June 1st: ButeDale to Klewnuggit Inlet Provincial Marine Park 57 nm
June 2nd Klewnuggit to Prince Rupert 48 nm
Route ButeDale, Klewnuggit to Prince Rupert
Left dock around 7:45 am. Goal is to get ½ way up Grenville Channel (aka the ditch). Arrived around 2:45pm at Klewnuggit East Inlet anchorage.
Nice easy cruise up Grenville channel. Had to go through Wright sound which can be bad due to 9 bodies of water meeting at that point but twas easy. Did not see any big boats or even little boats until we got to Klewnuggit.
Went down around down to the end of the bay and back up the East Channel, narrow at entrance but plenty deep. Ended up anchoring in 60′ in the middle of the inlet since another boat was up at the head already. Nice mud/sand bottom with good holding.
KlewNuggit East Inlet AnchorageKlewnuggit Esat Inlet Sign at Entrance
Went up the inlet and snaked into east inlet anchorage. Beautiful. Alex put out crab traps (caught 2 but threw them back).
Alex Crabbing
We chilled and took a dinghy ride. No bear sightings but me worried about bears. Tough on dogs going to shore: barnacles if tide down at all. Woke up 5:15am. Strait to work no coffee. Retrieved crab traps, took dogs in, hoisted dinghy and anchor up and underway but 6:45am. Then coffee while cruising. Against tide a bit although should have been with north current relate to ebb from evening point. Saw a swimming dear weird. Nice cruisie with mild fog at one point, no sun. Apparently prince Rupert also is known as rainy Rupert.
June 2nd: Prince Rupert.
Stayed at Cow Bay Marina in Prince Rupert but be aware of the major currents that go straight through the marina. Had a pretty tough fight with the flood current of 2 knots when docking. I take a little float outside the marina to see how I am moving in current and make a plan how I will keep boat bow or stern pointing up current so I never get sideways to current. Got stuck sideways to metal outflow pipe down stream from dock when we first got the Nordic Tug many years ago, hopefully never again.
Prince Rupert Cow Bay Marina
Had a very nice stay in Prince Ruper with nice paths through town and hiking around the golf course with dog’s off leash when no golf players present.
Prince Ruppert is the last/first stop with customs when leaving/entering canadian waters. When entering from Alaska you get a slip at marina or pull up to customs dock where you call customs on the dedicated phones provided at the top of the docks.
We took a walk around town. The All trails map showed some trails in between streets and we ended up finding Hay’s Creek Trail which went along the creek for a mile or so.
Hay’s Creek Trail Start
Hay’s Creek Trail
Creek looked dirty so no dog swim. No Salmon. It ended up in a neighborhood and we kept going until we had to cut over on 4th street.
We ended up coming out at the local path start at the right corner of the Rona hardware store.
Local Path Start To right Of Rona HW Store
Walked by the Safeway and BC museum then down to waterfront park and back to the boat at Cow Bay Marina behind Atlin Terminal.
Prince Rupert Atlin Terminal
Raining hard now…rainy Rupert. Snuggled up with heat and dehumidifier on.
The next day we took a walk up through trail that goes up through town starting at the Sunken Gardens then up and around the golf course.
May 27th and 28th Pruth Bay and Shear Water May 29th
Pruth Bay is a dont miss stop with nicely maintained hiking trails with board walks to seven beautiful white sand beaches, dog heaven!
Track Fury Cove To Pruth Bay Then Town Of Shearwater
Left port around 11:30 am. Hoisted anchor and set course north up Queen Charlotte Strait. Light wind on our stern and some current, clear skies, lovely cruise. Left turn into strait that ends at Pruth Bay and the Hakai institute.
Pruth Bay Hakai Institute Dock
Hakai Institute Info
Hakai Institute Main Building
Beautiful resort with ½ a dozen cabins and main house/kitchen with well kept grounds. Now a research facility. They share there wifi and allow dinghy dock use. Nice. As usual we anchored far away, bit crowded nearer in, from the docks so long dinghy ride.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Brought dogs in and took hike to west and north beach. Wonder sand beaches, clear water, many islets and lots of drift wood. Walked both beaches and it was so beautiful. Dogs had a blast. Back to boat and had burger and cabbage for dinner.
Hakai Trail Map
The West Beach trail starting behind the main building takes you to the central beach. Once at west Beach take a right to go to North Beach and a left to go to 2dn through 7th beaches, see map above.
Start Of West Beach Trail
West Beach Trail
Nicely Done Outhouse West Beach Trail
Walked both West and North beaches and it was so beautiful. Dogs had a blast. Back to boat and had burger and cabbage for dinner. Very unique topography here.
North Beach Trail
North Beach Trail
Holly And Terra Trail To North Beach
North Beach
North Beach
We were thinking of going to Shearwater May 28th but decided we liked it so much and there was another hike that we decided to stay. Took dogs in for morning “out”, had breakfast at boat and then around 12 or so headed back to shore. Did the south beach hike which goes along 2nd to 7th beaches. Cool hike and dogs of course got to swim and romp and eat dead things. The trail heads in to and out of each beach are marked with jug’s in the trees and most have a tsunami warning sign, help full is finding the trails from beach. The trails get a bit rougher as you make yoyr way out to 7th beach at the end. We did find a trail heading out from 7th beach but was too steep for Terra so we turned around.
Trail To 2nd Beach
2nd Beach
Beach Trail Head
7th Beach
Trail Off End Of 7th Beach, Getting Steep!
We found some wolf tracks on one of the beaches and a whale carcass. Picture below large paw print on left is Wolf we believe, to the right is Hollie’s “small” foot print a 60 pound lab.
Wolf Paw Print?
Lots of eagles about as well with juveniles and adults. Got back around 3:30. Tried to call mom with wi fi calling but not good reception. Called on Sat phone and had a quick hello goodbye and love you call as the delay makes it hard to talk. Tomorrow to Shearwater apparently the best place to stop before prince Rupert to supply up and stay at a marina. Will do laundry if we get plugged in (which is the plan)
May 29th Shearwater, Shearwater Marina amongst
new bella and old bella bella (now a coast guard station).
Passing Bella Bella On Way To ShearWater
ShearWater Sign
Water Dog At ShearWater Marina Docks
Not impressed sorry. Great Marine store. Great Grocery Store, Super nice restaurant with out side seating and nice grassy area. Need to get more trustworthy of dog owners to not ruin grass but maybe they know. They should have a welcoming green dog area. We paid for two nights but decided one was enough. We had an enjoyable stay and when we decided go from 2 to one nights they were kind enough to refund the 2nd day no questions asked. Thank you.
We did find a nice short hike on the Spirit Trail through the woods right above town which we took with Rita on Baraka Bashad and Darlene on the Krogen Mona Kai.
Decided to move the short 24 nm from Port McNeil to shorten our passage around Cape Caution to Fury Cove anchorage. Cape Caution has a nasty reputation so we are making sure we respect it.
Saturday AM: woke up and looked at weather. I had called Port Hardy moorage options the night before with a maybe answer. So called again and harbor authority said should be plenty of room just find a spot and quarterdeck inn and marina said they had room. So we left Port McNeill around 11am. Had a nice sunny and only mildly choppy cruise to Port Hardy, got there around 2 or so. Fisherman’s wharf had no room so we went into spot at Quarterdeck Marina.
QuarterDeck Marina Port Hardy
Walked into town to see the sights (not many) and then had dinner on the boat and to bed. Weather looks good for crossing open water in Queen Charlotte strait tomorrow. At the main town area there was a wood sculpture of a carrot and the story is the BC government promised potential settlers /people a good highway if they moved to this most northern town on Vancouver Island…the highway being the carrot. The town is pretty small though…in summer population probably increases as big hunting and fishing area. Also of course logging is important.
Down Town Port HardyTerra, Patty and Holly At Port Hardy ParkPort Hardy Carrot
The Port Hardy public dock outside the inner harbor looks like a good spot in settled weather but did not get any details on staying there. The inside side might not be bad.
Public Dock At Outer Harbor
Ran into an older couple walking their dog: they lived
here in summer and in AZ USA in winter.
Port Macniel is our planned jumping off point for the possibly tough passage around Cape Caution that you want to do carefull planning for with wind and currents. Currents coming out on ebb from the sounds on the east side hit the NW prevailing winds coming in from the Pacific causing very confused steep seas when conditions are not good. We will use Predictwind for good wind window, the Canadian marine forecast and the data from the bouy out in Queen Charlotte sound which reports wind and wave:
Packed the truck up and got out of house by 0730 in the morning for the drive to La-Conner WA. Stopped in Williams for fuel and stopped at the infamous “Granzella’s” Vince had raved about as good food stop. Continued north and ended up stopping in Wilsonville, OR in between Portland and Seattle. Stayed at La Quinta (no pet fee). Last couple hours of drive truck was giving us a warning about cleaning exhaust DPF error code. It cleaned with high speed driving in 10 minutes but then came back. Driving at lower gear cleared it and error code did not come back
The next day we checked in to the Heron Inn and Day Spa in La-Conner for two days while we worked on the boat before the splash on Thursday May 9th.
Water Dog At La-Conner Maritime ServicesTouching Up Micron-66 Bottom Paint
May 8th-9th La-Conner Maritime Boat Yard
Usually do this work myself but this year since we where not located near the boat I had La-Conner Marine replace seals on the TRAC stabilizers and thruster, replace raw water pumps on 20KW and 8 KW genny’s as well as clean raw water systems on both engines and genny’s. Ended up also replacing the (12)6V house battery’s since they old ones did not load test well. Water Dog splashed on Thursday the 9th so Patty and I painted parts of the hull with Micron-66 and got the boat ready to go. I also replaced the sight tubes on the main diesel tanks and replaced balls the flush and duck bill valves on both heads.
May 10th-13 th La Conner Marina Guest Dock
Did sea trial to check out work done by yard and had some oil on stabilizer fins so had Justin the mechanic come check them out and oil was just residual so all OK. Woke up and had left over scones for breakfast from the famous Scone Lady in La-Conner, great scones dont miss them.
La-Conner Scone Lady
May 14th, Cap Sante Marina Anacortes, WA
when we arrived we loaded on 1300Plus gallons of diesel at $2.64/gallon and then we secured a slip at Cap Sante Martina. Found a great source for John Deere parts and a valuable resource in Wayne Gregg at Gregg’s diessel. Family run business and will be ordering parts etc from them for now on.
Decided to hike up Cap Sante, which is right next to marina, with dogs while warm and sunny! Staying tonight at marina. Had a nice dinner at Anthony’s and left the next morning to go Poets Cove for customs to enter Canada.
May 16th, Cap Sante to Poet’s cove to Ganges Marina (Patty Reporting)
Left Cap Sante fairly early around 9am. Fought tide a bit with Alex complaining. Over cast but not too bad. Forecast says big winds and rain in evening. Easy uneventful cruise to Poet’s cove customs’ dock: EMPTY! Alex called with all our info ready and they had it saved and just gave him a number…easy peasy. Dogs had an out on dock and then since only 12 or so we decided to go on to Ganges.
Turn Point Light House North End Stuart Island
Got to Ganges around 2:30pm. Tried to get municipal wharf but occupied so went to Ganges Marina. Big wide dock (splinter prone) and we backed down inside the dock/breakwater. Walked to Leaf Compassion, Mout’s park and then took dogs back to boat. Went and did vege shopping at Thrifty foods but of course Alex got cookies and ice cream. Had Fish tacos for dinner on boat and to bed by 9am for 6am wake up. Need to shove off by 6:30 or so to make slack at Dodd narrows.
Patty and Terra Ganges Marina
May 17th Ganges Marina to Comox harbor. (Patty Reporting)
Left 7:09 am. Alex worried as at first against current
and we might miss narrows passing. After
an hour or so we picked up speed to 9 knots (at 1900 RPM) and caught up a bid.
Got to Dodd Narrows perfectly timed for slack and got through no problem. Still
only 11 am at Nanaimo so decided to move on to Comox ..another 4 hours or so.
After Nanaimo more open water in Strait of Georgia and with down sound wind
bumpy ride, not too bad but Holly dog worried with bouncing. Stabilizers do not
help with going into waves. ETA Comox
harbor 3:30pm, dockmaster said plenty of room to slide in there guest dock.
Dodd Narrows Entrance from South Slack Tide
May 18-20th Comox to Campbell River (Patty Reporting)
Water Dog at Comox Harbour Guest Dock Comox Harbour Water Dog At Guest Dock
We had a walk in the morning. Went to park and green belt along creek and then circled through neighborhoods.
Comox Marina ParkComox Mack Laing Park EntranceMack Laing Park MapMack Laing Park CreekTerra and Holly Mack Laing Park
Found park with tennis courts and bummed some tennis balls from two nice guys to use with chuck it. They informed us Vancouver island total population is 850K…fun fact. Stopped at food truck at the nice waterfront park by marina and had some lunch: me halibut and chips and alex pan fried oyster po boy: GOOD.
May 18-20th Comox To Campbell River
Shoved off around 2pm. Currents in discovery passage (by Campbell river) are strong and pointless for an 8knot boat to fight 6 knot current. So we cruised extra slow and arrived near opening of south end of discovery passage just before slack. Fought some current but not bad. Pulled in to slip at Coast Marina at 6:30pm or so. Dinner was tortilla soup and then to bed. Next day stopped at hardware stores to get needed stuff for sat phone install. We did a quick tour of the farmer’s market and had a snack (Schwarma) and then went for the hike.
Campbell River Farmers Market Band
Sunday was Victoria day. I rinsed boat, alex worked on Sat phone install. Some parts needed so plan was to get Derrick (super nice marina owner) to give us a ride to Elk Falls park and we would walk back with a Nice hike along Campbell river: dogs swam. Long walk though…per my phone 9.6miles! Picked up stuff at Canadian tire (hardware store) and Walmart, got a Starbucks cold coffee and back to boat. Had left over soup for dinner and chilled.
Decided to stay one more night to get last bit of Sat
phone install. That took much of the
day. We did get to walk out to the spit where Campbell River spills into
discovery passage, had an early dinner and early to bed. We need to catch slack
tide at Seymour narrows (a must to avoid rapids/currents) so we will have to
leave dock at 6am tomorrow to get there at 7am. After Campbell river stop new
territory…so far stops have been revisits. Up the discovery passage to Port
Hardy and onward.
Comments for us to remember. This place is nice but can be very wavy and its pricey compared to fisherman ‘s wharf (by a lot) or discovery harbor(about 30% less I’d guess)
May 21st and 22nd Campbell River to Blind Channel Resort
Left dock around 6am. Got to Seymour narrows with good timing ie at 7ish at slack and cruised through narrows no problem.
Seymour Narrows Entrance
Now in Johnstone strait. Smooth sailing but wind was 10-20 knots. Despite wind not bad ride at all but we could see smaller boats bouncing about in wind waves (which were steeper due to wind against tide). Once turned into Mayne passage to get to blind channel calms sees. Arrived at Blind Channel resort around 10am.
Blind Channel Resort
Chilled, worked on misc boat things, took a walk to 900 year old cedar and had dinner at the Cedar post Inn (Good!).
Blind Channel Trail Giant Cedar
A couple on a 42 foot Krogen Mana Kai was berthed nearby. They too are going to Alaska. Had a boat built 6 years ago and brought/sent it up here. Planned to take back to Long Beach but love it so much they been keeping boat at Van Isle Marina in Sydney. They are more experienced so had some tips on good places to visit. We may run into them again…we shall see!
May 23rd Blind Channel to Port McNeill (Patty Reporting)
we where told that Port McNeill Harbour was a much better place to provision and hang out at verses Port Hardy and this turned out to e true. Very nice grocery store and shops only a few hundred yards form marina verses long hike at Port Hardy. Left dock around 6am to get tide and reach Wellborne channel narrows. Forecast for Johnstone strait said ok til 12pm then 25-30 knot winds. On ebb tide (against NW wind) could be bumpy. So we tentatively planned to go to Port Harvey Marina Resort (closed but allowed to tie up to docks) or if really bad Port Neville public dock. Green rapids was near slack so no problem, cruised up chancellor (need to confirm name) channel to turn up Wellborne passage. Got to Whirlpool rapids near slack and only a few large but mellow whirlpools. On to Sunderland channel and out to Johnstone strait. The strait was mildly bumpy at first and got better and better. By passed Port Neville public dock, by passed Port Harvey inlet and northward up the strait. Got calmer and calmer with less wind and sun came out for last part of cruise. NICE! Got to Port McNeill around 2pm, secured dockage. They wanted to put us on a west side of a side tie and Alex had me ask for slip which they did give us. Alex knew smart move as the wind kicked up to 20-40 knotts in evening and it would have slammed us up against docks!
Port McNeill Harbour
Port McNeill Harbour
Port McNeill
We had a short walk about town and then hung out in the boat. Lost local channels. Paid for two nights as not a good weather window until Sunday. also went over to see the worlds largest burl, indeed was big!
This is our last voyage for our 2018 PNW trip. We are laying water Dog up on the hard in La Conner at La Conner Maritime Services until May of 2019. Having the yard go over generator’s and clean raw water systems on mains. Like to get the raw water inter-coolers for main’s, genny’s, stabilizers and bow thruster cleaned and checked out every three years or so. I usually do this work myself but since we are not going to be near the boat until next year going to have the yard perform the work.
It was yet another easy cruise of 35 nm where we averaged 9 knots and arrived at La Conner Marina around 2 pm. We got a side tie on the inside of the dock to prevent getting hit by other boats fighting the current as happened at our last stop here.
We spent four day’s at the marina getting the boat ready to haul. Fresh water flushed out board engines, tied down covers, stowed fenders, changed oil in (2)mains and (2)genny’s etc over the four day’s. On the 18 th we moved the 100 ft or so over to the travel lift at La Conner Maritime Services and hauled Water Dog out.
Water Dog In Travel Lift
Water Dog Being Moved to Cleaning Station
water dog At Cleaning Station
The Micron-66 bottom paint on the hull looks pretty good after being applied at Bay Marine in San Francisco Bay in the summer of 2017 to Sep 2018.
Water Dog Micron-66 Bottom
There was quite a bit of growth on the metal raw water intakes which where also painted with Micron-66. Not sure why more growth than the hulls but suspect the metal screens provide a better structure for growth.
Growth On Raw Water Intakes
Surprisingly did not see a temp increase on the engines with this amount of growth.
Main Engine Raw Water Intake
Bow thruster also had quite a bit of growth. It would seem that you get more growth in the San Juan area than San Francisco Bay.
Bow Thruster Barnacles
Had prop speed applied on last haul out but was not happy with it’s performance which shown below is just 5 months. Last time had primer and bottom paint applied in Florida which worked much better. After to talking to yard will try the cheap zinc spray coating this time.
Growth On Props With Prop-Speed
The zinc’s on Water Dog where new when we left San Francisco Bay in May and where almost gone when we pulled her out in Sep, only 5 months. Zinc’s have easily lasted 2 years before so not sure why so much more worn for this trip. We did do around 1200 nm so zincs on rudders may just be water wear from props but does not explain hull zincs. Will need to checl galvanic isolators on shore ground when we get back next year. We have isolation transformers on AC hot/neutral so dont suspect them.
Got up early for a fairly long leg to head back to the US customs at Roche Harbor. Stopped at Poets Cove in BC on the way so we could get in early in the morning at the customs dock in Roche Harbor. We had overcast weather for our three day stay in Roche. Pretty much had sunshine for the rest of the trip so this late in the season the weather may be starting to turn.
Union Steamship To Roche Via Poets Cove
We ended up pulling in to a open spot at the US customs dock located on the outside of the marina at 10 am. Got boarded and did get boat searched by officer but only took about 20 mins. We then headed out and anchored out a few hundred yards in front of the marina.
Water Dog Anchored At Roche Harbor Marina
We then went in to the dinghy dock on west side of the marina on the inside next to the general store and shops.
Patty And Holly at Roche Harbor General Store
You will find the old generator plant and coke ovens right above the marina that are worth a look.
Old Generator Plant
Old Generator Plant Diesel Engine
Old Original Coke Ovens
Roche Lady Of Good Voyage Chapel
We then headed west of the marina down Reuben Memorial Drive to visit the Sculpture Park and Micmillin Mausoleum. The mausoleum is to the left of the Sculpture Park down Afterglow Drive where you can follow a number of small trails up to the right on Afterglow.
Sculpture Park Entrance
Roche Sculpture Park
Patty Working Sculpture Park Art
Sculpture Park Art
Beginning of trails on Afterglow Drive.
Micmillin Family Mausoleum Hike.
Mausoleum Gate
The mausoleum itself is cool with a missing collum designed in with Mcmillin family ashes contained in the base of the concrete chairs circling the table in the middle.
Holly At Mausoleum
Roche Harbor Cottages
The next day we hiked over to English Camp and then took the San Juan Bus shuttle back to the marina to cut the hike distance down. We walked down the nice trail along Roche Harbor Road to Westcott Drive which runs along the bottom of Westcott Bay. At the end of Westcott Drive you end up at Westcott Bay shellfish Company with the trail head in to English Camp on the left.
Roche Trail Map To English Camp
English Camp Trail Map
Roche English Camp Hike Start In Roche
Roche Black Berry’s, Yum
Trail Head At ShellFish Company
Bell Point Trail
Bell Point Trail Old Stump Natural Art Work
Entering English Camp From Bell Point Trail
English Camp Sign
English Camp Garden
Above English Camp across West Valley Road there are some more nice trails along with a small cemetery containing a few graves of some of the original english soldiers.
Royal Marine Cemetery at English Camp
That night we finally got to see the famous changing of the guard at the grassy point in the middle of the marina. The marina dock guy’s put the show on and do a great job of playing tap’s and lowering the flag.
Our PNW 2018 trip is coming to a close as we arrive at the Union Steamship Marina for the 2018 Kadey Krogen PNW Rendevous. The rendevous is from the 7 th to 9th and we are due in Laconner WA to put Water Dog on the hard on the 18 th.
Smugglers Cove To Union Steamship Marina
Union is a very nice family run marina and we will be stopping by again when we get a chance.
Union Steamship Marina
On Patty’s birthday we got to go out to dinner at the marina restaurant with Wayne and Linda whom where there for the rendevous also on Tribute a Krogen 36.
Wayne, Linda, Patty and Alex at Union Steamship
Patty Getting Kiss From Alex For Her Birthday
The next day we walked above the marina cutting through Bowen uptown on Prometheus Pl. Where Prometheus intersects Grafton Rd we found a cut through to Carter Rd where the trail starts.
Grafton Lake Trail Map
Passing Uptown
Trail To Grafton Lake
Grafton Lake
Trail Back At Grafton Lake
The next day we took a walk with a bunch of the Krogen guy’s to Kellarney Lake. The trail start system for this hike starts right across from the marina on Union road right past the Bowen Island Visitor center.
Krogen Group Lake Kellarney Hike
Patty and Dogs Lake Kellarney
All the Krogen 42’s, around a dozen of them, stern tied on the inside of A dock. There also where a Krogen 55, 52, a few 48’s along with Wayne and Linda’s 36 docked scattered through out the rest of the marina.
We got out of Gorge Marina around 10 am for our short rip to Campbell River Coast Marina. DestinationCambpell river. A largish town (35k, the biggest we have been to in weeks) and the “salmon capital of the world”. When leaving Gorge Harbour you have to take a hard turn to starboard to get around the spit extending southward from Marina Island. The channel around the spit at the end of Marina Island is pretty narrow but well marked. There is a nice anchorage along the east side of the spit we passed on our way by that was very crowded with anchored boats. We rounded the light house at the south end of Quadra Island ending up fighting a 2-3 knot current for the last mile in to the Campbell River Coast Marina. This is a smaller family owned marina run by a father and son, highly recommended. They even provided a free ride over to Elk Falls where we hiked back to the boat.
Anchorage South East End Marina Island Spit
Light House South End Quadra Island
Campbell River Coast Marina
The first day we walked north of our marina to Robert V. Ostler Park and then checked out Fishermans Wharf Marina Pier Farmers market and had some lunch at the baba ganoush foodtruck. Some artists had booths and some veges/bread baked goods. We bought some strawberries. Walked back along pier street and found a thrift shop where we picked up some paniers and a plumbers wrench.
Robert V. Ostler Park
Robert V. Ostler Park
Fishermans Wharf
Once we checked out the boats at Fishermans Wharf we turned around and went north past Discovery Harbour Marina past an indian grave yard. The town has put interpretive signs a long the way. There is a cemetery/burial ground on the way out to the spit and many totem poles honored graves as well as grave stones. Some Indian named Henderson carved mosteverything in town (I think he is gone but children carry on). Hoping to go to Elk Falls provincial parktomorrow with the doggies.
Fishermans Wharf Marina
Campbell River Indian Grave Yard
A little further north we passed the Tyee Club which is in front of Tyee pool famous for it’s salmon. The members fish in skiff’s where you must row to catch a Tayee salmon to join the club.
Campbell River Tyee Club
Past the club is dick Murphy Park which dead ends at Campbell river.
Campbell River Dick Murphy Park
Terra Approving Dick Murphy Park
North End Dick Murphy Park
The next day the owner of the marina was nice enough to drive us over to Elk Falls Trail Head where we started our hike back to the marina along the banks of the Cambell River on the millennium and canyon view trails.
Elk Falls Hike Map
The trail head is close to the Elk Falls suspension Bridge you walk over the wooden plank generator plant “penstock” pipes and suspension bridge to get to Elk Falls. The wooden plank water pipes are 20′ or so in diameter and built like wood water tanks with planks bound with metal rings. They where built 60 years ago and still in use. Shows you how well this construction works, kind of like wood boats surviving for so many years.
Elk Falls Trail Head
Generator Plant Wood water Feed Pipes
Elk Falls Suspension Bridge
Elk Falls
Elk Falls
We then walked down river from the Falls along the river side trail to the John Hart Generation Station.
John Hart Generation Station
Bridge Crossing Above Station
You cross the river from the south side to the north at the bridge above the generation plant. We followed the trail down the north side until we got to the logging road where you cross back over to the south side again on Detweiler Rd and back to the marina.
Since the smoke was still with us we decided to head to Gorge Harbour Marina, on the other side of Cortes Island, to be able to plug in and run AC’s to filter the air. This is a short two hour hop from Squirrel Cove. Nice marina with general store and close by hiking at Whale Town Commons. On the way in the harbour high up on the port side are some red petroglyphs shown below.
Squirrel Cove To Gorge Harbour
Gorge Harbour Entrance Petroglyphs
Gorge Harbour turned out to be a great stop where we ended up staying three nights at the marina. The marina has a long dock out front that can handle large boats, even up too 100′ or so, and room inside for smaller ones. The grounds are very nicely kept with a well stocked general store with LP gas available. The grounds also include a nice RV park that seems very popular with folks taking the ferry over to Cortes island.
Gorge Harbour Sign
Gorge Harbour Marina Restaurant
Gorge Harbour Marina
Gorge Harbour General Store
George Harbour RV Park
Gorge Harbour Marina Grounds
If you walk out the entrance road to the marina and take a left on Whale Town road past the fire House sign you will find Whale Town Commons Trail head on the right. This is a real nice hike with a few old growth trees still standing.
Walking down Road To Whale Town Commons Hike
Fire House Sign Before Whale Town Commons Hike
Whale Town Commons Trail Head
Whale Town Commons Map
Whale Town Commons Hike
Commons Old Growth Tree
The commons hike has many examples of nurser tree stumps where new trees use old logged tree stumps as a base to grow on.
Commons Nurser Trees
Commons Hike
The next day we walked back to the commons and walked through it to the back of the park and took a left on Jocelyn road. On Jocelyn road we passed some cool artsy kind of houses until the road petered out and we found a small path to the left out too Carrington Bay road. Carrington Bay takes you back too Whale Town road where a small art galley is located before you get to Whale Town proper. Whale Town has a small dock/marina and the smallest post office I have ever seen. There is also a small pottery there at the house next too the docks where we talked to the owner about Whale Town and bought two coffee cups.
Raised anchor at around 9am to make slack tide at 9:45am at Malibu Rapids, timed it well and had an easy 1-2 knot ebb current going out through the pass on our way to Powell River.
Powell River is a logging town with the Catalyst Paper Mill to the north of the marina, the area next to the mill is the historic area of Powell river. There are plenty of places to provision with grocery stores and HW stores available but they are up some steep hills so expect to get some good exercise.
Chatter Box Falls To Powell River
As we where leaving we started to start noticing the smoke from the BC forest fires that get worse over the next 2-3 weeks and ended up driving us back south from the Broughtons to get out of it later in the trip.
Exiting Malibu Rapids, Smoke!
Powell River Marina is around 56nm miles away so at our roughly 9 knot speed we made it to Powell River West View Harbor marina at around 3 pm. The dock crew at Westview do a great job in packing the boats in so if you have a side tie to the dock expect boats to side tie up to you during your stay.
Powell River West View Harbor Entrance
Westview Harbour
Willingdon Beach Park
Dont miss the Willingdon Beach Trail if you visit Powell River. The trail runs along the water and is very cool with old logging equipment set up for viewing along the trail. We walked out of the marina heading North along the water through the Willingdon Beach Campground to the trail.
Willingdon Beach Camp Ground
We followed the trail all the way down to Historic Downtown Powell River and the Catalyst Paper Mill. We returned back south to the marina on Marine Avenue above the trail taking in the view of the old houses for the mill managers/employees up the hill.
Willingdon Beach Trail
The logging equipment is very cool and all is custom made for very specific tasks. The designs for these things are pretty complicated and must have taken years of refinement for a lot of it. For example the Pole Wheel Cart design uses logs for rails to run the cart on.
Road Grader
Pole Wheel Exhibit
Steam Donkey
The steam donkey was dis-assembled by a volunteer crew and flown out by helicopter to the current location where it was re-assembled. At the north end of the trail the you run in too the Catalyst Paper Mill which is surrounded by the original Old Town Powell River buildings supporting the paper mill.
Log Tug Catalyst Paper Mill.
Dwight Hall is the original hall for the mill with kitchens and entertaining facilities.
Dwight Hall Historic District
Dwight Hall
Paper Mill And Dwight Hall Powell River Historic District
On the way over to Marine ave we ran in to the Patricia Theatre so we just had to get a picture of Patricia in front of it.
Patricia at Patricia Theatre
One the way back we headed south on Marine Ave above the trail tp take a look at the pretty houses built for the upper echelon mill employees.
Marine Avenue
Marine Avenue House
That evening we had dinner under the grape vines at Snickers up the hill and south of the marina. Very good food and great atmosphere!
