Monday, July 24
Day 4: Port Alberni, Tofino & Kennedy Lake
We started back north to Port
Alberni and then west on highway 4. This took
us on a logging road just East of Ucluelet, near Kennedy Lake, the largest lake
on Vancouver Island. where we found an interesting campsite on Kennedy Lake.
We came upon a small parking lot full of beat up cars and VW vans. We got curious
and took a walk thru the woods along a boardwalk and came to some stairs overlooking
a beach and Kennedy Lake. Down on the beach there were "deadheads" camping and
maybe living here for months. It was a peaceful place where everybody did their
own thing. We went back to the truck and continued on to a junction. First we
went 5 miles south to Ucluelet
, a fishing town right off the west coast. People fly in from all over Canada
and the United States for weekend fishing trips. There is a large ship permanantly
docked there with sleeping quarters and a nice seafood restaurant on board,
which serves a good brunch. Tofino is another fishing village 21 miles north
of the junction. Between Ucluelet and Tofino we passed Long Beach, a 12 mile
stretch of sand which is part of the Pacific Rim National Park. I think Tofino
has more of a Bohemian or European atmosphere. It's a small town that is very
quiet and relaxed. We had stayed here one time in '93 at the Duffin CoveResort
Motel that overloooks the ocean and the Broken Islands from the balcony.
The resort is nice but their off season rates are about $100 a night. They have
youth symphonys that come in for a whole week in the summer for tourists and
whale watching is popular especially during March/April. We ate lunch at the
Sand Bar which was a Greek restaurant that served good food. We have also eaten
at the Loft which serves good hamburgers. There is a nice art gallery of native
Indian art that is on the main road as you drive in that would be worth visiting.
Tofino airlines will fly you to other islands and hot springs but at a steep
price.
We
went to Kennedy Lake, but before we set up camp for the night we decided to
go see Virgin Falls. We thought it would take only 45 minutes to get there.
It turned out to be a more memorable hour and a half (and that was just one
way). We got lost several times. The road was quite steep, rocky and bumpy.
At one point we turned up a steep road and came to a ditch in the road. Went
over it and two more, about 12 feet apart from each other. After the third or
maybe fourth ditch, we realized these were not just ordinary drainage ditches.
Somebody didn't want us taking this road. Our only choice was to go in reverse
down a very steep hill, but the worst part was getting over the ditches. We
finally found the Virgin Falls, but it wasn't worth it as only a little trinkle
of water was going over a rock cliff. On our way back to Kennedy Lake, we stopped
at a bridge to walk around. Looking over the railing we saw a rather curious
sight. Laying in the dried up creek bed was what appeared to be a fresh cut
fillet of salmon, (see picture). Someone had obviously left something here for
bears or other animals. We did see one truck pass us about an hour ago but that
was the only vehicle we saw.
We got back to Kennedy Lake at 7:30 pm. It took two hours to pack our stuff in: across the boadwalk, through the woods, down the stairs and across the sandy beach. There were probably two dozen people there that night. Some campers had quite elaborate setups, including clothes lines, volleyball nets and fern branches on top of their tents to keep the water out. Periodically someone would go out in the lake to bathe and/or skinny dip. Someone strummed a guitar most of the night. It seemed like some of these people were up all night long, but they were pretty quiet and kept to themselves.
We drove 300 miles today. 850 total