Sandy's Epic Adventure - Visiting an Esteemed Elder

Ta-dah!!! Can you tell where we are??? Minnie is beary, BEARY happy to bet out of the car and turned into a little schmooze cat.

YES!! We are visiting Gramma!!! She wanted to see her little Grand-bear (that's me) and her Grand-kitten (that's Minnie)!

I bet you didn't know this is where we'd end up, did you! Hah!

After all that ferry/car riding... even this little bear needs to stretch their legs.

We went down to walk by the river and found this memorial... a family killed in a car crash - a mom and her two kids - a collision with a transport truck.

So sad.

Have you noticed yet... there are hardly any leaves on the trees here. We have gone back in time a bit since we are so far north.

But even here there are some little leaves starting on the Snowberry bushes.

And some little baby False Solomon's Seal.

Oh... what have we here!!

Looks like some morel mushrooms!! But... before we get too excited... they are the poisonous ones... See how the cap isn't attached to the sides of the stem... it just hangs like a bell. Bad morels.

Ahhhh... so nice here.

While the morels were a wash... we did find... stinging nettles!!! We missed the harvest time back home but here... we are back in time and they are just starting!!

I will leave the harvesting to the humans... lots of rubber gloves...

Gramma was beary happy when we brought these home. We blanched them and then froze them. She uses them like she would spinach... and makes a mean spinach pie with them! Or nettle pie in this case.

By the time we left the island... apparently word of my predations had reached the authorities... heh-heh!!!

Sandy's Epic Spring Adventure - The Ferry Ride

Hullo! Well... look at me!! We have a berth on the ferry. Because this is an epic adventure you know - something like a 22 hour ferry ride!  

There are 4 berths in the cabin but we only need 3 of them... I get a berth all to myself!!

We were supposed to leave at 6 pm but... there's no sign of departure so... we might as well go and get something to eat and drink.

Ahhhh... that's better!!!

Mmmm... beary nice. It's a local brew, up from Rupert. Cool! Love these craft breweries.

Alright... yes... it's 7:00 pm and we are still here! What's the hold-up?? Well... all these trucks, trailers and cars that need to back onto the ferry.

Here comes another one... uber slow. Sigh.

There aren't that many left but... I don't think we are leaving anytime soon.

Did you know that this is the famous Inside Passage ferry ride?? Yes, it is. It's super popular in the summer, less so in the winter and shoulder season. In the summer they have 2 ferries - the Northern Expedition which is bigger and the Northern Adventure (the one we are on). In the summer, the Northern Adventure does the Rupert/Haida Gwaii route and the Expedition does the Inside Passage. Here, in the shoulder season, the Adventure is doing both routes...

We finally, finally left at 8 pm!!! Wow... seriously late. But apparently we will make up time along the way. We are going to stop at Bella Bella and Klemtu, but that's in the middle of the night.

I'm not getting up for that! This little bear is going to sleep. Oh, and in case you were wondering... Minnie had to stay in the car but the humans could go visit her every 4 hours or so. Not the best scenario but... she did OK!

***The Next Morning***

Brrrr!!! It's a bit chilly out there this morning!

But it is so gorgeous up here!!

Right then... let's me give a bit of a tour... this is the deck level with all the berths. There aren't a tonne of them, so a lot of people on main deck, where they have all the seats, had brought foamies and air mattresses and camped out there. I think those were mostly the Bella Bella and Klemtu people because by the morning, it had emptied out a fair bit!

We are supposed to get into Rupert at 4 pm today... and we might actually make that.

So pretty up here... oh... before I forget...

Do you see our wake... and the land that's directly in line with it... waayyyyy in the distance?

Yep, that land. When the ferry sails south, it's basically doing the mirror image... so sailing forward along the wake towards that island. And then, it eases to the left and continues onwards. Well, back in... 2006, on March 21/22, the Queen of the North was sailing south along this route, at night. The crew on duty on the bridge failed to make the course correction and the ferry slammed into Gil Island around midnight.

The ferry took an hour to sink so everyone made it to the lifeboats. There were boats from nearby Hartley Bay (Indigenous community) that came to the rescue as well after getting the distress signal. Once they landed, they did a head count and realized that 2 passengers were missing. They were never found and no one knows what happened to them. It's one of those weird mysteries. (Wikipedia)

As for why the crew on duty failed to make the course correction... two of them were former lovers and rumour has it that they turned down the bridge displays and alarms and got into an argument. It's also a bit of a mystery. A sad one.

We are now in the Grenville Channel, super narrow at points and beary spectacular scenery. We even saw a few whales!

We are almost to Rupert though! Which is good...

These are all the trucks, cars, etc that had to back onto the ferry...

Oh hey!!! There's a container ship at the terminal in Rupert. Did you know the Port of Prince Rupert is the 3rd busiest port in Canada (after Vancouver and Montreal). It is the deepest port in Canada and is ice-free year round. It's also 3 days closer in sailing time to Shanghai than Vancouver... 

Seee... tonnes of container cargo... that all gets put onto CN Rail and shipped east towards Prince George and Edmonton.

Prince Rupert is also a beary wet, beary cloudy place. But luckily... we are not staying here!

Right then... no photos after this... we got off the ferry and drove and drove and drove. Minnie was glad to be back in the light of day! And then we got to our destination...

Stay Tuned

Sandy's Epic Spring Adventure - Port Hardy

 Finally!!!! We've arrived in Port Hardy on the northern end of Vancouver Island. It only took us 9 hours... ugh! But the humans have the stretchiest legs now... strange people... Do you see the bear on top of that sign! This is my sort of place.

Why are we in Port Hardy you might ask? Are we going further north to Cape Scott?? Nope...

Cute spring flowers though!

And a nifty totem pole!

I'm partial to the bear on this totem...

OK, OK.... enough prevaricating (is that a real word?)... why are we here??...

Well do you see that... waaaaayyyy off in the distance??

Yep... that boat... that's where we are going!

Where is the boat going?? Stay tuned!!

Seee... Port Hardy... and... I found a beary interesting exhibit here.

Apparently this is a big wind farm area! (Who knew!)...

And a few years back, one of the blades of a wind turbine got damaged during transport and the town got to keep it!! I somehow thought it would be bigger...

Oh, you think that's just a perspective thing? Alright... let's get a full-on pic of this thing!

There I am!! On the rock! See me??

Farther back!!!

OK... yeah... this thing is huge!!! It's 50 metres long (about 150 ft).

I like this Port Hardy sign better than the first one... more bears!!!

And a bear with a salmon!! Even better!!

In case you think we are dawdling again... we are. We can only check in for the boat at 4:00 pm soooo...

I learned a bit about some of the other villages up on the north island, places like Zeballos! Great salmon fishing and kayaking!

And Telegraph Cove - population 20 - former cannery town and now a launch off point for eco-tourism.

Woss we already know about but there's some great caving there too!

Ah, Sayward... bad forest fire burning near there right now.

Sointula?? Established on Malcolm Island by some Finns in the early 1900s as a future "utopia". Sounds interesting!

Holberg was settled by Danes and is enroute to Cape Scott. It had an RCAF base for a long time... in the middle of nowhere!

Oooh... we just moved closer to the boat terminal... Are we there yet??? Nope... but I love this sign!! The boat docks in Bear Cove! Isn't that just perfect? This sounds like my kind of place!

We are still waiting for 4:00 pm to roll around. Sigh.

Let's stretch our legs a bit...

Oooh... there it is!!

It's the BC Ferries!!! The Northern Adventure... that's a nice name!

It's huge.

Whups... a bit of a jump... we were just a few minutes from the ferry line-up soooo we joined it at 4 pm sharp and... there are already 20 cars ahead of us. But that shouldn't take long, right? The check-in info said if you have a reservation, you can ONLY check-in between 4 pm and 4:30 pm and if you are late, your reservation "might" not be honoured...

Yes... well... 4:25 pm and we are still 15 cars from the check-in booth. This is the slowest process ever. We are taking pics of the car clock so we can PROVE we were here on time.

Ugh... one of the humans does not handle this stress beary well!

***Later***

Alright!!! We are on the ferry! It was beary stressful... we got to the check-in booth at 5 pm and the lady just brushed off the stress of late check-in. Apparently they have a scouter who looks out at the line at 4:30 pm and notes which car is the "end of the line". Well... that would have been nice to know! 

And this is a beary different ferry from the regular mainland/island ones. On those, the bow and stern are interchangeable. So you drive on one end and drive off the other. They are like a drive-thru ferry. This one... you drive on one way and you'll have to drive off the same way! We are up in the bow, on a ramp bit and there, the little cars can sort of pull a u-turn so we are facing the stern now. But... down below... all of the trucks and RVs have to back on to the ferry!!

And... I don't think a lot of people with trailers know how to back-up into a cramped ferry very well!!!

Stay-Tuned!!