Rocky Mountain Drive to Cochrane, Alberta

We are on the road by about 10am with Cochrane in our sights. It isn't long and we cross the border into our home province of Alberta. 

Welcome home

Even though these mountains are out our back door, you never tire of them. This is a picture of one of the many wild animal crossings within Banff National Park.

Wild animal crossing. 

When the mountain range of the Three Sisters is in sight, we are 45 minutes to home ;)

Three Sisters Mountain range - Hope, Faith & Charity

Home

True home - 1:50 pm.

That is a wrap on the BC portion of our cross Canada trip. Next up Alberta. 

Goodbye Nanaimo - Alberta Bound

We are up at 6:30am to catch the 7:45 ferry off Vancouver Island. We are travelling from Duke Point, which is just south of Nanaimo to Tsawwassen just south of Vancouver. It is a glorious sunny day. 

We have never caught a ferry from Duke Point before

Loading onto the Queen of Nanaimo

Good-bye Nanaimo and the Island 

View from the upper deck

Once we are off island and ready to roll, Google lets us know of an accident on the highway we were going to take so we end up on "0 Avenue" and are literally travelling the border between Canada and the USA. We didn't even know a road like this existed. Bizarre - it truly is the longest undefended boarder in the world. 

Mile markers along the Canada/USA border

Canada on the left - USA on the right

After many, many hours we are into the mountains of the Rogers Pass. Still lots of snow in the mountains up here.

Getting close to the Rogers Pass

Avalanche tunnels between Revelstoke and Golden

It has been a 14 hour day by the time we pull into Waitabit Creek campground. Exhausted we make a quick supper and go to bed. 

Final day on Vancouver Island

Our last full day on Vancouver Island was spent chilling with great friends Keith and Wendy.  They take us to Westwood Lake. It's a popular local lake right in Nanaimo for a walk about. 

We find another swing and Chris and Keith have some fun with it. 

Keith sending Chris higher and higher

Honeysuckle along the way

Back at Keith and Wendy's we have a bit of time before the hockey game so Chris pulls out his guitar. Athena the dog really likes the music. 

True meaning of guitar licks

Tonight the Oilers play game 5 of the series and with a win could advance to the Stanley Cup final!!

A friend of Keith and Wendy's daughter is an Oilers fan and he views from outside our trailer door:)  Too funny.

No seats inside for Dylan :)

Oilers win 6 to 3... exciting elimination game for Dallas. 

Stanley Cup here we come.

Officially Heading East - Good Bye Pacific Ocean - across island to Nanaimo

A final trip to see the ocean before we officially start heading east. There is a super beautiful fog rolling across the beach adding a totally different feel this morning. We will truly miss the thundering sounds and smells from this part of the world.

Fog rolling across the beach

We stop to see Cathedral Grove mid island. Though we have seen a lot of big trees all over the island, it is still unique in it's own way. Not only are the bases of 300 year old trees huge, they are also soooo tall. 

Douglas Fir trees

A quick stop at the Dutch Store in Coombs for another round of Stroopwafels. Two packs so we can share. 

We finish the night back at our friends Keith and Wendy in Nanaimo.

Wild Pacific Trail - Ucluelet Harbor - Papi's Cantina

Today we drop our bikes at Big Beach in Ucluelet and then drive back to the start of the Wild Pacific Trail near the Ancient Cedars and head out on the trail. It's a gorgeous day enjoying the ocean.

They call a portion of the hike "The Artist's Loop" and we totally experience the beauty a painter would be trying to recreate. Nothing like the real thing!

Sea foam creating it's own art in the ocean.

Crows nest lookout offers great views

Small fjord

Once at our bikes we bike over to Terrace Beach and then continue hiking the Lighthouse Loop portion of the Wild Pacific Trail. We did the Lighthouse Loop at sunset our first night here but these hikes are so stunning at any time of day. An absolute must for anyone visiting Ucluelet.

1906 Amphitrite Point Lighthouse

Indian Paint Brush flower

Naraly tree trunk

It's game 4 of the Oilers series and we listen on radio as we bike back to the down town looking for a pub to close out our triathlon - 2 activities plus a beer :) Sadly it appears lots of places are closed Monday/Tuesdays. We head to the municipal docks and listen to the game as we walk about.

The anchor in the picture below is circa 1852 and was lost at sea somewhere along its life. In 1996 is was recovered near here by MV Ocean King in 540 meters of water and was donated to the municipal dock. Now that's an anchor. 

Harbor we sailed out of on Tioga back in 2002.

Calm blue sky evening

We end up listening to the game at Papi's Cantina, a little Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating. Nice fish tacos and a Modelo.

We bike back to the truck while listening to the third period of the game. Oilers win 4 to 1. They get 2 empty net goals in the dying minutes as Dallas pulls their goalie and makes a push to tie the game.

Back at our campsite we head down to the beach to collect our Pacific Ocean sea water in a jar that will come east with us and meet the Atlantic Ocean somewhere in the future of our cross Canada trip. 

Pacific Ocean in a jar :)

Tomorrow we officially head east. This is as far west as we can get :)

A sunset is nature's farewell kiss at night  :0

Kayak Grice Bay around Indian Island

After work we head to Grice Bay boat launch and splash Mango and Lil Blue.

Indian Island in behind Chris fishing. 

A local indigenous man is fishing off the shore and we start to talk to him. He has caught a little fish and asks if we would like to have it. So kind and we gladly accept his offer. 

Little lake trout :)

We kayak counterclockwise around Indian Island and this turns out to be perfect as we paddle hard against some wind and current up to the narrows, but then we enjoy the lovely downwind cruise along the back side of the island.

It's about an 8 km super secluded paddle. Very nice.

Back at the trailer, we turn the little fish into a wonderful addition to supper. Such nice flavor.

Relax day at Greenpoint Campground

The forecast for today is largely quite heavy rain, so we decide to have a relaxing morning in our warm trailer. It turns out the Oilers are actually playing hockey at noon so it works out well in our plan. Chris puts out the old cell booster and we can watch the game in our pj's at our trailer. So nice. The Oilers kick Dallas 6 to 1.

Old cell booster comes to life

After the game we head down to the water in our wet gear and boots and marvel at the sound and power of the ocean. 

Largely dry in pouring rain :)

What more can you do on a rainy day then bake lasagna in our oven to help warm and dry the RV. It's great to have a down day.

Comfort food :)

Pacific Rim National Park Beach Ride

Today we woke up at the crack of 10:20, and got our bikes ready for a beach ride.

Riding Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park

Cool patterns in the sand

We bike all the way down to where the rock outcrops won't allow us to go any farther. It's about 7km so far.

This is as far as we can go along the beach

We back track a bit and then hop on the paved bike trail Apsciik Tasii ( pronounced ups-cheek ta-shee) A First Nations Elders group came up with the name and it means "going in the right direction on the path" with deeper meanings related to personal journeys, mindfulness and respect. 

The trail connects Tofino and Ucluelet, which is a wonderful addition to the area. 

Multi-use trail between Tofino and Ucluelet. 

We bike about 5km of paved trail back to the Combers Beach entrance and then we are back biking on the beach again. 

 

Combers Beach entrance trail

The tide was on its way out and there was at least a ribbon of 200 m of hard pack sand riding surface. Bike riding is such a great way to see the beach and the beauty as you can cover a long distance. 

 

Expansive beach especially at low tide. 

We went from one end of the beach to the other end of the beach and back, approximately 21 km of riding including around 5 km on the Ucluelet to Tofino multi-use path through the thick forest.

We topped the day off with a cup of tea sitting in our beach chairs watching the tide continue to go out with surfers in the distance.