Week 38 - CANADA - September 16 - September 22, 2024

MONDAY the 16th - we went to the Maritime Museum in Campbell river.

This was the boat that was restored.  I kept thinking it was like the boat Ivan was on when he was in Alaska.  We were the only people on the "tour", and the docent really told us a lot of stuff.

I was really excited to see this boat because I imagined that it was like the boat that Ivan worked on one

summer when he worked in Alaska.

 

Kitchen

Bunk Room

We left Campbell River and headed north toward Port Hardy which was the northernmost place we went on Vancouver Island.  We stayed at the Quatse Regional Park.  The whole campground was like camping on a wet sponge inside of a carwash...very moist.

I think of lot of the campers here were also waiting to get on to the ferry.

We left Campbell River and headed north toward Port Hardy which was the northernmost place we went on Vancouver Island.  We stayed at the Quatse Regional Park.  The whole campground was like camping on a wet sponge inside of a carwash...very moist.

TUESDAY the 17th
Our goal today was to get information about the ferry to Prince Rupert.  That involved going to Ft McNeill which is the departure point.  Yep  -- departure point...we could have skipped this bit.  

Port Hardy is a cute little town.  We walked all over the town.  It was raining.  Went to a museum that, luckily, was free because it wasn't all that good.  

Had lunch at A&W - really good Teen Burgers.

Did a worth pass-by of the World's Biggest Burl.  I think it looks like a fat guinea pig.

The only free place to park for the night was at a campground by Lake Georgie.  It was out of town, on a long (very long) windy road, with dense forest on either side.  We weren't sure we were going the right way.

Finally!!

A quiet, isolated place to park.

And the lake.....too bad we didn't have our canoe.

WEDNESDAY the 18th
For excitement, today, we decided to go to Port Alice which was reached by driving a long way through a deep forest.

Fort Alice was really a  cute place.  If we ever have to move to Canada, I vote for going to Port Alice.  I was originally a lumber town run by brothers whose mother's name was Alice.  There were nice houses, a cute apartment complex, and one grocery store were we bought chicken for lunch.

Leaving Port Alice and on our way back to Port Hardy we decided to explore to Coal Harbor, which used to b a port from which a lot of coal was shipped.  In contrast to Port Alice this was a dismal place......except for this museum which received rave reviews.  WE had a difficult fining the place because there were NO SIGNS anywhere.  

The museum was in this huge old warehouse that appeared to be falling apart.  Check out the wall near the floor.

There were three old guys in the office....just talking.  But over the years they must have collected a bazillion things.

Jaw bones of a whale.

All manner of old cars....like this 1928 Model A Ford

Or a red truck which works, but moves very slowly.

Maybe you want to learn about chain saws.

Wrenches?

Telephones?

There were so many other things...but we were numb.  We'd heard about the Hornsby Historical Site and.....who knew about this?

Big day - it was time to head back to the ferry terminal.  Our ferry left at 5:30 am on Thursday....so we parked, in line, on Wednesday and spent the night!

THURSDAY - the 19th - We were on the ferry the whole day...from before the sunrise and after the sunset.

We were given seat assignments, luckily, ours were in the front row where we could easily see out over the bow of the ship.

We went up the "Inland Passage".

The scenery was beautiful, but the shore was far away and we didn't see flocks of whales or birds of prey grabbing fish out of the water.  It was cold outside and there was a lot of rain.

We had lunch

This is 7pm

We finally got to Prince Rupert, drove out of the ferry and onto the highway where we parked and spent the night waiting for the ferry to Haiida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands).

Friday the 20th

Up early and boarder the ferry at 9:45 am.

Simpler accommodations on this ferry

  

At Last!!! We were on Haida Gwaii

We arrived at Skidegate on Graham Island about 5 pm and following our maps, made it to the Haydn Turner Campsite.

SATURDAY the 21st

You can see on the map that the campsite is on a peninsula.  We took the trail and went out to the water.

There is a municipal cemetery at the end of the campground which was interesting.

Getting ready to head out for the  day, Dad determined that the truck battery was d....e....a....d!  GULP.  Yep - should have gotten a new one in Oregon.  A campground neighbor came and helped get the truck started.  We found an auto parts store which, miraculously, had the correct battery.....but no mechanic.....and Dad didn't have the right tools (or the know how) to do the truck's battery.  The auto parts guy said to go down the road a ways to big red warehouse where there'd be a guy who could help.  Did that.  Dad wandered around this heavy duty machine shop and found a man who said he could do it - he spoke French.  Thirty minutes and $30.00 later, we were good to go.

Our first stop was the Haida Gwaii museum in Skidegate.

It is a huge museum - numerous buildings and hundreds of displays.  Beautifully done.  We looked at everything until we became saturated with native Canadian history.   It appears that the Canadians treated the natives as Americans did Americans did.

After the museum we decided to find a beach campground on Moresby island - the second biggest island.  We drove east to Sandspit - then south - then west for a long time through the thick forests. 

And finally came to the Gray Bay Campground - a series of about ten campsites right along the beach.

We picked the best one!  Backed up almost to the sand and parked for the night.

It was a magical place.

SUNDAY the 22nd

It was time to go---more sites to see on the big island -Graham Island.  We headed back to the ferry terminal and drove north to Port Clements - like a movie set for a Canadian movie.  We stayed ag a local campground but couldn't see anything because there  were too many tall trees.

Climbed a animal viewing tower but didn't see any birds.

Thought about a little stroll in the woods - but no room for humans.