Powell River

Lakes, Oceans and Orca 

Tue Jun 22nd

An early start today as we wanted to get the 0825 ferry from Earl's Cove across to Saltery Bay to spend a day exploring Powell River.  It is at the very northern end of the Sunshine Coast where the Highway 101 runs out, about 30k north of the town.  Outbound the ferry, was less than a quarter full so we had space to roam and take in the changing scenery on the fifty minute journey weaving across between the different islands.

The ferry is one of the smaller ones in the BC Ferries fleet and has an open car deck, spanned by the passenger desk (coffee shop etc) and the single bridge that can steer the boat in both directions.

Our first stop was at Palm Beach in Lund's Bay, just to give Jack a chance to exercise.

Beautifully quiet apart from some toddlers being supervised in a swing park, nobody on the beach.


We had a quick shop-stop in Powell River, to check out some furniture for the new house that we had not seen, but Fred knew they had in stock.  Survey completed we headed off to one of the local lakes and settled on 'Inland Lake Provincial Park'.  A 6km dirt track drive inland from Powell River took us to a quiet boat launch and parking area.  Had we planned properly, we would have clocked there is a 12km loop around the lake which we might have considered walking if we hadn't left our water bottles in the car, so we only did a short section of it.  Next time!

The walk started at the end with the Western Toad population,  we'd not seen or heard of these toads.  

We did however see some strange creatures in the water which looked like hugely oversized tadpoles (larger than a golf-ball), with long tails.  We took these to be Western Toads about to metamorphosize into adult toads.  We perhaps may never find out unless you are reading this and know the answer!  

Lunch secured from a local deli we headed off to Willingdon Beach to eat.  Strange there were no dogs about, until we discovered Powell River had banned dogs from this and other town beaches for the summer.  We headed off to find somewhere Jack could have a swim.

We found Gibson Beach, about 5k north of town and adjourned there for a swim and a mooch about.... beach was deserted and beautfiully the sea was calm and clear. 

Lovely location with stunning views, though while we there a tug was working its way past the beach hauling a boom of logs going to the Catalyst Paper Mill, the main employment in Powell River.

The constant loud rumble persisted all the while we were there.

We saw lots of these tugs hauling logs when we were at Bonniebrook Beach, before our stay in Garden Bay.









We decided to head back to Saltery Bay, to get to the front of the car queue and therefore the front of the boat for the journey back to Earl's Cove, only to arrive at the terminal to find we'd be joining the second line of cars, DRAT!  By the time the ferry started boarding the car park was full.  It was going to be a full boat.  Queuing commenced.  Somehow and maybe because in the Line 1 queue a driver had clearly not got back to their car on time to move forward, our line was marshalled forward.  By the time we got to the boarding point, the  upper decks were full, the trucks were on board, and we were ushered down the empty line to the very front of the boat!  We both looked at each other in amazement, how did that just happen??  The deck supervisor, putting the chocks under our front wheel, said it was an 'extra twenty bucks for the view'.  Absolutely brilliant.  Whoever shuffled the loading of this deck, had our car marked.  

Two thirds of the way across there was an announcement from the Bridge that Orca had been spotted off the starboard bow.  Grabbing camera, I headed across deck.  A mother and calf were heading in the opposite direction, hugging the shoreline.  Some of the images are below.  Just a moose and beaver left to cross off the list!  On arrival the same deck supervisor said it was an extra $20 for the Orca!








Distracted by the Orca we returned to the scenery, the mountains and tree clad slopes, waterfalls and snowfields.  They are what makes BC such a spectacular province.  We have barely scratched the surface of it in nearly three months.  There is still so much to see.

Some other images of the day below.  Unannotated, they speak for themselves.  All from the return ferry.











  



  







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