Travels with Jacob

2005-12-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

xxx

Emigrant Lake from the campground - Ashland, OR

2005-10-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

Emigrant Lake from the campground
This is where I�m camped a few miles outside of Ashland, OR. This is quite a lovely town, though perhaps a little too self-consciously so for my taste - and besides, they don�t allow dogs in their city park. Jacob says, �Hiss, boo!� So do I.

Nevertheless, I had a good time yesterday exploring galleries and clothing boutiques, too many of which were too much to my taste – and too expensive for my pocketbook. It was fun, though, and I did buy myself a patchwork vest that I’m quite pleased with.

There are four new entries below, catching up.

I'm back!

2005-10-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

I’m currently in Ashland, OR, parked outside the Suds ‘N Duds laundromat. Laundromats seem to be catching on to Wifi as a selling point – at least here in the States.

I’m sorry to have been so remiss in posting here. Connections were hard to find in Canada, and a good part of my time there I was moving around a lot so I didn’t take the time to locate possible Wifi Hotspots. My Verizon phone connections there were almost always Roaming, so even if my data cable hadn’t broken, I wouldn’t have wanted to use it to connect to the internet.

Anyway, I’m back, and will try to keep in touch fairly frequently. I’ve edited the entries below so that they show dates that approximate when I was actually there, even though I really sent them to the blog today. As you remember, you read the dates “uphill.” The last entry that most of you have read was Revelstoke on August 21; there’s a second Revelstoke entry that I’ve added today. It turns out that you'll have to go into the August and September archives for some of these posts.

I’m now caught up to about mid-October; I’ll try to do the rest in the next few days.

Wishbone Campground -- Columbia River Gorge

2005-09-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

This is a delightfully funky campground on the WA side of the Columbia River, a few miles east of Hood River. Before I got this far east, I camped at Beacon Rock State Park (also on the WA side), not in the main campground, which is heavily forested and across the road from the river, but down on the river at the boat moorage where there are two campsites next to the river, and which is also much more open. Wishbone campground is set in scattered small oak trees, with lots of birds, especially Western Bluebirds.

Here's how I got to Deception Pass

2005-09-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

From Quadra Island, I took the ferry back to Campbell River and drove south to the Living Forest campground outside of Nanaimo. I stayed there for a couple of nights, but it was pretty cold, so I decided to head south. I discovered that I could take an early morning BC ferry from Crofton, about 25 miles south, to Vesuvius on Saltspring Island. I explored the island for most of the day and then took another BC ferry in the late afternoon from Fulford Harbour to Swartz Bay at the northern tip of the peninsula that extends north from Victoria. I didn’t like Saltspring nearly as well as Quadra Island.

At Swartz Bay, I spent the night at McDonald Park, then drove a few miles south to Sidney, BC, where I caught the Washington State ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and connected to another WA State ferry to Orcas Island, where I camped at Moran State Park. I chose Orcas Island over San Juan because there’s no public campground on San Juan, but I think I would have liked San Juan better; what I saw of Friday Harbor during the hour wait for the ferry connection was nice (including a small group of peace demonstrators), and more desirable still, while in line for the ferry out of Orca, I met a couple who told me that there’s a place on San Juan Island that overlooks a strait where they saw lots of orcas.

From Orca Island, I took another WA ferry to Anacortes, and then drove to Deception Pass State Park.

Most of the campgrounds I stayed in on Vancouver and the other islands were set in deep forest. (The exeptions were Cluxewe [which, by the way, is pronouned like “cluck seaweed” without the “d”] and Heriot Bay. As the weather moved into fall, it was getting colder and darker, so I decided to go south to the Columbia River gorge.

2005-09-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Through the morning fog you can just barely make out the bridge over Deception Pass, between Fidalgo and Whidby Islands, at the eastern end of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. I stayed at the state park here. Hint: click on the picture to make it bigger.

2005-09-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

From Cluxewe, I went to Quadra Island via a 20 minute ferry ride from Campbell River. Quadra Island is lovely. I would have stayed there longer than 2 � days if the major campground, We Kai Tai, had been open. Both We Kai Tai and the Heriot Bay Inn campground, where I did stay, are on Heriot Bay, on the east side of the island. The views in the bay are wonderful, and the ones on the outer, eastern side of Rebecca Spit, which forms the southern part of Heriot Bay, are even better. The island is partly forested and partly small farms. There are a lot of artists living there. One of the things I especially liked about travelling in Canada was the support they give their artists. Signs directing you to artist studios are posted on the highway. I definitely preferred Quadra to Salt Spring Island, where I went next for a couple of days.

I took a kayak lesson while I was there and learned how to get in and out of the kayak, as well as how to paddle it. We then took a two hour trip around the bay.

2005-09-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

A sunny day at Cluxewe. This was the furthest north that I went on my travels. Since I was there shortly before the equinox, the days were about 12 hours long, just as they would be anywhere, including Los Angeles, where I've lived for the last 29 years. But the sun at noon was noticeably lower in the sky. This place felt remote, even though there were fishing and even cruise boats coming through the strait, and the campground was only about 2 miles from the main road, and 7 miles from the small town of Port McNeill.

Cluxewe

2005-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Across the gravel drive from my campsite was this estuary. Here you see it at high tide. The Great Blue Heron hunted here.

Sunset at Cluxewe Campground

2005-09-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

2005-09-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Jacob on the beach at Cluxewe, late afternoon. I liked Cluxewe a lot. The front edge of my campsite was high-tide line. I spent ten days here, mostly just watching the tide come in and out, walking on the beach, seeing bald eagles, harlequin ducks, loons (I didn�t know that they were ever on the ocean, but they spend the winter here),stellar jays, and ravens.

2005-09-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

I camped here at Loveland Bay two nights. It's about 15 miles from Campbell River. Then I camped a couple of nights at Elk Falls campground, right outside of Campbell River, so I could do town stuff - laundry, etc. The guy who checked me in where I got the oil changed in the van suggested that I might like Cluxewe campground, near Port McNeill, so that was my next stop.

2005-09-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

After Elaine and Laura left, I went north to Campbell River. This is the cemetery there.

Jacob on the way back from Bamfield

2005-09-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

This was taken on board the ship going back to Port Alberni. It rained almost all the way back, and was fairly chilly. Jacob was allowed on the boat, but not inside. When he started shivering, I put my fleece vest on him. I wouldn't say that he was exactly thrilled about wearing it, would you?

The trip to Bamfield was beautiful – I’m still haunted by the vision of white seagulls against the rain-forest green of the walls of the inlet – but we spent a lot of time and energy getting ready to go and return. In retrospect, I wish that the three of us had decided to spend our time together doing a little less running around and a little more enjoying one another. Even so, it was great to have the four days together.

Bamfield part 2

2005-09-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my motel window at Bamfield. We had separate rooms because Elaine is allergic to dogs. The village of Bamfield, we learned, is in two parts, and most of the tourist stuff is on the side opposite the one where our motel was. There's a water-taxi, however, so on our second day we crossed over and visited several galleries, most of which were along the path out to the beach on the Pacific. Although it rained a good part of the time we were at Bamfield, it was light rain, and it cleared up for us during our hike. You'll notice a number of cars in the picture; the only road into Bamfield comes to the side where we stayed. My guess is that most of the cars you see here belong to people living or staying on the other side of the inlet.

Bamfield

2005-09-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

After spending a night together at the Living Forest campground, Elaine, Laura, and I decided to take one of the merchant ships that take passengers as well as cargo from Port Alberni, in the center of Vancouver Island, out to Bamfield, a small fishing and tourist village, on the western coast of the island. The trip takes about four hours and makes several stops enroute, mostly to deliver cargo and mail. We saw a humpbacked whale, and a black bear on a beach along the way. This picture is of the inlet at Bamfield.

Living Forest Campground on Vancouver Island

2005-08-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my Living Forest campground site, in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I came here from Revelstoke, with an overnight in a fairly obscure campground on the Fraser River. I hadn�t intended to stay in Nanaimo, but the write-up on this campground was nice enough that I went to check it out, and liked it so well that I decided to stay and meet Elaine and Laura there. The ship you see in this picture is the ferry from Vancouver; the mountains are on the BC mainland.

2005-08-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Revelstoke street scene.

2005-08-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is my campsite at Lamplighter Campground in Revelstoke. The ash tree in the center of the picture was quite something -- full of red-orange berries. The picture does not do it justice.

Revelstoke

2005-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm currently staying at The Lamplighter, a private campground in Revelstoke, BC. I came here because they have Wifi internet, so I could get caught up with you and with my bills, etc.

This is the first time I've stayed more than overnight at a private campground, and I like it better than I thought I would. Although the sites are almost ridiculously small and have no sight privacy, the people are nice, there's a laundromat right in the campground, there are showers, it's rather pretty with some beautiful big trees, and it's within very easy walking distance of the Columbia River and the trail system that the city provides. It also helps that in Canada the public campgrounds are more expensive and the private ones less than in the US, so while I'm paying more than I would in the nearby provincial park, it's only a few dollars more. It's also nice to be in town for a change, and Revelstoke is a lovely little town, set on the river in a bowl of mountains, some of which have glaciers.

Tomorrow I'll head west, aiming to reach Vancouver Island in a couple of days. I'm feeling a little bamboozled by what seems a wealth of choices of places to see on Vancouver Island/the Gulf Islands. If any of you have been there and have suggestions, either positive or negative, I'd be glad to get them.

Wherever I end up, Elaine and Laura will be joining me toward the end of the week for 4-6 days. We may camp, or maybe look for a cabin to stay in.

2005-08-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of the Vermillion Lakes just outside of Banff. I spent just over 24 hours in Banff NP; it rained almost all of that time and was never clear enough for mountain views, but I did like these lakes. This is the kind of place I'd like to camp, but all of the campgrounds I saw in the Canadian Rockies were in heavy forest -- nice for privacy, but not for views.

2005-08-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

From Glacier, I went north into Canada. Customs (while Elaine, John and tea waited) took about 45 minutes. First they had the drug dog (a chocolate lab named Hershey) check out the van, then the customs agents searched it -- although not very thoroughly or I never would have made it in time for tea -- and then they sent me inside to talk with immigration who wanted to be convinced that I wasn't planning on staying indefinitely. This didn't take all that long, but I had to wait while they sorted out the woman in front of me -- a naturalized US citizen who had not brought her naturalization papers with her. Elaine, John and I, after tea at the Prince of Wales (see the picture below) then drove to Pincher Creek where we camped in the municipal campground there, the rain having let up. It stayed dry that night and the next day, but then began raining again off and on, as you can suspect from the picture above of Upper Kananaskis Lake.

The Kananaskis is east of Banff NP and is much less crowded, and definitely beautiful. If I had more time and the weather were better, I would have stayed in the area longer and done some hiking. Or maybe not -- they were having frequent grizzly sightings on the trails and even in the campgrounds. While I would have liked to see a grizzly from the safety of my van, I really have no desire to meet one on the trail.

Sportsmobile Sightings

2005-08-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Since I left California in late April, I’ve seen a number of Sportsmobiles. Interestingly, they come in batches – I go for up to a month without seeing any, and then I see three or four within a few days. This round I’ve seen six – two on the road and four in campgrounds. I’ve had a nice time meeting and talking with owners – a couple from Santa Cruz, CA, whom I met at Baker’s Hole campground; a couple from Tennessee who are on the Sportsmobile Owners Yahoo! Forum; a couple from Wisconsin; and a single woman from Virginia whom I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk with much, since John and Elaine were with me by then. The last three were all at Rising Sun campground, though not all at once.

2005-08-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here are John and Elaine, having tea at the Prince of Wales Hotel at Waterton Lake. As you can see, it was a pretty gloomy day with quite a bit of rain, so we decided to go for tea. I should have taken a picture a little later, after the brought the epergne with the sandwiches, scones, tea cakes, chocolate covered strawberries, and fudge -- very elegant and delicious. Although I am not in the picture, I partook. Those who know me at all well will not be surprised to hear this.

2005-08-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

This is one of the spectacular views from the Hidden Lake trail which departs (upward) from the Visitors' Center at Logan Pass -- the highest point on the famous Going to the Sun Highway. The following three pictures are from the same hike.