Sooke, which is west of Victoria, to visit a great group of dogs and women who all own a home together right on the water. (Oh yeah! Water feels great, but tastes really bad!) We rested up that evening and went to Victoria the next day to see the Tibetan exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum. I didn’t go, just stayed in the Pod and relaxed. There are a couple of really short canine friends here – Mikey, a Corgie and Ollie, a Lab/Corgie mix. Now I really don’t mind short friends, but they do bark a lot about everything around them and sometimes it’s hard not to join in. I think a guy should save up what he wants to vocalize about for really important things like other dogs with attitudes, or bears, or strange sounds or the joy of running or……. You get my drift. Next day we headed up Hwy 19A along the east side of Vancouver Island, toward Campbell River and into Shelter Bay, to stay at the RV Park. My gals fixed a really great chicken dinner for friends Margaret and Anita. They said that was the first company they had cooked for in the Pod. All I know is the leftovers were great.
Next day we stopped at Willow Point to view the results of the annual Cedar Log Carving Contest on the beach. There were three categories, Novice, Amateur, and professional. Guess the carvers have a set amount of time to carve what ever the log suggests. (Sorry I don’t know how much time they were given.) The results are really wonderful, as you can see. Seems lots of talented people live in this area. On to Chemainus, an old, dying logging town until someone got the idea to invite local painters to come and paint murals all over the decaying and abandoned buildings, back in the 1980’s. They had to follow the town’s history in their work, but their individual styles were encouraged. There are about 36 murals and 12 sculptures throughout the village, depicting various aspects of a lumber mill town and its Chinese labor force throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. These murals are now world famous and the town has a new tourist industry to keep it alive. The ice cream the ladies shared with me was pretty memorable, too. We pulled into the RV Park at Cluxsewe on the North Island coast, in an area known as Port McNeill. Wow, what a beautiful place. We could run or walk about 200 feet and we were right in the water. The gals did lots of things around here for the next 4 days. They went down to Telegraph Cove; a tiny village of 6 permanent residents which began in 1912 as a single-man telegraph office. Now the Stubb’s Island Whale Watching Tours are a big business and a fantastic adventure. The ladies were out about 6 hours and saw a family pod of orcas, headed up by a 64 year old Grandmother orca and all of her generations of off-spring.
They come into Johnstone Strait to a particular spot to ‘rub’ on the smooth stones near the beach. These are presumably the only orcas to have this behavior anywhere in the world. Marine biologists really don’t know why they do this but surmise ‘it just feels good’. Personally, I can’t think of anything that feels better than a good RUB! The group also saw a humpback whale, eagles and a few dolphins. The perfect trip was even better when a huge double rainbow came out just at the end of the day. Of course that was the perfect ‘Kodak” moment!
Everyone, including yours truly, went over to the First Nations’ village on Alert Bay on 7/10 to see the world’s tallest totem pole at 175 feet, plus the U’mista Cultural Center.
This center, opened in 1980, houses one of the finest collections of carved Potlatch masks of the Kwakwaka’wakw culture. (No, I can’t pronounce it, even if I could talk!) Seems these native folk were told by the white man that they could not sing or dance or give gifts, back in 1922, because it was considered too ‘heathen’. So they had all of their masks and costumes taken away and were forbidden to be joyful. Of course, they just went ‘underground’ and continued when it was stormy weather and no one could get to the island to check on them. The revered items were sent to private collections and museums and not repatriated until 1980 when the Museum of Man returned them to the island to be housed in the new tribal-built U’mista Center. I wasn’t allowed inside, but the carvings, huge cedar log columns and paintings on the outside were beautiful and the gals said the hall of masks and the documentary films made you cry in sympathy and with some guilt about this whole affair. It is brave and wonderful that these First Nation People did not give up their traditions and beliefs and are now revitalizing their community through the efforts and promotion of their culture. We walked a lot in the village, saw the cemetery with it’s great collection of totem poles, had a good sandwich in the memorial park in the center of town, met a couple huskies and a lab-cross, but with a couple of attitudes too. I told them I was just visiting, but they acted like I wanted to takeover the town or something. We ‘talked’ about it a bit and they went into the local bar and I went on to the cultural center. Some dogs are so provincial and narrow-minded! Then we all drove south to Campbell River the next day and took another fun, but short, ferry trip over to Quadra Island to the We Wai Kai Campground out on beautiful Rebecca Spit, just east of Heriot Bay on the east side of the island. This spot is also run by First Nations People and was some of the best swimming I have had to date. Mikey and I got to chase sticks and splash around for a really long time. It was heavenly! 
The ladies did a bunch of stuff the three days we were there. Kae, Renee and Carolyn went fishing with a friend of Renee’s, Jim Hall. He took them out for about 9 hours and they motored all through the many islands and straits, looking at the majestic scenery of mountains, clouds, trees and granite. They also managed to limit on cod, prawns and oysters. I liked that part because they came back and cooked a great fresh seafood dinner for all of us. I really loved all the fresh stuff and the tons of butter too! They managed to catch some fish to feed a couple of eagles in one of the coves. Quite an adventure and they got some great pictures of the eagles swooping in for the fish that were tossed into the water. I would have had a really hard time not leaping for those big birds myself. Good thing I didn’t get to go! The rest of the ladies went out on a wildlife boat tour to see if they could spot bears and eagle, etc. The tour was about 4 hours but they didn’t see much as the pilot had one speed - fast - and also had fuel line problems. Guess he was more interested in getting back to Heriot Bay than looking for wildlife or maybe that’s where the ‘wildlife’ really was! The gang then went over to a world famous art studio on Quadra, the Drachukla Studio. Ed and Ethel Drachukla have lived and worked here for 45 years and their labor of love shows. The grounds are landscaped , manicured and filled with flowers, trees and sculptures at every turn. There are 40 acres total with 14.7 acres right on the water and some of the best views around. The studio is an adventure too; from the koi pond to the gallery to the deck and all the oils, watercolors, sculptures and prints. The place is for sale for about $1.7 million American and would make a wonderful destination retreat or resort. Coke, Kae and I split off from the rest of the crew yesterday and decided to travel over to the Pacific Ocean side of Vancouver Island for a few days. We took Hwy. 4 west and stopped at this really beautiful forest of huge Douglas fir trees called Cathedral Grove.
Some of these beauties are 800 years old. The grove is littered with many fallen giants because a terrific windstorm came through on Jan.1, 1997 and blew them down. They are left where they fell to provide nutrients for the new growth and to let sunshine into this heavy rainforest. This was a terrific walk and the smells were unbelievable! I never smelled so much old stuff and moss and mold in one spot in my whole life. It was great. We decided to stop in a funky little RV park outside of Port Alberni just to get this journal updated, (it’s hard to get Kae to understand what I want to say sometimes, but she listens pretty well and fills in the spaces when I have to sleep in the Pod.) This park has a Japanese Restaurant in it, but Kae is going to cook up the last of the fresh cod tonight. That suits me as I don’t really like wasabi very much. Today we are off to Tofino and the Pacific Rim Park. We have to cut across the central island on Hwy.4 west. Boy, what a beautiful drive through mountain and river country. This island must be solid granite to judge by the amount they had to drill and blast through just to put this road in. The creeks are like every 100 meters, I swear! We stopped a few times at great creek places for picnics and walks much to my delight. Port Alberni is a different place with some fun things to see, but we were tired and the weather sucked for a day so we holed up in a funky RV park attached to a motel and Japanese sushi restaurant, next to a cemetery. Great jogging place for me, but I wondered if Cokie and Kae might have found it sorta strange. We laid back for a rainy day then headed west to Ucluelet and Torfino. Ukee, ( as the locals say it – thank Goodness!), is no big whoops. We sorta drove through and headed for Tofino. Now if you like tourists, love higher prices and think cute coves and wildlife tours are fun, Tofino is for you. Personally, I found some interesting smells, thought the local skate board park was cool, enjoyed sharing an ice cream cone, loved the tall ship sailing out in the harbor and the local wharf with First Nation folks was a lot more interesting. 
We decided to head back east toward Sooke and our friends, with maybe a stay over some place. We actually ended up in a Provincial Park, along Sproat Lake, called Taylor Arm and found a sweet, quiet, free space to dry camp. The most fun of the whole day was seeing 6 black bear on our way to and from Tofino, right beside and across the highway! Kae saw a bear butt first on her side of the road, then within a few hundred meters we saw a mama bear and her twin cubs dash across. I could smell and see them and boy, were they interesting!! Never smelled anything like that before. Then, guess because I was so alert, we saw two more, eating berries right beside the road. What a treat. Cokie couldn’t get the camera out fast enough to get any pictures, so you will have to take my word for it. I think I heard a couple during the night as we were dry camping at Taylor Arm, but I couldn’t swear to it. We headed south toward Victoria the next day stopping at a couple of cool spots along the way. One beautiful, but frustrating place, was Quilicum Falls Provincial Park. Got out and hiked to the lower falls area. Frustrating, since I couldn’t get down into that clear, beautiful water. Oh well! We made pretty good time and got to Sooke about 5PM to find Margaret and Bonnie ready to take us all over to Wally and Marta’s house for dinner. What great folks! When they found out that I was left back in East Sooke in the Pod, they insisted that I should be rescued and brought to their place to run free and swim in the bay and everything! Well they were so right. What a blast! I even learned to dive off the dock. Wow! I was really exhausted when we got home and slept like a puppy.
Next day we went to the Butchart Gardens in the mid-morning. What a treat for folks and dogs alike! There are so many beautiful scenes with sweet smelling little kids and flowers, too. I was trying to take all of it in through every sense I had. Four hours later, I was exhausted and barely able to stay awake in the car. But this was a rich and wonderful day.
Kae, Carolyn and Bonnie are crazy! They got up at 5AM to go out to catch salmon. I wonder why salmon are such early risers. Cokie, Margaret and Anita went into Sooke for breakfast and then we went for a walk. We went out to a place called Rebecca Spit, but it was too steep and rocky to get down to the water. We are planning to leave tomorrow afternoon and take another ferry trip over to Port Angeles, WA. I love this changing territory, new place and adventure every day sort of life. I think we are all loving this retirement gig.
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