It rained heavily over night, that is excellent for the beans and peas I planted a few days ago. Cortes gets very moody when overcast and the West Coast Mist puts a mysterious cloak over the trees.
Our neighbours Ruby and John brought us two beautiful mushrooms. They grow in our driveway, we would never know that they are eatable.
The first settlers must have were courageous creatures. I am currently reading Destination Cortez Island by June Cameron. Her stories about Cortes in the early 1900 are fascinating. At Mansons Landing settlers built the "Big House" which served as shelter, lodge, supply storage......
They were eager to belong to a community, in the 1930s they built the Gorge Hall Community hall.
Visitors are always amazed at the high tidal changes we experience on Cortes Island. This last weekend we had sometimes changes of up to 12 feet. At Mansons Landing one could walk to the islands in the middle and way out into the bay.
But by the evening the water was back with the high tide.
As usual we went for a nice hike through the forest and the beach.
This beautiful second growth forest still has stumps left from the old growth trees. One can see the cuts for the foot rests of the loggers. A logger would stand on each side of the tree and with a large saw they would cut the trees by hand.
Some evenings, the spring sun gave us spectacular sunsets.
After living in one stretch for about a month on our little island, it was time we went to the big city of Campbell River to supplement our supplies. We are picking up all the things not available, or only at a very expensive price here on Cortes, like fence panels,a Bruce anchor, replacement batteries for the garden solar lights, prosciutto, orange juice under $ 5.00, fresh vegetables, special cheeses, meat.......
Tuesday is Dangerous Cargo day on the BC Ferries from Campbell River to Cortes and return. One run each way is reserved for the fuel supply trucks etc. We avoided that run and took the first ferry at 7:50 out of Whaletown. Anders made egg and bacon sandwiches the night before, so on our travel days we just brew coffee into our travel mugs and hit for the ferry. There is no reservation possible, it is simply first come first on. Two cars were left behind on this first run. The Tenaka only takes about 27 cars. Yesterday was a beautiful day, the crossing was gorgeous with the blue water, blue mountains still showing heavy snow caps.
We shopped all day and returned with the 5pm boat, even the 6 foot Cedar bush made it back home.
The South Easterly winds are blowing, the BC Ferries are not running, we still have power. The Robbins are busy finding worms and insects on the freshly mowed front yard. The Robbins in the back yard are larger and fatter. Bigger worms, better grass? Do Robbins hear the worms moving under the ground? They listen, find and pick. This is early April 2010.
Remoteness brings challenges to modern living. If the electricity from BC Hydro is down because of the windstorms, computers and eventually phones will no longer work. We carry buckets of water from the creek into the house to flush the toilets, because the water pump and pressuring system does no longer work. The Italian coffee machine is silent. Even the auger for the pellet wood stove needs power, and the stove gets cold and powerless.
We actually have to talk and entertain ourselves without all the electronic gadgets and machines. Not easy, but fun. What are you thinking? Do you want a cup of tea?
Cortes Island
Cortes, an island in the Strait of Georgia, the Salish Sea, between Vancouver Island and the Mainland of British Columbia, right at the entrance of Desolation Sound is part of the Discovery Islands.
Cortes is approximately 25 km long and 13 km wide. Most people live on the Southern half of the island. The Northern half has no roads and is by water access only. About a 1000 people live permanently on the island, in summer it is probably more like 2000. A very colourful group of people: First Nations people, old timers, business people, permanent half year people, retired Hippies, cool and hottie young people, summer residents, recluses, sailors, fishermen, Oyster pickers, organic farmers, Artists, the free spirited and the retired Type A.
Cortes Island was named after Spanish explorers and mapped in the late 1700 by Valdez.
The Klahoose First Nation people live in Squirrel Cove. They relocated to that location from their traditional village in Toba Inlet.
The Klahoose are part of, with their neighbours the Sliammon, Homalco, whose territory is on the mainland and K'omoks, the larger grouping of the Comox people, which is a subgroup of the Coast Salish. Their ancestral tongue is the Comox language.
In the 1800 the miners and the loggers came, and later the optimistic homesteaders.
Bc Ferry service only arrived in 1969, and electric power in 1970.
A large Bald Eagle is circling high above Smelt Bay. Looking for fish, small birds, or just going for a fly-by? Just yesterday a Bald Eagle was devouring its prey on the water's edge at low tide. The prey was so heavy, the eagle could not lift off and fly back to its nest. Eventually the eagles' mate arrived and helped eating the fish for a long time, while its mate kept guard. How often do eagles eat? According to some research, they could go for a few days without food. They have storage sacks, crops on the side of their neck. They also are regurgitating their food. Often I see one of the Bald Eagles land on the treetop close to our home. They just sit there and observe the water. Patiently they hunt by playing a waiting game. They spend most of their time perched in trees. They use their exceptional eyesight to scan for food. From its viewpoint, a Bald Eagle can see a surfacing fish from more than a kilometre away.
The other day we heard a great racket. Crows were chasing a Bald Eagle: guess what he carried away in his talons? The crows protested and were not impressed about the thief who stole their hard earned food.
Woodpeckers chisel out square holes on trees. Do they use the holes as their nesting grounds?
These are probably cavities of Pilated Woodpeckers. These birds are almost as large as crows, mostly black with a distinguished red head. They are the largest woodpeckers in North America. They love carpenter ants living in timber, and stumps.
We can see these very graphic looking rectangular cavities all along Smelt Bay Park. Apparently these Woodpeckers use their enormously long, sticky tongue to reach the ants inside the cavities. These cavities are just for food supplies and would not be large enough to be where they make their nests.
It was a dark and stormy night......
4:30 am, I jump out of bed. The house rumbles, there was a big bang outside, the rain is pounding the sliding door of our bedroom, the deck chairs are sliding and bouncing in the wind, the Westerly winds are howling, but the stars are quietly glowing in the night sky. Another storm is hitting Cortes, this time from the West. Uneasy sleep – tossing and turning – my thoughts are calming me down: don't worry our home is as sturdy as it gets.
7:00 am, coffee time. Wow, the storm is still raging, but we did not loose power. The world out there looks wonderful: white caps, waves, snow covered mountains on Vancouver Island, sunshine, and the water taxi rushing into Manson's' Landing along Marina Island. Amazing how different the storm looks now. That calls for a second cup of coffee.
In October of this year when were out camping in the Chilcotin and in the Cariboo, we drove up to the Sun Peaks Village. It is a wonderful spot. We decided then we should come back for a few days when we could check out the winter conditions.
We just came back from three days on the mountain and it was wonderful. We stayed at the Delta Sun Peaks Resort and it was first class. From day one when we emailed the hotel to the day we left, the staff was super friendly. The room was very nice and clean with a great view of the mountains.
One night we went for dinner in the hotel. The restaurant is called Mantel, and this was the first evening with a new menu. Absolutely superb meal was presented. For a starter, Liz had a salad with organic greens and an outstanding vinaigrette. I had a crab cake, and it was a really good size, with real dungeness crab. No filler what so ever, just pure crab.
For the main Course I had roasted duck with scallops from Qualicum Beach on a bed of polenta; the best I ever had. Liz had an equally as good main course. Grilled buffalo sirloin and it was cooked to perfection. Since we had a variety of food, we paired it with a bottle of Merlot from Sandhill Estates Winery in the Okanagan Valley, BC.
The mountain Sun Peaks Resort is great with 3,678 acres of terrain, the second largest ski area in British Columbia, and the third largest in Canada. The summit elevation is 2,152m (7,060'), with the longest run being around 8km (5 miles) long. There are a total of 11 lifts, including 3 high speed quad chairlifts, 2 quad chairlifts, 1 triple chairlift, and 5 surface lifts. All these lifts can move 12,000 people per hour.
Sun Peaks boosts 559cm (220") of wonderful powder per year and over 2,000 sunshine hours per year. Just a great place to hang out. Let's have a look at the average winter temperatures:
December -9.5ºC / 15ºF
January -6.7ºC / 20ºF
February -6.1ºC / 21ºF
March -3.9ºC / 25ºF
April -1.1ºC / 30ºF
If down hill is not your kind of thing then there is 28km of groomed cross country trails, plus 12km of back-country trails and dedicated snowshoe trails
Sun Peaks is not just for winter sports, the summer is also a great time to be up here. Up here you can enjoy 18 hole golf, bike park, trail rides, tennis, outdoor pool, canoe rentals, voyageur canoe tours, kayak rentals, hiking tours, bike clinics and tours, photo shoots and clinics, guided fly fishing, mountain adventure camps, and bungee trampoline. Further there is 15 hiking trails and 39 Bike Park Trails, totaling 70km, with 255 features.
There are lots of accommodation on the mountain and you can get some really good deals The Delta Sun Peaks is only one of them. We will go back to Sun Peaks. For more pictures of our trip to Sun Peaks and back check out our Picasa Album.
Fresh BBQ’d seafood is one of my favourites. In September of this year we were camping in Chilcotin and in the Cariboo, in our beautiful province of BC.
One of the places we stayed at is the Cariboo Bonanza Resort. The owners Bruno and Dora Sprecher are from Switzerland and are the perfect hosts. The Resort is very nice, clean and tidy, one of the nicest we have come across.
We arrived at Cariboo Bonanza Resort late afternoon on the 24th of September 2009. We were greeted by Bruno and Dora Sprecher the owners of Cariboo Bonanza Resort (from Switzerland so everything is perfect). We got a great site #45
right on the lake next to one of the docks. We had supper (Swiss Fondue)
and made it an early night catching up on some blogs, pictures etc. Bunch of pictures at our Picasa Album
25th of September 2009
It is a beautiful morning, the ducks are busy on the shoreline sticking their tails in the air looking for food as the morning fog lifts over Horse Lake.
Liz starts out with a few loads of laundry in the spot-less facilities. I have some computer download problems, windows movie maker again :( . Life is too short, I decide to rent a boat and go fishing :) Life is good.
This lake is full of Kokanee. Kokanee is a land locked Sockeye Salmon. The Kokanee is very similar to the Sockeye except for size and weight. The Kokanee is usually 8-20 inches long, most are in the 9-14 inch range compared to 24-33 inches for a mature Sockeye. They both turn bright red when spawning and have an approximate 4 year life cycle.
I got lots of fishing advice from Bruno who even lent me his rod and reel, Thanks Bruno! He has to be the most knowledgeable person regarding fishing in the Cariboo.
Liz's notes:
Anders rented a boat. I went along in the morning for a tour of the lake and an hour of trolling. Well Anders caught a fish, but I took the camera instead of the net and the critter got away.
I was not popular at that time!
We went in for lunch, and I was not invited back out for afternoon fishing. The weather was absolutely beautiful and warm, t-shirt weather. I stayed in contact with Anders with our two-way radios, they come in so handy. He caught two Kokanee, around 2 lbs each, give or take. We cooked them for supper the next day.
We enjoyed another beautiful sunset. The ducks visited again, but turned around in disgust, when we did not feed them.
26th of September 2009
Another beautiful morning, however the forecast is for a change in weather.
We talked to the owners of the resort, Bruno and Dora and they suggested we go and hike to Mahood and Canim Falls. We packed some sandwiches and coffee and we were off.
We drive along Horse Lake to the East on Horse Lake Road, then Mahood Lake Road. We pass Deka, Sulphurous Lake, and Hathaway Lake and continue on gravel roads for about an hour.
As usual, the locals underestimate the time it takes, or we drive way slower than they do.
We almost miss the sign for Mahood and Canim Falls. It is just before Wells Gray Provincial Park.
Only two parties are camped here. We walk down to the beach and lake and take some pictures.
Anders is in the process of shooting a movie when he gets excited; there is a mother black bear and two cubs on the other side of the beach.
They take one look at us and run into the forest.
We decide to enjoy the incredible beauty this area has to offer,
with high hills all around the lake. It looks a bit like a large "Lake Cowichan" on Vancouver Island.
There are a few cottages, on the south side of the lake. Wells Gray Park comes down on the north side and encompasses the eastern part of Mahood Lake and the western part of Canim Lake. Wells Gray Park and surrounding area was, for some 10,000 years, home primarily to the Simpcw First Nations of the Secwepemc (or Shuswap) Nation. Their semi-nomadic ways of hunting, fishing and gathering had evolved to match the annual rhythms of nature by moving with the seasons and the timing of caribou and salmon migration.
There are over 50 archaeological sites that have been found in the area, including pictographs on the shores of Mahood Lake, we did not see any of them, but it calls for another trip there. If you have never been to Wells Gray Provincial Park, it is a must. I'm sure you could spend a whole year there and still not see everything. Don't believe me....the park is 540,000 hectares, that's 1,334,369 acres. There are several volcanoes, waterfalls, mineral springs and glaciers within the park boundary. For ease of locating things in the park, it has been divided up into eight areas. Check out Wells Gray Park Info
We are heading back again and Liz writes: We drive back looking for the turn off for the Canim South Road (one has to understand that road or directional signs are almost non existent in all of the Chilcotin or the Cariboo) The gravel road along Canim lake is very wash-board like, and I have to drive carefully because it is also very curvy. Anders is complaining that he is getting sick!
About half way along Canim Lake we hit pavement :) and the driving improves. Canim Lake is large and very populated. At the east end, close to Wells Gray Park are some very nice farms and farm land. The Canim-Hendrix Road is great, and in no time we reach Hwy 97. After a quick trip into Williams Lake to exchange an electric heater that did not perform. I drive up and Anders drives back.
Back at the Cariboo Bonanza Resort, Anders start BBQing the Kokanee, and I prepare fresh beans and baked potatoes. Another wonderful day. Check out the video of Anders preparing the Kokanee and yours truly as the camera woman.
