Campbell River To Comox Harbour

August 28th To 30 th

Trip length 33 nm

We decided to head about 33 nm south from Campbell River to Comox Harbour.  Comox has a marina but we decided to anchor out in the harbour.  Up in the north side of comox Harbrour is the town of Courtney which you can visit by dinghy.

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On the way we encountered some whales with one of them laying on it’s back with both flippers held in the air.  The whale did this for 15-20 minutes and was still going when we left.  We call this our clapping whale.

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We first anchored out up inside Goose Spit but it was crowded by local moored boats and the only open space was the channel down the middle of the boats in front of the HMCS Quadra military station.  It seemed no boats where anchored in this channel so we moved over to in front of and just North of the marina as shown below.  Nice holding in 30′ or so of water and the only wakes we had was from the boats going in and out of the marina.

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Comox has a fairly large transient dock space when you enter from the southern most end of the marina.  Fishermans wharf is known for fishing boats selling catch off the boats but no one was selling when where there. 

Nice anchorage with view of mountains and Comox (also called Queneesh) glacier. Its shrinking fast and some think if current weather patterns hold it will be gone in 5 years.  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happens-town-cultural-identity-namesake-glacier-melts-180958140/

Link to article about shrinking glaciers in BC and photos of Comox glacier 2013-2015

Story of the glacier

Most people in the Comox Valley know the Queneesh narrative

In the version that Everson tells, an old chief is forewarned by the Creator to prepare four canoes for a coming flood. The floodwaters ultimately cover the land completely, leaving the people in the canoes adrift until they’re able to fasten ropes to a giant white whale: Queneesh. At last, as the waters begin to recede, the whale beaches itself on the mountains, and is transformed into a glacier.

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The first day we walked up through the park at the marina and up the hill to the small town of Comox to check out downtown.  The park is nice with a food truck or two and a lot of families enjoying the water park and surrounding area.  Downtown is a couple blocks up the street and has grocery, liqour and HW stores for supplies.

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The next day we took the dinghy up to the north end of Comox Harbour to the Courtney River to the town of Courtney.  We docked next to the boat ramp at the Courtney Marina to walk to the museum there.   The marina is on the port side up the river about a mile and a half up from the when the river start from the bay.

Going in with a rising tide will help with the shallow depths and outgoing current on this trip.  The water is very shallow, even for a dinghy, on the way up Comox harbour and the markers are not much help.  There was also a pretty good current, and combined with shallow water, can make it tough to make the last part of the trip in too the Courtney Marina.

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Once we where at the marina we walked a ways back south on the Courtney Riverway Trail along the water and found a bunch of blackberries to feast on.  We then headed back north on the trail about a mile or so to the Courtney Museum.

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The museum has a great assortment of fossils and is well worth the visit.

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Once we got back to the dinghy Holly helped us pilot through the shallow water going back to the marina.

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