Peckish Travels

Saturday was our last full day in Chemainus, so we spent much of the first part of the day tidying and cleaning the house for the homeowners’ return the following day. Wall-E pretty much stayed out of the way, especially when the vacuum came out, but Willow seemed to find it all fascinating and wanted to be on top of the activity. She is definitely a curious cat.

About mid-afternoon Bob and I headed to one of the many wineries in the area, which proved to be a lovely, yummy, and educational visit. We did a self-guided tasting but we’re able to talk to the owner (a former MD) and learned the difference between an unfiltered and unfined wine. Their wines tended to be both. Our favorite was their sparkling wine.

A view from the patio

Sunday we left our Chemainus “home” a little after 11 am to catch the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington. The ferry didn’t leave until 3:00, but we had to be there at 1:30 to go through US Immigration. The ferry company alerted us to leave even earlier due to the Victoria Marathon that was being run that day. We found the drive much easier than expected and got to the ferry terminal at about 12:15. We were able to park and the walk around until 1:30.

Onward to friends and family and our next sit in Iowa City, Iowa.

We can’t believe our time on Vancouver Island is almost at an end. It has been a great trip. We definitely understand the appeal of living here — mountains, water, great trails, and good people! Rafa was the sweetest Labradoodle and great companion, and Willow and Wall-E have been entertaining cats. Our two homeowners were welcoming and helpful, and it will be sad Sunday morning when we head out, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Today, we drove about 15 minutes south to Maple Mountain Forest Preserve to do some hiking on the multi-modal (hiking, mountain biking, equestrian) trails there and take advantage of the 70 F degree weather. There were a number of cars in the lot when we pulled in. During the almost 3 hour hike, we ended up pulling over for 3 mountain bikers and were passed by two men on motor bikes when we were on the park road for a short part of the hike. All of the trails were well marked.

We headed back to Duncan today to check out the totem pole trail that they have, primarily in their downtown area. As with the murals in Chemainus, it was a fun way to explore the area.

Duncan, population of about 5,000, and now known as the City of Totems, began as a village called Alderlea in 1887 when William Chalmers Duncan donated farmland for the town site. The city of Duncan was incorporated in 1912. The totem pole project began in 1985 and is currently the world’s largest outdoor collection of publicly displayed totem poles.

Here’s some of the totems on display.

We are already into the 3rd day of the 10th month of this year. Where does the time go (my monthly question)? Sunday (10/1) Bob and I went to the Chemainus Theater for an afternoon performance of “The Fiancé,” a farce about a girl who gets engaged to 3 men before they go off to war and they all come back on the same day. It was a fun show, and we enjoyed seeing the lovely theater, poking around the great gift store/art gallery, and having a glass of wine at intermission in the cozy Fireside Lounge. They also have a dining area for combo dinner and theater tickets. The theater was full. We would definitely go back for another show!

Yesterday brought some much needed rain, nice and steady for most of the day. We ran a few errands and did some work online. Today, we headed a bit farther south (about 30 minutes) to walk along a different part of the Cowichan Valley Trail (CVT) at a trailhead in Glendora Trails Head Park near the town of Duncan. We just did a couple of out and backs out of the park and were once again surrounded in green, but we also got to check out an old railroad trestle, one of many along the CVT.

We did another trip slightly north today. This time, first stopping in the little community of Saltair, which is between Chemainus and Ladysmith. We had noticed the Diana, Princess of Wales Park on the map and stopped to check it out.

It is a relatively small wilderness park with an easy walking trail. No idea why it’s named for Diana, and the walk was a bit colored by the sign posted that a bear had been spotted in the area.

From the park, we headed into Ladysmith to walk their Marine Walk along the water and then check out their heritage area downtown. it was another beautiful fall day.

Today was a hiking day on trails in Ladysmith, a town (population of about 10,000) just under 15 minutes north of Chemainus. We had found a map that identified scenic views on a couple trails, one being the Holland Creek Trail. We started there. It was very green and almost rainforest like. The trail was well marked.

After we did the one side of the Holland Creek Trail, we crossed over it to do the Rotary Lookout Trail for one of the noted views on the route. The trail was an easy 15 minute uphill, but the promised scenic view was less exciting than we had hoped..

After the Rotary Lookout, we attempted to find the viewpoints on the Heart Lake Trail, but we ended up giving up. It took us awhile to find the Heart Lake Trail from the connector trail from the Holland Trail. We were working with a poor map out of a tourist brochure as the trail had run out of maps and didn’t post a large picture of the trail as per usual. Once we finally found the Heart Lake Trail, it was not well defined and was not well marked or blazed. After at least 1k of steep uphill, we decided just to head back to the car.

We had more rain overnight, but otherwise, a sunny day today. We decided to head down (south) to the small community of Crofton (population 1,500ish), which was on the news last night for the reopening of their paper mill. But we were headed there to walk along their newly extended waterfront walkway that we had read about in some of our travel brochures we picked up at the local Visitor’s Center.

It was a short but lovely walk that lead us by two parks, along the Stuart Channel, and we got to see a ferry going to the nearby Salt Spring Island being loaded with cars.

After our walk around Crofton, we headed to Fuller Lake Park, which is near the exit to Chemainus off of Trans Canada Route 1, so we had seen signs for it. It is a lovely park, even though much of the land around the lake is privately owned, so you can’t hike around it. No one was swimming, but there were a number of people fishing, and quite a few games of pickleball underway on the courts across from the parking lot. The tennis courts, on the other hand, were not being used.

We woke up in Chemainus and after feeding the cats and ourselves began our 12-night housesit with a walk along the Cowichan Valley Trail, which we can access at the end of our street. The mixed-use trail runs for 63 miles. It is mostly off road but does currently have some on road sections as well.

After we got off the trail heading south, we walked back in towards town to check out the small downtown and Old Town before heading to the grocery store, Country Grocer, to pick up some groceries and ingredients for tonight’s dinner.

A few facts about Chemainus, British Columbia, population 4,033 as of 2021. It is most famous for its theater, which we’ll talk more about Sunday after our visit, and it’s 53 outdoor murals depicting important aspects of the town’s history. It was founded in 1858 as an unincorporated logging town, and there is still a large logging company in operation.

Even with today’s rainy weather, we enjoyed our first impressions of Chemainus.

We had a lovely last few days in Sidney before moving to our current housesit in Chemainus, on the other side of the island. Last Thursday, we drove the 1.5 hours over the Malahat with its beautiful views to do a walkthrough with our Chemainus homeowners before their departure. They are a great couple with 2 Ragdoll cats and a cute house on a quiet street in the small town of Chemainus.

Late afternoon on Thursday we were treated to a happy hour at the lovely home of Heather and David, friends of our homeowners. The house was built to incorporate one of the large rocks on the property and gives the impression that you’re in a tree house. Rafa was thrilled to visit again, and it was a great evening. We continue to meet interesting people on our travels and enjoyed hearing from David, who has outbiked us, by biking all the way across Canada!

Our final longer walks with Rafa included a trip to the dog park, another perambulation of the Flight Path around the airport, and a trip to Centennial Park, which had lovely trees and a shaded, undulating path (I’m trying to fit in all my big words.), as well as a couple more in Sidney walks. Then we focused on last minute errands and prepping for one of our homeowners return on Tuesday.

Our Chemainus homeowners left early morning on Tuesday, so Bob drove me to Chemainus before heading back to Sidney to await the evening flight of the Sidney homeowner to pick him up. That went well, and Bob enjoyed getting to see him in person again and witness the reunion between Rafa and his human. We will definitely miss Rafa’s sweetness and charm but are happy that he’s back with his owner.

And now we’ll begin to get to know Willow and Wall-e, while their humans enjoy a Disney vacation.

It seems that if people know anything about Vancouver Island, they know about the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria and they know about Butchart Gardens. The Gardens are a 119 year old internationally renowned 55 acre display garden located in Brentwood Bay (about 20k northwest of Victoria), created by Jennie Butchart and still privately owned by the family. Jennie Butchart moved to Vancouver Island in 1904 with her husband and began transitioning a old limestone quarry into a sunken garden in 1912. Other gardens, including a rose garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden, and Mediterranean garden were added later.

Bob and I had visited the gardens on our first visit to Vancouver Island many moons ago when we also stayed at the Fairmont and enjoyed high tea there. We thought it was beautiful and decided we needed to see it again.

It was a happy, too-many-photos day, where we were constantly saying, “Oh my gosh, look at that.” It felt like nature’s version of walking through the largest box of Crayola Crayons. Highly recommend it.