Big Trees on Vancouver Island

 

Huge trees found on Vancouver Island

Monday, September 14, 2015

With a successful ride today, this would be my last on Vancouver Island.  The day started near Duncan, picking up the Trans Canada Trail at my ending point from 2013. Today’s route would take me through the communities of Crofton, Chemainus, Ladysmith, before ending at the ferry dock in Nanaimo.  My goal was not just the city of Nanaimo, but also an arrival in time to catch the final ferry back to the mainland at Horseshoe Bay.

A couple interesting memories as I left Duncan.  Duncan is the home of the largest hockey stick in the world. It’s about 60 feet long. But the  strongest memory for me is the rest day I took on Sunday.  In Canada, my sport of curling, gets a lot more publicity than we see in the US. On Sunday evening, one of the channels carried coverage from a large  Eastern Canadian bonspiel.  Many of the top men’s teams in the world were competing.  At that bonspiel, on national TV, the Brad Gushue team from St. John’s Newfoundland broke out a new style of sweeping (directional sweeping) that has revolutionized the sport. This weekend is one of the red letter days in the history of curling. I was probably one of the first US curlers to see the sport change in front of my eyes.

Back on the ride on Monday, the TCT route followed the leeward coast of the island for most of the day. I visited the town of Chemainus which is an interesting community for Canadian tourists. The economy of the town relied on a large sawmill that closed during the 1980’s. The residents turned to tourism to bolster the economy.  They decided to paint murals on many of the downtown stores.  The first year there were 4 murals, and they  built from that beginning; there are three dozen murals now. Tour buses make  Chemainus a stopping point in their itinerary, and 400,000 tourists now visit the community each year. I have included photos of some of them.

Large and unusual trees were another focal point of the day. The western red cedar is a native tree in the area which can grow to over 200 feet. The size of the trunks would dwarf the size of my parked bike. It takes a lot of annual rainfall to support trees of this size. Finally, in Chemainus, I saw an unusual type of tree for the first time.  Canadians call them arbutus; in the western US they are more likely to be called madrones. The trees have a very unusual red bark which peels off to show a yellowish wood below the bark. 

Eventually I arrived at my destination of Nanaimo. Nanaimo lends it’s name to a popular Canadian confection called the Nanaimo bar. Very rich chocolate dessert; I like them a lot!  I was happy to be there in time to catch the last sailing of the ferry back to the mainland. A nice trip on smooth seas, as I bade adieu to Vancouver Island.

Distance today: 81 km

Total distance on TCT: 212 km

Duncan: advertised as the largest hockey stick in the world.


My friend Mason would feel right at home here.

TCT: never far from the Trans Canada Highway


36 murals painted on stores in Chemainus

Chemainus 

Chemainus Subway



Fall splendor  in Chemainus

Carriage rides available for tourists


 


My guess: these huge trees are Douglas firs




The trunk of a Western Red Cedar. This tree was 200 feet tall

Arbutus tree: unusual peeling red bark


Douglas firs?? 

Ladysmith BC

Ladysmith has steep hills like San Francisco


Tight squeeze on the bridge crossing the Nanaimo River

Approaching Nanaimo


Achieved my goal of 81 kms today


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Kilometers: Victoria to Esquimalt

Image
  Symbolic start: back wheel starts the journey made wet from the  salt water of the Pacific Ocean October 15, 2013 A thousand mile journey begins with a single step, or in this case, with one revolution of the bike’s wheels. A completed journey ties the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.  After taking a tour of Victoria by bus, it was around 2:30 and time to actually start the bike journey, if indeed I was going to do this. Actually it was a pain to roll/carry the bike down to the water. There was a steep embankment, and this was just a symbolic tradition, and pointless unless the ride spans the entire nation. That would be a far more ambitious goal, possibly in the future. The current goal was more Forrest Gumpian: I would ride until I got tired of riding. Then I would stop. Just a tiny start would be all that could be accomplished in 2013.  6 days later I would be attending an actuarial conference in San Diego. For now this was a one year commitment.  If I enjoye...
Read more

2025: Return to the TransCanada Trail

Image
  Awesome Lake Kootenay Oliver Rd - ending point 3 years ago Thursday:  June 26, 2025 - Gray Creek, BC Three years ago Audrey and I finished our travel for 2022 on the TransCanada Trail at Gray Creek, BC. For the past couple years, it just wasn't in the cards for me to get back to my trek through beautiful British Columbia.  We stopped in Gray Creek on the shore of Kootenay Lake faced with an important decision.  At Gray Creek, the TCT continues by climbing the very steep backroad up to Gray Creek Pass.  The road is a wash-boarded  4 by 4 road which climbs 4500 feet in 10 miles.   Then  the road descends steeply and arrives at Kimberley, BC 40 miles further.  Since this is a very difficult section of the TCT, there is a detour route using regular BC highways to also arrive at Kimberley, but the detour is 120 miles longer. I took my F150 out to the back road, to check how steep and rough the road was.  Would it be possible for me to ...
Read more

Wed/Thur 9/22-23: Castlegar to Gray Creek

Image
  Kootenay Lake 9/22   The Castlegar area posed a quandary.  How do we go to get to Nelson?  Audrey had spent some time looking at our maps of the area, and was concerned because the route adopted by the trail, did not seem to go through but just ended in a dead end.  At the same time I took a bike ride, just to try to find the  Trail.  I found a trail, and followed it for quite awhile.  But it was very rough and I found myself walking the bike much of the way.  I continued, expecting that eventually I would get to a well-defined path, with a good surface.  When the trail deteriorated to not even being a good hiking trail, I knew I had to turn back.   Our guidebook was not helpful, as the original trail in this area went to the south,  but according to the website, there was a connection to Nelson which lies to the northeast. Finally the decision was made that I would travel along the main  highway toward Nelson,...
Read more