General thoughts and musings while poaching MC'D WIFIAs my time in BC wraps its self up, (I have now left the island and am now in Kamloops BC) I take the opportunity to reflect on my time on Vancouver Island. The buying of the new car obviously was very stressful. However, it allowed me to glimpse first hand the very real problem of homelessness on Vancouver Island, specifically in the Comox valley. The relief when I finalized the purchase of a new car (on December 23rd) was insurmountable. I finally had the freedom to leave the Valley, without the fear that my transmission would die and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. I immediately headed back to Gold River, a small forestry town in the central island. The Gold River used to be one of the worlds best Steelhead rivers but, as with many of the rivers on the Island it was decimated during the 20th century.
Well storm it did, first the rain then the snow. Luckily I had tarps galore to cover my wood and fire. Still it was not that pleasant to have to get out of the warmth of my sleeping bag to start a fire with a heck of a lot of snow on the ground. For the next few days I huddled to keep warm, and during the lulls of the storms I was able to get out and paddle a few beauty creeks in the area. I also managed to do some interesting descents of the far upper reaches of rivers, these being the Gold river from near the head water lake and the upper, upper, upper, upper Heber (above the flood run) . These required some interesting portages around some sieve filled rapids, and the later having a long walk through the snow.
Heralding the endI did not spend as much time boating on the Gordon as I would have liked, the water was dropping out and fast! All the huge storms from earlier had given way to dry cold weather. I did however see some HUGE trees. Unfortunately Weebly will not let me upload photos larger than 10mb and BIG trees need BIG photos, so I can't upload them. However bellow is a photo of the protection camp I stayed at.
I had not seen my uncle for over 10 years, possibly 15. So it was amazing to catch up for a couple of days as well as meet his friend. After two days I headed back to Kamloops to see my friend Tony. Unfortunately he dislocated his shoulder downhill skiing a couple weeks back, so he could not get out and about. I however, went for a two long skis than on the third day Tony and I teamed up for a long tramp through the woods on snowshoes. We did not bring food or water, so 15km later we where rather parched. Nothing a cold beer and some nacho poutine couldn't fix. I have now left Tony's, although it turns out I left a sweater and some socks...wups. He has offered to meet in Kamloops for a brew and to return my stuff. in other news I need to figure out insurance crap for my car, but that is tomorrows problem.
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February 2021
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