[10-Mar-2026 16:43:24 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function add_action() in /home/riveted/public_html/wp-content/themes/chosen/inc/customizer.php:4 Stack trace: #0 {main} thrown in /home/riveted/public_html/wp-content/themes/chosen/inc/customizer.php on line 4 [10-Mar-2026 16:43:37 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function add_action() in /home/riveted/public_html/wp-content/themes/chosen/inc/scripts.php:43 Stack trace: #0 {main} thrown in /home/riveted/public_html/wp-content/themes/chosen/inc/scripts.php on line 43 Vancouver Island – Riveted http://www.riveted-blog.com Fri, 08 Sep 2017 22:20:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.13 https://i0.wp.com/www.riveted-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/cropped-riveted_favicon.png?fit=32%2C32 Vancouver Island – Riveted http://www.riveted-blog.com 32 32 112264036 Exploring the West Side of Vancouver Island | Part 1 http://www.riveted-blog.com/2017/09/west-side-vancouver-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=west-side-vancouver-1 Fri, 08 Sep 2017 22:20:18 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/?p=23120 Continue ReadingExploring the West Side of Vancouver Island | Part 1]]> As you might already know, we decided to take a different route home this summer: the west coast of Vancouver Island. Soon after we bought Airship (September 2014) we attended the Seattle Boat Show in January of 2015. We thought it would be a good idea to attend some boating/education seminars, since we were relatively new to boating (and especially boating in the Pacific Northwest). When deciding which seminars to attend, we opted out of the Alaska seminars and instead went to the presentation on cruising the west side of Vancouver Island. Closer to home, we thought. Alaska’s far, we thought. We’re too new, we thought. And then — we ended up cruising Airship to Alaska just several months later, in May 2015. The west side of Vancouver Island turned out to be the area that sounded the most advanced!

Since then, we have spent 5 months per year for the past three years cruising up and down the Inside Passage to SE Alaska, been underway for over two thousand hours, and have over 13,000 nautical miles under our belts. After all that, the west side of Vancouver Island sounded like a great idea — more remote areas full of new places to explore!

Vancouver Island is enormous, and stretches 300 miles from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Queen Charlotte Sound. The inside route we’ve taken numerous times lies east of Vancouver Island is therefore is protected from the Pacific Ocean.

The west side the island has five main sounds along its coast: Quatsino Sound, Kyoquot Sound, Nootka Sound, Clayoquot Sound, and Barkley Sound. These sounds each have quite a few interesting anchorages, small settlements, and miles and miles of remote shoreline. Between these sounds, however, you’ve got to hop out into the open ocean. The distances between are relatively short, but the addition of swells and thousands of miles of fetch can quickly make things uncomfortable.

So far, we’ve had an incredible time with some great weather, and the most challenging bits (like coming around Cape Scott, rounding Brooks Peninsula and Estevan Point) have been calm, foggy, and easy.

Here’s a brief overview in pictures of our first week or so on the outside:

Queen Charlotte Sound, on our way to Cape Scott
Shoreline as we entered Sea Otter Cove
Leaving Sea Otter Cove the next morning
Exploring the Marble River by dinghy. We anchored in Varney Bay in Quatsino Sound the first night, and Julian Cove the next. Lots of rain while we were in Quatsino Sound!
After rounding Brooks Peninsula in the fog, here we are approaching Columbia Cove as it burns off.
Airship and Safe Harbour anchored/rafted in Columbia Cove. Taken from the kayak. We arrived by 10am and had the whole sunny day to explore!
Aerial shot of our anchorage, Columbia Cove
There’s a trail that that leads from the inner part of Columbia Cove out to beautiful sandy beaches!
The Bunsby Islands are a great area to explore by dinghy and/or kayak
Kevin on the rocky landscape
The Bunsby Islands looking almost tropical!
Exploring one of the many rivers in the Bunsbys at high tide.
Wolf tracks on the beach. (We also saw cougar tracks, and bear tracks…well, and the black bears that made those bear tracks!)
Airship on the public dock at Walters Cove. We picked up fresh produce (and ice cream!) at the little general store here.
Portrait of the Queen in the Java the Hutt cafe at Walters Cove.
Taking a dinghy ashore to hike over to Rugged Point.
Intense foam churned up by waves as they crash over nearby rocks. On our way to Nuchatlitz, at the entrance to Esperanza Inlet.
Colorful west coast sunset, Nuchatlitz
Airship and Safe Harbour anchored in Nuchatliz. Sunset from the drone.
Nootka Lightstation in Friendly Cove/Yuquot
Native carvings and totems inside the old church at Friendly Cove/Ququot
Kevin and Sam, Hot Springs Cove, Clayoquot Sound
Sunset at the public dock, Hot Springs Cove. Airship and Safe Harbour are anchored just outside the right edge of the photo. I used no filter on this shot — I think the color is largely due to smoke from nearby fires. 

We are still in Clayoquot Sound and will be heading to Tofino in a day or two. The last time we were in Tofino we were there with the Airstream and were seriously considering getting into this whole boating thing. (THAT worked out well, didn’t it??) 🙂

After Tofino we’ll stop in Uclulet and then head into Barkely Sound where we will probably spend a week exploring before heading around to Sooke and Victoria. For more detailed posts, keep up with Kevin and Sam and I over at Slowboat.com.

]]> 23120 Deep Bay – Vancouver Island, BC http://www.riveted-blog.com/2015/09/deep-bay/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deep-bay http://www.riveted-blog.com/2015/09/deep-bay/#comments Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:01:51 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/deep-bay Continue ReadingDeep Bay – Vancouver Island, BC]]> Another lesson on being flexible.

We left Comox this morning around 7:30am. The wind was supposed to pick up but it was not yet blowing much so we figured we'd go south a bit and see how it was once we got out from the protection of Denman Island, about 17 miles from Comox.

We started getting into some swells behind the island, and they weren't too bad until we got out near the Chrome Island lighthouse. The waves were a steep 4-5 ft and pretty close together. Between there and Nanaimo there aren't a lot of good duck out options, so after a few minutes of discussion (and a few "whoa"s), we opted to turn around and go back to Deep Bay and wait out the weather.

Here's us turning around. (Waves never look big in photos unless you're surfing while taking the photo):

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It's nice and calm here in Deep Bay though:

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We chatted with another couple of boaters about the conditions (they were on their way to Nanaimo from Comox as well, in a sailboat)…they had the same feeling. We all felt like we could have continued, but decided we didn't want to and didn't need to in those conditions. Sometimes it's just not worth all the jostling and banging around. It can be stressful, and with no great duck out options, you end up captive in whatever the wind and water deals up for you, and that can be unpleasant.

Here's our track today (19.5 miles total, including the turn around):

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We learned about a fun new weather website though: Big Wave Dave! (www.bigwavedave.ca). The "Forecasts — Wind Predictions No. 1" is a great page to watch. We're looking at Comox, Columbia Beach, and Piper's Lagoon (north to south as listed…Piper's Lagoon is near/in Nanaimo). White is great, aqua is okay, yellow is less okay (today was yellow) and the varying shades of red are all bad.

We went up and had some halibut and chips for lunch at the cafe nearby and now we're just working for the afternoon here at the boat. We were psyched at first, thinking we were close to Fanny Bay Oysters, but it's about 6 miles up the road (or up the coast via dinghy). If we'd have known we were going to stop here for the night we could have tied up at the little dock nearby and walked over to shop before continuing on. They don't deliver — I checked, so next time that's what we'll do. Last time we were through this area (just over a year ago when we started thinking about buying a boat) we picked up some local oysters and local scallops there and they were so good!

How funny that we'll be returning from this trip to Alaska exactly a year from when we closed on our Nordic Tug. We've stayed over 250 nights in it (253 as of today) so that's over 8 months out of the last year that we've spent on board. (Not tired of it yet. Not one bit!) 🙂

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]]> http://www.riveted-blog.com/2015/09/deep-bay/feed/ 3 98 From Victoria to the Hood Canal http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/from-victoria-to-the-hood-canal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-victoria-to-the-hood-canal http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/from-victoria-to-the-hood-canal/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2014 04:27:12 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/from-victoria-to-the-hood-canal Continue ReadingFrom Victoria to the Hood Canal]]> The 7:30pm ferry ride from Victoria to Port Angeles was gorgeous. We saw two different pods of orcas during the 90 minute trip, and the sun was setting just as we approached Port Angeles. It was a bit of a tight squeeze on the ferry, but no issues:

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The light was perfect as we were leaving Victoria:

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There were three cruise ships in port:

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Ferry at dusk:

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Approaching Port Angeles:

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Back to the Airstream:

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After disembarking at Port Angeles around 9pm we drove about an hour and 45 minutes south on Highway 101 to Hoodsport, where we're now set up (well, we're parked, but not unhooked or plugged in — we are level though…I used ALL the blocks!!). It was late and we didn't want to be annoying, so we made the least racket possible and just decided to deal with the rest of it in the morning. 

Tomorrow we plan to hit Taylor Shellfish Farms, just a bit south of here in Shelton, WA for some of our favorite oysters: Shigokus! It looks like they also have Olympia oysters (the teeny tiny ones we had up at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island) so we'll probably need to get some of those too.

So far, the place we're staying in Hoodsport seems nice, but I'll have to report more tomorrow when it's not pitch black out. (Bonus: stars!!!)

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]]> http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/from-victoria-to-the-hood-canal/feed/ 1 401 Last Day in Victoria http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/last-day-in-victoria/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=last-day-in-victoria Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:46:24 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/last-day-in-victoria Continue ReadingLast Day in Victoria]]> Thetislake-1

We had some breakfast and did some work this morning before it was checkout time at Westbay Marine Village in Victoria. Since we're on the 7:30pm ferry tonight to Port Angeles, we had a bit of time to kill. (Long story, but the basic deal is: make reservations more than a day ahead of time for the ferry when you are 48.1 feet long and it's the middle of summer.)

We headed over to Thetis Lake Provincial Park because they had a day use area and we figured we'd be able to park there for the rest of the day and hike or ride bikes out from there if we wanted. We paid for the two parking spaces we were taking up and headed off to hike around the lake.

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It turned out to be a beautiful hike, with some fun signage along the way:

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We decided to head over to the ferry terminal early to see if there was any chance of getting on the 3pm ferry. There wasn't. So we parked and walked over to grab some lunch and sightsee a bit more. The ferry was just arriving as we walked past and we noticed the different configuration of the Coho (compared to the other more recent ferries we'd been on) so we stopped to see how the side door loading and unloading worked.

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So they must load them from the other side, or the back? They got these guys on somehow, so I think we're fine. 🙂

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We walked up the road a bit and grabbed some lunch and did a bit more sightseeing. Here's our view from lunch today:

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Which way should we go? Oh I guess we'll head back toward home.

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We're in line for the ferry now, with about an hour and half to go. We're working back in the Airstream with free ferry internet (well, "free" meaning it came with our $250 fare to get ourselves, our truck, and our Airstream back to the US). Next stop: Hood Canal!

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]]> 402 Sooke Harbour House http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/sooke-harbour-house/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sooke-harbour-house http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/sooke-harbour-house/#comments Fri, 25 Jul 2014 12:32:13 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/sooke-harbour-house Continue ReadingSooke Harbour House]]> Straitview-1105

Last night we had a second chance to have dinner at the Sooke Harbour House in Sooke BC, after our reservation spaceout last week. The above photo is the view from our dinner table (!!!) looking across the Strait of Juan de Fuca over at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. (Our table came with binoculars…nice touch!)

This is the dining room looking back from the window view:

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We ordered the four course tasting menu with wine pairings, and ordered two different things from each section, so we got to try quite a few dishes. The presentation of each dish was beautiful, and the light from the window on my left made for some pretty nice photos.

First courses

Black Pearl Oysters (on the half shell with begonia, radish, and verjus):

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Morel Mushroom and Kombu Broth (morels, heirloom cherry tomatoes, radish and english peas):

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Second courses

Steamed Smoked Sablefish (green beans, potato, candied hazelnut, pickled beets and beet gel, potato & sorrel vinaigrette) — this may have been my favorite dish:

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Duck Leg & Smoked Breast (plums, walnuts, watercress, wild rice & popcorn, honey mustard and fig leaf ice cream):

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Main courses

Seared Sockeye Salmon (beans, summer squash, tomato, Vernena roseti, lomon thyme soubise, basil emulsion, pursalane):

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Grilled Lamb Sirloin (farro and blue cheese, kale, pink turnip, beets, hay oil, savory lamb jus and peas):

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We opted for a local cheese plate as one of our desserts…

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…and a chocolate something or other for our second dessert (that's an Earl Gray truffle there in the middle). The great light was starting to decline for these last couple images: 

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The bonus dessert (this was a cakey bit with a custard-like thing on top, with maybe bergamot, then some chocolate):

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I didn't get a copy of the dessert menu so I'm less clear on what all these were (some of the servers that were not our main server didn't explain things too well). The desserts were good, but I'm not a huge dessert fan, so I thought the cheese plate was the best. Also, it was paired with a local dessert wine from Venturi Schulze vineyards, called Brandenburg No. 3 that was delicious. (I think all of the wine pairings were from the Okanagan area/local.)

The meal was good and the view was lovely. We're glad we got to do this!

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]]> http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/sooke-harbour-house/feed/ 2 403 Boppin’ Around Victoria http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/boppin-around-victoria/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=boppin-around-victoria http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/boppin-around-victoria/#comments Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:41:16 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/boppin-around-victoria Continue ReadingBoppin’ Around Victoria]]> Victoria-0999

This morning we got up and worked, did some work, and then worked some more. For our lunch break, we headed down to the docks and caught an adorable little water taxi across the harbour. It was still pretty dark and windy, but the rain had stopped for a bit.

Our ride's here!

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Leaving the West Bay Marine Village:

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Dark sky with purple martin house silhouette:

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We got off the harbour ferry at Miner's Landing and headed straight for Red Fish Blue Fish for some lunch (well, or breakfast…brunch? We have an early dinner reservation tonight so we just did a late breakfast/early lunch combo today and this place was it!)  Their website said they opened at 11:30am. We arrived at 11:15am, and there was already a line of about a dozen people (we knew this would probably be the case). Red Fish Blue Fish is on the pier right by Miner's Landing, inside of an upcycled cargo container. It's cool, and has a great reputation for their food.

We had a 1-piece halibut fish & chips, a grilled, seared albacore tuna tacone (a cone-shaped taco), a half order of grilled Fanny Bay oysters, and a couple of Pellegrinos. Our halibut arrived first:

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Everything was great! I'd say this is the second best fish & chips (next to Bandon Fish House in Bandon, Oregon). The other creative items on the menu help quite a bit, but the batter on the halibut was crunchy, the fish was great, and you gotta love their 100% sustainable policy.

After lunch we walked around Victoria a bit just sightseeing. Harbour, with BC Legislature Building:

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Totem art:

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Empress Hotel:

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Cute little water taxi in the harbour:

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There are flowers everywhere in Victoria!

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Look at the line at Red Fish Blue Fish when we came back to our taxi stop:

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We hopped on a boat and headed back to West Bay Marine Village. Looking back from the boat:

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More purple martin houses:

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Westbay Marine Village from the little ferry:

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You can't beat the location of this marina and RV park. It's so close to town (would be an easy–and cheaper–bike ride into town, but we weren't sure what the weather was going to do and we kinda wanted to ride the boat) and the exterior spots all have marina or harbour views. Two of the shorter, marina view spots:

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Remember when we were over in Pedder Bay and we had made reservations for the Sooke Harbour House for dinner (the whole reason we even went to Pedder Bay/Sooke in the first place)? And remember how we had the day wrong and we missed our reservation and had no chance to go again while we were nearby? Well, guess what? We figured out that the Sooke Harbour House is a 45 minute drive from where we're staying in Victoria, they are open tonight, and we got ourselves an early dinner reservation. Woohoo! 

And now, a bit more work!

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]]> http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/boppin-around-victoria/feed/ 8 404 Tofino to Qualicum to Victoria http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/tofino-to-qualicum-to-victoria/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tofino-to-qualicum-to-victoria http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/tofino-to-qualicum-to-victoria/#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:11:00 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/tofino-to-qualicum-to-victoria Continue ReadingTofino to Qualicum to Victoria]]> This morning we left our gray rainy campsite (wow! things changed overnight!) in Tofino and headed back across the island on our way to Victoria. But first, here's one more shot from yesterday at Bella Pacifica Campground while it was still sunny:

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Oh wait, there are a few more things I want to mention that we did before we left Tofino. Yesterday afternoon we went into town to grab some oysters, and right as we got back to the car I looked up in response to some intense bird sounds and said  to Kevin quickly "lookuplookuplookup!!!"

There were about eight bald eagles flying overhead, and two of them were in dramatic combat. As we watched them RIGHT above us, two of them went careening into each other, locking talons (you could HEAR them hit each other, that's how close they were) and spiraling through the air. After a couple rounds of that, the loser retreated to the top of a nearby tree while the others went on their fish-hunting way over the bay. It was so cool to see this so close!

Here are two of them — already much higher than before — after the drama was over (when I could finally stop watching for a second to get my camera out):

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Also, yesterday we stopped for lunch at Tacofino, a taco truck right off the main highway near our campground (in the parking lot behind "Live to Surf" surf shop). This place has seriously great tacos. We each had a regular Baja-style cod fish taco, and the Tuna Ta-Taco (seared sesame albacore with wasabi mayo, cabbage, salsa, and seaweed salad). So good!!

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Also, check out their fabulous t-shirts! The skull is made of flowers and in the middle of his forehead there's a Tacofino logo (praying hands holding a taco), and the skull has a big fish in its mouth. (Kevin's wearing his right now!)

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Okay, back to today! We left early (for us…8:30am). The drive was soggy but beautiful and looked mostly like this:

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We made a stop at Qualicum Beach to pick up a bit more seafood (still not tired of fresh seafood). I did a little research while Kevin was driving and found a highly-rated spot called French Creek Seafood. We parked in the nice big marina parking lot and walked around the marina to the seafood store (it's the large clump of buildings you can see in the distance, across all the boats):

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The entrance to the fish store was completely nondescript and working-harbor awesome, and had the nicest fish ladies inside helping customers. We highly recommend a stop here if you're up this way. Enter through the brown door with the little red neon "open" sign:

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We picked up some clams for dinner tonight, some fresh crabcakes, more frozen calamari (I love putting this in risotto or pasta!) and some more smoked salmon pate.

We drove the rest of the way to Victoria (about 4.5-5 hours total from Tofino) and now we're at the Westbay Marine Village. It's still gray and rainy, but we're close to town and we'll have a great time here exploring (and working of course) until we catch the ferry over to Port Angeles on Friday morning.

Here's Victoria, just across the harbor from our spot at Westbay:

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]]> http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/tofino-to-qualicum-to-victoria/feed/ 2 405 Tofino and Ucluelet http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/tofino-and-ucluelet/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tofino-and-ucluelet Wed, 23 Jul 2014 12:58:00 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/tofino-and-ucluelet Continue ReadingTofino and Ucluelet]]> Tofino

The other day we went in search of a beach Kevin remembered from his childhood. We had a great day exploring Tofino (after cramming in a bunch of work while eating breakfast and getting internet at a cafe in town). First, we headed out to Tonquin Park and hiked down to the beach.

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Next we headed south toward Ucluelet. We stopped and hiked a bit out from the Amphitrite Lighthouse on the Wild Pacific Trail.

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Both "Wild" and "Pacific" … check!

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Gorgeous coastline, isn't it? It was nice that the sun came out yesterday, too!

We headed into Ucluelet and checked out a marina RV park where I'd thought about staying, and it's great! We'd definitely come back and stay here. There are about five spots that have great views out over the marina and the water, and a few more around to the side that have this view:

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And here are some other shots of the marina and downtown (the same thing, really):

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After driving around Ucluelet a bit, we did a little exploring at Chesterman Beach:

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…as well as some more hiking around the rocks near our own beach:

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Back in Tofino we stopped and had a few oysters and a couple pieces of sushi at Tough City Sushi and it was great! Oh, and so was the view (complete with sea plane landings):

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Those are Kusshi oysters from Qualicum Beach. We're planning to stop at Qualicum Beach once more on our way to Victoria to pick up another couple dozen. 🙂

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]]> 406 Searching for Shell Beach http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/searching-for-shell-beach/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=searching-for-shell-beach http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/searching-for-shell-beach/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2014 12:36:25 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/searching-for-shell-beach Continue ReadingSearching for Shell Beach]]> Shellbeach-0926

“It’s called… SHELLLL Beach”

My Dad’s eyes tilted slightly higher and his voice took on a reverent, mysterious tone when he said the name of the place. Dad had a way of describing things that made them seem magical. Sometimes, he could impart that mystical quality simply by saying the name – with a certain inflection and a particular combination of body language and tone that made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. And, you knew that he was telling you about something special, something rare and unique, something that you might remember for the rest of your life.

It was 1969. 

I was eight years old and it was the summer after the second grade. We had just celebrated my little brother’s first birthday on the East side of Vancouver Island at a place called Qualicum Beach – a place where the tide seemed to go out for miles, and you could wade almost out of sight from shore while still standing in water that came only to your knees.

Now, we were across on the West side of the island at Tofino – which seemed to me like the boonies of the boonies. Our family was on an extended summer vacation in our slide-in pickup camper. We had left our home in desolate Denver City, Texas about four weeks earlier on what was, to eight-year-old me, the absolute adventure of a lifetime. 

Growing up in Denver City, I never saw mountains, or even hills. We had no lakes, streams, or creeks. There were no trees – except a few small cottonwoods planted in people’s yards. At the edge of our tiny town you could see forever – over a barren, wind-blown, treeless, dusty landscape with a vast horizon dotted only by the occasional windmill or pump jack. Summers were blistering hot, winters were freezing cold, and all of the seasons were windy and dusty.

For me, the multi-week camping trip to Canada was an experience on par with a trip to Mars. Everything I had seen on our remarkable journey – mountains, streams, lakes, rivers, trees, beaches, rocky coastlines, geysers, volcanoes, wildlife – was so far outside my young frame of reference that I would have been no more impressed had I been suddenly been dropped onto the surface of some alien planet. We had left the dusty high plains of Texas and traversed the rocky mountains, entered into a foreign country, boarded a ship, and landed on an amazing island. We had traveled for weeks and it seemed to me that we were about as far from home as one could possibly be.

Then, someone told us about “Tofino.”

It was just a word, but to me – something in the way they said it grabbed my attention. My mother asked the locals who were telling us about Tofino if they had ever been there. “No,” they said. “We hear it’s amazing, but we’ve never been over there. It’s a long drive to the far side of the island, and we’re waiting for the road to improve.”

My Dad was most certainly NOT waiting for the road to improve. We filled our fresh water tank, topped up the main and auxiliary tanks with gas (as well as the secret auxiliary-auxiliary 10-gallon tank my Dad had scrounged from a junkyard Corvair) – and headed down the four-hour dirt-and-gravel road across Vancouver Island to Tofino.

That’s how we got to the boonies-of-the-boonies.  

Now, here at the edge of the world, someone had told us about a hike to a secret beach – a beach where there was no sand, but only finely-ground seashells – a beach that was accessible only by a long and treacherous hiking path.

“SHELLLL Beach”

This was the boonies-of-the-boonies-of-the-boonies. We had gone off the grid, and then gone some more. And now we were headed off of the off-the-grid grid. My eight-year-old mind struggled to even grasp the concept. We were going to a place farther from Denver City than I had ever imagined possible.

My Dad was an intimidating figure – 5’11” 250 lbs – enormous muscular arms built (he said) from working on the oil pipelines as a teenager. His personality was even larger. He was a high-school band director, and he had the ability to tame over two-hundred teenagers at once with only the sound of his voice. His larger-than-life presence could simultaneously induce fear, admiration, and respect. He could walk into any room and everyone’s attention went to him automatically. 

My Dad picked up my newly-one-year-old brother in one giant hand and we set out to find… SHELLL Beach. We were traveling with another family – who had their own camper and kids – and all of us were geared up and ready for the expedition. After a bit of easy hiking down a “normal” beach, we came to a place where there were two options: an overland trail through the woods, and a seaside trail that scaled the rocky cliffs above the breaking waves. Mom (and most of the family we were traveling with) opted for the through-the-woods route. Dad, Chuck (the other dad) and I – all went along the ocean route. Since my little brother was sometimes a handful, Dad decided just to carry him. It was harrowing.

“There were times,” Dad would later say “when I wouldn’t have given you a nickel for the chances of all three of us on those cliffs. I was holding onto the rocks with one hand and holding Craig in the other – and Craig decided that would be a great time to jump up and down and yell “Aahhhh Aahhhh Aahhhh” with a big grin on his face! The path was so narrow that both feet wouldn’t fit side-by-side, I had to keep them single file…”

Dad had a bit of flair for the dramatic in his storytelling.

It was also on this hike to … SHELLLL Beach… that Dad took “The Photograph”. 

He was a photography buff. Even with our schoolteacher budget, he had a pro-level SLR, and a set of high-quality lenses. He had practically memorized the past year’s issues of all of the popular photography magazines. He took slides (and slides only – my goodness, print film is for AMATEURS!), and Mom maintained our beautifully-organized collection of Kodak Carousel slide trays that spanned our entire family history. From birthdays to band contests to Christmases to vacations – and around the calendar for another loop, the slides chronicled our family’s life from before I was born until after both my brother and I had left home for good. Many of the photos were amazing. Mom and Dad had both done some spectacular work for amateur photographers. 

But here, at …SHELLLL Beach…, Dad captured “The Photograph” – the one that was to be forever etched in family lore as the best photo ever made by any of us. Three-year-old Dianne, the daughter of the family that we were traveling with, was sitting on the jagged rocks by the ocean. Behind her, the fog had created a murky-mysterious gray that melded with the harsh brown texture of the rocks. She was wearing a bright yellow jacket which – with her almost-white hair – made her look absolutely angelic sitting near the edge of the craggy cliff in the golden-hour light. 

From that day forward, any time we were having slide-show night at our house, we would all silently wait in anticipation for the time when carousel number 43, slide 15 would drop into the projector to reveal “The Photograph.” Most of us were looking away from the screen, watching the faces of our guests for the predictable “OOOOohhhhhhhhh” reaction that inevitably occurred when the click-clunk-whirrrr of the carousel projector signaled that the cute photo of Craig feeding the chipmunk was about to give way to… aesthetic bliss.

My Dad died in 1993.

Now, 45 years after that hike, Laura and I are camped in Tofino in our Airstream. The road here is still tricky, but nicely paved and well-traveled. Tofino is no longer an outpost inhabited by just a few hearty souls. It is a popular surfing destination, with a number of upscale resorts, tourist attractions, restaurants, and vacation properties. It still manages to retain a great deal of its charm – despite five decades of development.

I wanted to find Shell Beach again. I wanted to hike along the rocky cliffs. I wanted to see the beach made only of shells. I wanted to see the place where “The Photograph” was taken – so indelibly engraved in my memory of nearly five decades.

SHELLLL Beach… isn’t on any of the local tourist maps. It isn’t included on any of the signs for “beach access” for any of the numerous local waysides. I Googled, Mapped, Foursquared, Travelocitized, Yelped… I found only a handful of semi-obscure references to a “Shell Beach” near Tofino. On Foursquare, I was able to see that a few people had actually “checked in” there, and had thoughtfully left a set of GPS coordinates. I moved those into Google Maps, asked for directions, and our quest began.

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We parked at a beach access that appeared to be nearest the GPS coordinates.  We walked up the beach until the shore would permit passage no more. On the left, there were sheer rocky cliffs interrupted by deep seawater-filled chasms. They were not passable. On the right – there was a beautiful new upscale resort/hotel/restaurant complex. We looked in vain for an offshore route around the hotel that would take us there. We ended up at the boundary of a private residence. We could go no farther.

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Next, we drove around to the closest road access on the other side – which, ironically, turned out to be the same beach where we were camped. We walked all the way to the end of the beach, but were turned back when a through-the-woods trail turned out to be blocked by a giant swamp. Finally, we worked our way around the seaside route – scaling the steep rocky cliffs with the tide coming in and huge waves breaking below us.

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I imagined my mother – forty-five years ago – taking that first trail and meeting us on the other side, at …SHELLL Beach. As Laura and I climbed over the challenging rocky route above the ocean, I pictured Dad with my baby brother in one hand, gripping the rocks with the other, slowly scaling the path around the point – determined not to let the rocks, the ocean, or the gymnastics of an over-excited one-year-old deter him from his quest.

We may have found Shell Beach today – I can’t be sure. There were no signs or placards. There was a small cove with a beach that appeared to have only ground-up shells instead of sand. In my current life experience – traveling around the world – hiking, biking, camping, flying, and boating just about every kind of terrain imaginable and experiencing the awe-inspiring power of so many remarkable natural places – this place was beautiful, but not particularly amazing. It was just another wild, remote beach, accessed by a medium-difficulty trail. Whatever it was, for me, it was not “…SHELLLL Beach”

On the internet, I saw a reference to a couple getting married recently on Shell Beach. There were a couple of nice photos of the bride and groom kissing near some rocks.

There is magic in the places we visit. But that magic is created by a non-reproducible combination of the time, the place, our life experience, and the people we share it with. When you return, even if the place is the same, the magic may be gone – or it may live only in your memory. 

I’m certain my brother doesn’t remember the time when Dad almost dropped him off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean while hiking the West Coast of Vancouver Island. He probably wouldn’t recognize the name “…Shellll Beach.”

But, I do. I remember it – and I went back to that place today. And, I think I could still hear Dad’s laugh somewhere out there in the waves.

(Posted by Kevin)

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]]> http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/searching-for-shell-beach/feed/ 3 407 Tofino, British Columbia http://www.riveted-blog.com/2014/07/tofino-british-columbia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tofino-british-columbia Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:22:29 +0000 http://www.riveted-blog.com/tofino-british-columbia Continue ReadingTofino, British Columbia]]> Tofino_mackenzie-0902

We're now in Tofino, BC (above photo from Mackenzie Beach). Tofino is across Vancouver Island from where we were last (Nanaimo), on the west coast. It's rugged and lovely. It feels like a California surf town plopped down somewhere in Alaska.

The drive over here was not even close to as tough as we'd heard, but then we've driven some pretty tough roads. This is just before the 18% grade:

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The drive was beautiful…

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…and just a tiny bit hairy at times (we were on the outside going this direction so we just had to watch for large vehicles moving over into our lane…and there weren't any). I drove the first half of the drive and Kevin drove the last half. I got the better deal, for sure.

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We're camped at Mackenzie Beach Resort for two nights and we'll move over to Bella Pacifca for the last night. So far the $4/day internet at Mackenzie Beach has been, um, basically like not having internet, so we're at a cafe in town right now having breakfast, doing some work, and soaking up the connectivity. The campground is full hookups, not too far from the beach, but that's about it. It's very "no frills" in terms of view and campsite quality for $56 dollars Canadian per night. 

Here's our spot when we first arrived and it was still sunny:

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And here's our spot after many more Sunday arrivals came in. Our site (#38) is strangely much larger than anyone else's site. 

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Okay, back to Tofino. Yesterday afternoon after we got settled we went and explored town a bit. We stopped at the Tofino Brewing Co. on a whim ("Hey, what's down that street?") and decided to stay for a tasting flight. 

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The brewery/tasting room:

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Great logo:

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The beer was great and the atmosphere was fun and casual, full of tourists and locals. The tasting room has  a license for one tasting flight or one pint per person, and you can buy bottles to go in 4-pint-packs or growlers (a single growler, or a double "growlinator". We brought home some Blonde Ale, some Tuff Session Ale, and some Spruce Tree Ale. I really wanted to try this one, but they were completely out (and they wouldn't sell us the two display bottles they had): Kelp Stout — a dark, rich, full-bodied ale brewed with locally harvested Kelp, giving a unique, umami-type quality to this complex beer. Great label too:

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We did more wandering in town and picked up this really cool Northwest Coast eagle…oh, I mean cheese/pate spreader. We try to get things we'll use, and we definitely will use this! This is the handle (pewter). Love it!

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We used it right away too! In town we picked up some smoked salmon pate and some crackers and cracked one of the Spruce Tree Ales for an afternoon snack. The whole Tofino Kit:

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Dinner last night was smoked fish tacos (again, I know, yawn, can't we think of something else to make?)

This morning it's cool and gray. We got up and made a couple of cappuccinos to go and walked on the beach out in front for a bit. 

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Our breakfast sandwiches, espresso drinks, (and internet!) here at Caffe Vincente this morning were great! 

After some more work, we'll head out to explore more of Tofino, and probably drive down to Ucluelet! 

 

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