Expedition Canada

It's Hot! Fri Jun 25th and  Sat Jun 26th The predicted heatwave has arrived and Friday's late twenties has become Saturday's early thirties.  Most of Friday was spent around the cabin packing, cleaning, trips down to the lake to cool off swimming and generally lazing around. Occasionally there were a couple of other people around, it was getting quite crowded! I discovered a new walk Thursday morning, a trail that runs along the north side of the lake.  Slightly disappointing that we'd not found it before as it would have been a good one to explore. The tree on the right at the beginning of the trail seems to have been popular with the resident woodpeckers.  The volume of chippings at the base of the trunk looked as though they'd taken a chain-saw to it.    The full trail will have to wait until we return to the cabin, which we know we will do at some point.   We have come to appreciate the remoteness and sparse population of this end of the Sunsh...

Heat Wave Looms Thu Jun 24th Pacific Banana Slug It appears that as we prepare to head back to the city,  a heat-wave warning has been issued for the Pacific North-West through to next Tuesday.  Temperatures are forecast to reach between 29c - 37c according to this morning's news, depending on your location in BC.  Saturday, the day of our drive and ferry back to North Van and Sunday, being the hottest.  There will be no cooling Mixal Lake to dip into though there are creeks Jack can swim in North Van. We rather hope the suite we go back to, which was cool in April being in the  North facing  lower-back part of the property will be as cool this visit! On our walks around the local trails, we have been struck by the number of slugs.  Small black ones to the much larger Pacific Banana slugs.  The picture on the right was one of the biggest, as measured alongside my size 11 walking shoe.   There are no hedgehogs in Canada, though there are ...

Two days Left Wed Jun 23rd It seems hard to believe that five weeks in Garden Bay come to an end on Saturday when we return to North Vancouver for a week. It has been an amazing few weeks and  a great base to explore the northern end of the Sunshine Coast.  The house with its large 'back yard' including a lake at the bottom and Mixal Lake only 100m away.  Nick, who has come up twice, while we have been here thinks we will miss it with Mixal on the doorstep and very limited public access to it, making it almost our own private lake. It has been extremely quiet.  We asked one of our neighbours what it's like in winter, when weekenders aren't around.  'Lovely' was her reply, though we feel it can probably be quite isolated. Fred did the morning walk with Jack and I had a virtual gym session, which I've kept while in Canada, followed by a swim in MIxal to cool down.   Fred watching Wimbledon Qualifying while cleaning the oven Today some of the cleaning job...

Summer Solstice Mon Jun 21st Turkey Vulture - Stunning but not pretty! According to the Government of Canada Twitter account for the June 21st,  " I t'll officially be Summer in the Northern Hemisphere!  The #SummerSolstice means early sunrises, late sunsets, warm weather, and a whole lot of outdoor activities. "  I thought the whole point of a solstice, was that the days started getting shorter and the nights longer in June, or the other way around in December.    So as of today the days start getting shorter than the nights.  That said, as we are not yet Resident in Canada, I am not about to start being pedantic about the wording of their Twitter account. Yesterday and today had temperatures about 10c above normal.  An early morning dog walk was followed by a dip in Mixal. There was sighting of the rare Grey Dipper again!   It was amazingly warm.  The dockside thermometer was registering a water temp of 22c.  Five m...

Energetic Start! Sun Jun 20th  Father and Son - special Father and son off for Mixal Lake 'Father's Day Event'. Wake me by 0800, so we can be off for 0830 Nick instructed.  We were ready for the off, soon after 0830.  Nick planned to swim the length of Mixal Lake at 2.2k return (he does that sort of stuff) and I was going to SUP (Stand Up Paddle-board) it, kneeling down.  I am new to standing on a paddle board so wasn't going to risk the whole journey vertically!  I did do the last 100m standing up.   This was already after an early morning  dog walk. So off we set.  Nick does a lot of open-water swimming off Kitsilano Beach, so came equipped with his 3mm thin summer wetsuit, ear-plugs, swimming hat etc. etc. It was a stunning morning.  The lake was reflecting the trees and mountains around and there were so few others around.  The only people I was aware of, were a couple who appeared to have camped on the smaller island on the lak...

And Ants Morning on Mixal Mon Jun 14th The instructions for the cabin remind us that all garbage must be kept inside because of bears and that mosquitos and ants are a fact of life in Canada, more so when you are surrounded by water.  Windows all have screens and doors are recommended to be kept shut.  They are not screened. Fine in theory, but on the warm days we have had the doors open.  So far we've only had few problems with either, other than a few night-time bites.  Outside, ants (and some are probably termites but I've not worked out the difference) are certainly  more prolific than in the UK.  Painted Turtle They even managed to discover the hummingbird feeder hanging on the  underside of the roof eaves.  Ant killer in the bowl on the top kept them off for a couple of days, but in the end the feeder had to be moved.  It was heaving with large black ants inside (drowned) and outside the feeder. We now wait to see how long it takes...

Local day Northern Alligator Lizard Sun Jun 13th The unsettled weather is coming to an end, not just yet! The rain cleared during the morning and gave way to some warm sunshine that enabled us to get outside, but with an uncertain forecast we decided to stay local.   Fred took to her knitting needles and I checked out the gazebo up behind the house to watch the wildlife .... well I saw a lizard and that was about it! Mid afternoon, and needing to be doing something I did a solo canoe around Mixal Lake.  I've been surprised how few waterfowl there are on the lake.   At most I have seen the odd Merganser and there are two sometimes three Common Loons  out fishing.  They are an extremely attractive bird with their black and white marked back and would make a good TV test card! Just as I was heading out on the canoe, my new fishing mate rang to ask if I'd like to have another go for Mixal trout.  Silly question.  The paddle was very tra...

A Short Vertical Walk!  Sat Jun 12th Red Breasted Sapsucker We'd been putting it off, having already climbed Pender Hill (1.6km long and 165m high), but could do so no longer.  At 4.2km round trip and just under 400m elevation is was going to be a tougher climb.  My early morning walk with Jack was quiet.  Nobody else about and a slight mist rising over Mixal Lake.  A Red Breasted Sapsucker was checking out a tree on the trail and seemed unconcerned by our presence. We got to the bottom of the Mt Daniel trail at about 0915 and were the first car there, so we knew we'd have the trail to ourselves unless any energetic runners overtook us.  The average climb is 1:5.6, but the first part of the walk was a relatively shallow incline, which meant there were some steep bits to come. For a well-used trail, parts were quite overgrown with ferns and Jack disappeared beneath the low level canopy.  He was on the long lead.  After the bear encounter ...

Too Early  Fri Jun 11th Jack woke us up barking at  01:30. I resisted the temptation to let him out as I was unsure what was there.  The solar lights were still on in the garden, but there was nothing to see.  Jack had gone back to bed having got our attention, and so did I. Morning shed little light on the disturbance in the night, except for a large rock in the middle of the lawn. Probably weighing in at about 2kg, its presence and how it got there remains a mystery.  It had bits of grass stuck to it as if it had been dropped.  Its location was too far away from the rock-face behind t he house and its a different mineral to the rest of the rocks around the garden.  It remains a mystery. The morning was spent ordering sofas for the new rental, before heading off to John Henry's for lunch and to collect an order that had been delivered there. The sender of Fred's knitting needles hadn't put her name on the package, so the Canada Post office, opened the...

Sun Prevails Lakes and Ocean Sun Jun 6th The plan this morning was to do a round trip walk past Hotel Lake and down to John Henry's in Pender Harbour to buy newspapers and then back via Garden Bay Lake and Mixal Lake (anti-clockwise on the map). The threatened rain stayed away and it was a delightful walk.  Hardly any cars, super scenery and extremely quiet.  Surely quieter than normal at this time of year due to non-essential travel restrictions, but it does make you wonder what it is like in the winter. John Henry's does not sell newspapers we discovered and as it was too early for beer, we had a quick coffee and a chat with the owner before heading back.  Unusually, he recognized Capt Jack as a Springer (there are not that many in Canada) before telling us of his Duck Tolling Retriever  and games as a youngster playing 'what dog would you like to be when you grow up'!  Jack clearly knew he was a dog-lover and allowed him a stroke! Back home via Garden Ba...