Return To Paradise

The road back to Paradise is a long one...

 

Somewhat predictable, yet full of surprises... 

 

Long stretches of smooth straight asphalt combined with the sudden twists and turns of hair raising, adrenaline pulsing, bone jarring, washboard roads...

 

The same can be said about the water road to it as well...

 

To have less than those extremes one would get less than the full experience,

and the experience is what we're all after anyway, right...???...

 

But to back up a bit...

This past May, Jeff, John, Pat and I went looking for surf

on the central west coast of Vancouver Island...

 

We were introduced to The Island,

courtesy of Tim Niemier, a cabin owner on The Island...

Due to heavy weather, we were mostly landlocked for a week...

During that time, we explored The Island and the nearby waters...

A very special place, in a land of exceptional beauty...

 

When I returned from that trip,

I shared the story of our journey along with hundreds of pictures with Pam...

I knew I had to get back to The Island with my her...

She had to experience that very real slice of life for herself...

 

Tim had some things he wanted to do to the cabin...Maintenance and repairs...

So we scheduled a week to get up there, and help him with the projects...

Here's where our trip begins...

 

We drove from our house in Olympia to Bellingham on Friday, Sept 9...

We hit the road at 5 pm...

After one hour we traveled about ten miles....

An accident forced traffic to a crawl...

After another hour we were in Seattle,

where we had dinner with our daughter...

There again, another accident slowed us to a slither....

We got into Bellingham after 11 pm,

a drive that normally should have been two and a half hours...

 

We found Tim and Tracy's house no problem...

They were up, we chatted, then we all went to bed tired...

 

(above) Saturday morning Tim gave us a quick tour of his shop,

and showed us protypes, his CNC machine, shaping and glassing facilities and other really cool stuff...

 

After the walkaround we finalized the logistical plan

of how to get us all to The Island...

 

(above) The plan was for Pam and I to drive his Ford F-250 4x4

with a 15' Zodiac in tow across the border,

take the ferry to Vancouver Island, drive north

and re-group that night at a friend of Tracy's...

 

Tim and Tracy would fly his float plane straight from Bellingham to our rendezvous point on VI...

 

Having settled on a plan, we filled the Ford with $60 of premium and hit the road...

Crossing customs was 'answer three questions and you're in'...

The ferry was a half hour beyond the border...

 

(above) I'm on top unstrapping the board to get "underheight" and save $20...

The ferry cost with the truck and trailer was $96 cdn...

 

(above) Leaving mainland British Columbia

on our way to Vancouver Island...

 

(above) Progressive Canadians...

I think this is a picture of the ferry captain...

You just gotta love women's rights

and how equality in Canada is these days...

 

(above) Just before we arrived at Nanimo,

there was a "Person Overboard" drill...

 

(above) Still moving logs around the old fashioned way...

 

(above) Like a big waterbug with it's legs folded up,

this tri-maran in the belly of the ferry

was just waiting to get spread out and be skimming over the open waters....

 

(above) After the relaxing two hour ferry cruise to Vancouver Island

we were on the road again north...

A beautiful day, and smooth asphalt was our reality...

 

We got to Tracy's friend's house around 10 pm, road weary after a long day...

 

(above) The next morning Pam and I walked down to the Strait

and watched the sun come over the hills and water...

 

(above) The stack at the pulp mill...

 

(above) After breakfast we were on the road again,

 this time, destination “The End Of The Road”...

 

(above) On the side of the road was this little guy,

not bothered at all at us stopping to watch him 

looking to find a mid-day snack...

 

(above) We got to “The End Of The Road”

and went straight to the boat ramp...

 

(above) While un-tying and prepping the Zodiac for the ride out to The Island,

Tim flies in and lands at the ramp...

 

(above) Tim got there to give us a hand loading and launching...

 

(above) We got everything strapped on and were all set to launch...

We had our gear to carry as well as a big ol' ice chest, two surfboards, two kayaks as well as Pam and me...

 

(For the next hour or more photography was not a sane possiblity....)

Now it's about three in the afternoon...

On a sunny day...

With the prevailing westerly having kicked in around eleven...

They are now blowing about 15 - 20 kph...Stiff...

 

As soon as we got the Zodiac free from the trailer, things go haywire, fast...

The wind starts to push us towards the pilings to the east, the water is too shallow to fully drop the prop all the way, the kayaks come loose like bars of soap and the waves are coming over the transom causing the Eminent Sinking Danger alarm to sound....

 

I try to steer the boat to the dock to the west,

but with the prop half up, it steers like a bumper car....

 

But we get to the dock...On the windy side....

Still buffeted by the wind and waves, loose kayaks held by Pam...

We finally get around the dock to the lee side and off-load the kayaks...

 

I use a manual bilge to free the boat of most of the water...

It was 6" deep inside...

Pam's wallet got totally soaked on the floor...

 

Tim took the kayaks to the truck to be retrieved the next day...

Pam and I were able to get our pulses down to around 200

and we once again set forth across the big open waters...

 

Despite all the confusion and fury, with even my diminished hearing, I could've sworn I heard a ton of laugnter coming from the Dockside Cafe...

I guess someone told a super funny joke or something...???...

 

Once we got rid of the kayaks, things went better...Just a bit...

The waves created by the wind coming down The Narrows really made for a choppy ride, but as soon as we did the right turn towards North things settled down, for a while...

 

The scenery was again off the scale...

Pam enjoyed it as much as she could in between prayers for our lives...

 

Once we did the left turn towards The Island thing got a lot worse....

 

The wind waves were a couple of feet at a very short interval...

Combine that with our minimum planing speed of 20 kt. and you have a slamming ride...

 

Welcome to Canada, Pam...

 

She later told me how totally freaked out she was...

 

Here we are in a borrowed boat, no one for miles in any direction,

 driving through a steep wall fjord two miles wide,

with nothing but the promise of an hour of heavy battering in our future....

 

Some kind of fun....

 

For me it was full-on attention...

Constantly trying to pick the easiest way through the mess...

Whitecaps to the horizon...

 

One thing I was really glad of: having been through ugly waters in May with Jeff....

Then I took mental notes of how to respond to adverse conditions...

Without that time with him, I likely would have turned back, and headed back to “The End Of The Road”...

 

But we soldiered on,

with the conditions improving incrementally the further west we went...

Less fetch in the fjords...

 

Once we got near MidPoint Island I knew were almost home free...

That was a big mental relief....

 

I knew Pam was freaked but she was under control...

It'd been a rough time since we hit the water...

Another one of those bonding experiences...

 

All the landmarks to the island were familiar...

Like a country road without signs, but every bend looking familiar....

 

(above) Soon we were in the sheltered bay of The Island,

and Dan's old cabin was right there,

 our beacon on a bight sunny, windblown afternoon...

It never felt so good to step off a boat onto a dock...

 

(above) The familiar original cabin changes little,

but the ramp up to the cabin is new...

I feel connected now to it, since I helped mill the beams for it last May...

 

(above) The collection of floats hasn't been touched since May...

 

(above) And Dan's home has been sold...

 

(above) The new owner got it for under 500 k...

 

(above) Looking out to the meadow from Dan's old kitchen porch...

 

(above) The inside of Dan's old home,

looks the same except for new pictures on the walls...

 

(above) The kitchen still has that good old down home feeling...

 

(above) Inside the bathroom of the old cabin, the hot water lever busted...

The replacement should last for a few more decades...

 

(above) The site where Dan and I milled

the 43' x 6"x16" old growth Sitka Spruce 

beams for the replacement ramp...

Looks just the way we left it...

I brought home one of the offcuts from the log...An 8'er...

I'm going to make a "special" hollow surfboard out of it...

And surf it sometime in the waters off of The Island...

 

(above) The bridge over the tidal zone is as we found it last...

 

(above) And Tim's boathouse is the same too...

We were going to replace the roof on this side, but we ran out of time...

 

(above) Tim and Tracy's cabin...

 

(above) On the kitchen table...

 

(above) In the late evening we all got in Tim's motorized work skiff

 and went island hopping...

 

(above) Heading out to the protected inner islands off of The Island...

The inner islands and foreshore was home to

3,000 to 5,000 native Indians 150 years ago...

That is until smallpox and the forced schooling scattered the tribe

until the area is no longer home to any but a few...

 

(above) We beached the skiff on one small island...

 

(above) And went to check out a cave...

 

(above) Inside the cave was a surprise...

This is the top to a burial box,

placed out of the weather inside the cave...

 

(above) The real deal...

 

(above) A burial cave...These are 100 to 150 years old...

A very somber place...

You won't find these without a guide...

 

(above) After the cave we went out to see some other historical sites...

 

(above) That big piece of wood straight in front,

is the side of an old wooden siling ship...

 

(above) The "rub rail" is still intact...

 

(above) The sides of this old ship are 3 feet thick...

 

(above) Leaving the islands and heading back to the cabin...

 

 

That evening after dinner, for entertainment, Tracy read us a wonderful story...

We all kicked back on the cabin's couches, with our eyes closed listening 

and imagining vivid mental pictures of a very funny story...

Good old fashioned storytelling still has a place in this world...

 

 

(above) Good morning...Strong black coffee in the mug...

Endless possibilities of things to do,

but for now I'm just gonna groove on the stillness...

 

(above) A little fog nudges in on the scene, only to retreat in an hour....

It's all good...Still groovin'...

 

(above) But wait....That sound...

Not a boat...Not a plane...

What...???...A Helicopter...!!!...

 

(above) I'm thinking four things...

1. Really bad news...

2. Ed McMahon with my $1,000,000...

3. A realtor...

4. Jeff Chamberlain

 

(above) The passengers didn't think there was a place to land on The Island....

They were almost right...

"Sky King" found two high spots to place the landing bars...

Amazing...

 

(above) Turns out it was almost my #3 guess...

Not a realtor, but a guy looking to buy...Maybe...

Dave is the guy on the right...

An Irishman who is a commercial / industrial photographer

(Most likely you've seen his Guinness beer photos in magazines)...

Dean, the guy over his shoulder

(who 'bears' a physical similarity to Mr. Chamberlain)

is a Vancouver Island 'grizzly bear' lodge owner...

Dave goes to Dean's regularly...

Dave's writing and photographing a book on grizzlies...

Dean heard of The Island, and wanted to see what the hubbub was about...

Little did the know they flew right into a

bonafied guided tour of paradise, Northern Style...

 

 

(above) The old generator shack...

Check out the one piece front door...

Not available at Lowes...

 

(above) The saw shed, with fresh cuts out front...

Decent length on that stuff....

Betcha can't find a knot in the pile...

 

(above) The homemade hand welded sawmill...

Powered by a newfangled Honda...

The log was skidded up to the saw from the beach below...

Set in place, then systematically taken apart like a Thanksgiving turkey...

Just the way they do it in these parts...

 

(above) Bob's place...

No shortage of skills around here...

 

(above) We walked over to the other side of the island...

This little tree was growing out of the bridge over the tide lands...

If it only knew of the log at the mill, it would give up growing now...

 

(above) Mushrooms thrive...

 

(above) Another view to Tim's front yard...

I saw a pretty big black bear cross over the marsh grass one morning...

Two minutes later, Tracy coming back from a run,

was exactly where the bear was a couple minutes earlier...

Fate or...????...

You decide...!!!...

 

(above) The view to the north...

 

(above) Hanging on the side of a shack...

If these teeth could talk...

 

(above) Mooring chains on a dock...

 

(above) Canadian surf explorer "Clark W." about to pull in to the dock...

Tim made the rowboat...

 

(above) "Clark W." showing off his new seat backrest...

 

 

(above) While getting filled-in on the latest surf report from "Clark W.",

the chopper chopped its way up, up and away...

 

(above) Y'all come back and see us again now, y'hear...

 

(above) After the helicopter incident, it was back to island ways...

Tim and I finished replacing the shingled roof and skylights over the laundry room and bathroom, with standing seam metal roofing...

Pam and Tracy went kayaking over to Shannon's...

The three of them went exploring, squaw style (whatever that means)...

 

(above) Tracy pointing out where a tsunami would wipe them out if it were to roll through about then...

Lucky for them it didn't...

 

(above) Tim and I went about replacing the dock ramp to his shallow water dock...

We broke it the day before moving the skiff down to the water...

We salvaged the existing planks, retrieved a couple of beams from the beam site in the woods and set about to build the ramp...

 

(above) By then Pam was back, ready to help out...

Here she paints on a coat of motor oil to the places

where there will be wood to wood contact...

Not in your local EPA guidebook...

Results don't lie...

 

(above) Pam, ready willing and very able...

 

(above) Matching postures, 

matching footwear,

matching pants,

"Hey, We're A Team"...

 

(above) Cross bracing the underside...

 

(above) Flip that mutha over...

 

(above) A two hour project...

Next, but not today, replace the float log...

 

(above) Yeah, we were that tired...

 

(above) Then suddenly, just as work finishes,

with split second timing, blasting around the point

 come "Clark W." and "G-Man"...

Back from a surf check...

Were they watching us put the tools away...????...

I'm suspicious...

 

(above) "Sir, here's the view you ordered with your dinner"...

 

(above) "Or, would you prefer this one"... 

 

(above) Let the fun begin...

Tim is setting up the Zodiac for a morning

run down the coast in search of surf...

This day looks to be the best one

this week for good conditions...

 

(above) What, are we going surfing or

 are you emigrating to another country...???...

Seems no matter how big the boat, it always needs to be bigger...

(above) Let the good times roll...!!!...

 

(above) "No Wake Zones",

we don't need no stinking "No Wake Zones"...

 

(above) It felt fantastic to be traveling fast

over the smooth protected inner waters of The Island Bay...

 

(above) "Race you for Pink Slips"...

 

(above) Nosing out into the Pacific...

1 to 2' of surface bump...Just a hint of wind...

Full speed ahead...

 

(above) Ten miles later,

The Falls with exactly 99.996% less water

coming over than last May...

The falls are 70' wide x 30' high...

Drops right into the ocean...

Spectacular when it's raging...

 

(above) We came for this...???...

 

(above) The fabled swell of "great purity" failed to meet our expectations...

I didn't need to surf a rocky, shallow, 2' crumbler

to fulfill my wave quota, neither did Tim...

With that settled, we bid "Clark W." and "G-Man" farewell...

They were off to camp on the beach and wait for better surf...

Tim and I turned back, motored up, and pounded our way back North...

 

(above) Rounding Sea Lion Pt. we saw these

sea lions doing what sea lions do...

 

(above) "This is Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom"...

 

(above) Now inside The Island Inlet,

the seas smoothed out and we did a bit of inside coastline exploring...

The Honda 40 was a great match for the 15' RIB...

Excellent fuel economy also...

Tim said he gets 10 miles per gallon...

 

(above) A more scenic coastline, I can't imagine...

 

(above) Beach sculpture or the remains of an

attempt at salvaging a grounded steel freighter...???...

 

(above) Everywhere you look, it's a priceless view...

 

(above) Back at the cabin in time for lunch...

That funnel stack on Tim's dock came from that rusted shipwreck...

 

(above) The solar panels on the shop roof feed a bank of batteries

 that supply the electrical needs of the cabin...

 

(above) Ok, now what...???...

 

(above) Let's go flying...!!!... 

 

(above) Off we go, into the wild blue yonder....

 

(above) Now which one of these is the "Up In The Air" switch...???...

 

(above) Looking at The Island...

 

(above) "Island West"

 

(above) If you look close, you can see Pam on the deck waving...

Hi Honey, miss you too...

 

(above) Looking North... 

 

(above) Neckbreakers

 

(above) Prgenant with potential...

 

(above) If only...

 

(above) Spectacular is an understatement... (

 

(above) Shipwreck Rocks...

 

(above) Another coastal village...

 

(above) Typical of the rocky islands...

 

(above) Some of the many the small coastal islands...

 

 

(above) Pretty far North...

 

(above) Some surf potential there...

 

(above) Maybe on a good day... 

 

(above) Wish I knew the names of these places...

 

(above) Gnarly...

  

(above) Just so beautiful...

 

(above) Nice place for a picnic...

 

(above) Wow...

 

(above) More Wow...

 

(above) The forest is just so dense...

 

(above) A Northern Bay ...

 

(above) Where the rivers meet the sea...

 

(above) Inside a lagoon...

 

(above) This is Canada...

 

(above) Untamed beauty... 

 

(above) Water on both sides...

 

(above) Just so beautiful…

 

(above) Where I want to build my dream home...

 

(above) Such a privilege to fly over this incredible land...???...

 

(above) Look at that underwater shelf...

Fully exposed to south swells...

 

(above) Oh Canada...

 

(above) Unnamed Islands...

 

(above) More of ‘em...

 

(above) And yet more...

 

(above) So much to see...

 

(above) Give me a summer and a sailboat...

 

(above) We landed in one of the fishing villages...

 

(above) Two ways to get to the same place,....

 

(above) First Nation country...

 

(above) It was nice to stretch out a bit

after a couple of hours in the plane...

 

(above) I spell fun: N2351U...

 

(above) Dock Cleat...

 

(above) Back in the air ion our way back to Our Island...

 

(above) So much surf potential...

  

(above) Getting closer to home... 

 

(above) Somewhere out there...

 

(above) Someday it might be ridden...

 

(above) Dream on…

 

(above) Almost home...

 

(above) What an afternoon...

 

(above) After a day of exploring, we had to catch up on some chores...

We needed to burn the trash,

including the old tar paper from the roof replacement...

We do this at a spot on the beach where the tide will remove the ashes...

We started the fire, and fed it at a manageable rate...

But the tide comes in so fast you can see it move...

In two minutes the tide will advance two feet horizontally... 

Within minutes the tide forced us to force feed the fire...

Not a good thing...

 

(above) This baby is burnin'...

And HOT...!!!...

I'm not going to say that I was a bit concerned

about the whole island going off,

but you can draw your own conclusions...

I'll just say that this was as

adrenaline pumping as the boat ride out...

Whew, dodged another bullet...

 

(above) Tim and Tracy went flying this day down to Warm Water Cove...

So Pam and I put our work clothes on

and worked together getting the new float log ready...

It's a massive cedar log...

Corralled with some other logs,

high in the tide zone,

next to Tim's wood shed...

 

(above) I'm notching the round top off the log...

 

(above) Your typical Yacht Clubber on a sunny afternoon...

 

(above) Check out the sawdust and cedar chunks in the water...

I love my Muck Boots...!!!...

 

(above) Pam gets into the "swing of things"...

 

(above) Stand back...!!!...

 

(above) Chunks will fly...!!!...

 

(above) About half way done...

 

(above) Three hours later, it's ready...

 

(above) Who's on vacation...???...

 

(above) Ready for the ramp to go on top...

 

(above) When Tim and Tracy got back, it was Pam's turn for a fly-over...

She's never been in a small plane before...

Can you sense her excitement...???...

 

(above) And they're away...

 

(above) Taxiing out to the take-off area...

 

(above) Getting up to speed and up they go...!!!...

 

(above) While Pam and Tim were off and away, I took a few B&W pictures...

Coiled chain...

 

(above) Looking out the old cabin window...

 

(above) The cabin stove...

 

(above) "The plane boss, the plane...!!!..."

 

(above) Before we had dinner, the egrets found theirs...

 

(above) Dusk approaching...

 

(above) Such a tranquil time...

 

(above) And it's all so very quiet...

 

(above) A special time at a special place...

 

(above) The sunsets got better each day...

 

(above) As good as it gets...???...

 

(above) Maybe...

 

(above) Yeah, as good as it gets...

 

(above) A good time to reflect on an extraordinary trip...

 

(above) Morning again...Our day to leave...

Overnight the La Perouse pulled up to the dock...

It was heading out this day for fishing...

 

(above) The captain of La Perouse...

 

(above) We get the Zodiac loaded,

and ready for the ride back to “The End Of The Road”...

 

(above) We're off...!!!...

Such a contrast to our arriving at The Island...

 

(above) Farewell... 

 

(above) The landmark rocks seem like road signs...

Each one has meaning about where to go...

 

(above) Once again it seems like we are the only ones in the world...

 

(above) What a way to go...

 

(above) You can't tell from this picture,

 but were moving along at about 25 mph...

 

(above) Paradise...

 

(above) “The End Of The Road” is straight ahead...

 

(above) So close to end of our journey...

 

(above) I smell bacon...!!!...

 

(above) Now, we've got the boat on the trailer,

the truck is loaded, we have food in us,

and we're ready for a day on the road...

It still feels like a great adventure...

 

(above) The Road home...

 

(above) Soon we'll be back on pavement...

 

(above) And finally we're at the ferry dock,

waiting to get back to the mainland...

The truck ran so well, and the trailer went along without a hitch,

but it did have a hitch...Never mind...

 

(above) On the ferry we watched the sunset...

I have no words to describe

 how the sunset progressed...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(above) Natural light...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(above) I hope you enjoyed the ride...

We did...