Camping 2019!

During the first week of August we packed our little family up and headed to Vancouver Island for a week of camping at Gordon Bay Provincial Park on Cowichan Lake.

Unlike last year where we forgot a few items, I think this year went by without a hitch!

 Waiting for the ferry at Horseshoe Bay

Will magically packed everything into the car!

We kept Delilah entertained on the ferry ride with the paper coffee cups

At our campsite

I was worried how she'd be in her playpen because at home she'd rather crawl around than want to play in there. 

But she did great! We didn't put her down on the ground once so she didn't know what she was missing.

She was super snugly the whole trip 

(and still is now - such a precious stage!)

Nap time for two. 💕

We spent all of Tuesday at our campsite. Had some good naps, walked around a bit, read, and played some games. 

Will strung a rope over the picnic table with a light hanging from it. Our whole table was nicely lit up and there were no pesky moths fluttering around on the table either.

Monday night Delilah went to bed as usual. 

But by Tuesday night she discovered that we have a party without her. So she decided not to sleep and join us... Until 11pm... Crazy kid...

On Wednesday we took a connecting highway from Mesachie to Port Renfrew. 

It was a long, twisty logging road that used to be gravel but was paved due to the high volume of traffic. 

Will spotted these turkey vultures in the trees but we couldn't stop for a good picture.

Lots of twists and turns and switchbacks!

Here is when we made it to the pub in Port Renfrew. 

Which is just about the only thing there... 😛

There was a bit of a board walk over the ocean but it was cold and windy so we didn't stay too long.

Asides from signs for the pub we also saw a sign for Botanical Beach, so we continued down the road until we found a parking lot, and headed blindly down the trail. 

It was very downhill. 

The kind of downhill where you think to yourself, "This isn't going to be fun to hike back up..."

We found out we were on the Juan de Fuca Trail and going to see tidal pools along Botany Bay.

There were several different view points, this was the first one. 

Getting from the top of all this rock down to the water involved some more complex moves so Delilah and I took a break at the top while Will went to check the tidal pools

There was a plaque about these little trees saying how old they were (I forget) and if they were growing in the forest with proper room for root growth they would be 50m+ tall spruce trees. But because they are growing in the crags of rock along the ocean their growth gets stunted.

On our way to the next beach we passed this gnarly tree

Lots of urchins everywhere!

I spotted this peculiarly perfectly round hole which didn't seem to have an end. 

I was carrying Dee so I didn't want to peer into it too far, but it looks man-made to me. 

I've tried Googleing it but nothing's come up... 

Will took Delilah for the last half, which would conveniently be the uphill trek back to our car 😜

On our way to Port Renfrew we had agreed that on our way 'home' we wanted to stop at a few of the smaller lakes that we passed on our drive there. 

But we hadn't anticipated going to Botanical Beach and by the time we were driving back to our campsite it was too late for any more exploring. 

This is Fairy Lake. 

There is a log that has a tiny little tree growing on top of it in the left centre of the photo. I had wanted to grab a better picture of it but that's difficult to do while driving!

After dinner we took Delilah to the playground. 

She has a bit more growing up to do before she can enjoy the full experience...

Thursday was the day we planned to go to the beach. Figured it would be a shame if we didn't once go swimming. 

While, Thursday was in the low 20s and mostly overcast. 

We spent the morning at the campsite napping and playing games. 

The lake water was cooold and after about 10 minutes of splashing with Delilah we went back to the safety of our picnic blanket

She seemed very concerned for the rest of the time we spent at the beach that we'd try to put her in the water again. It was cute, but not fun to have a scared baby. 

When we got back to the campsite I put this unopened bag of chips on the table and we all headed to the bathrooms. 

When we got back there were a handful of crows flying off with chips!

Smart little things had opened the bag and helped themselves to a snack!

Went to Jake's At The Lake for dinner that night.

It was our first time ordering Delilah her own food rather than just feeding her off our plates. 

She got her own side of yam fries (her FAVOURITE) and much to my dismay (I wanted to try some too) she polished the whole plate off with no troubles!

Dee really enjoyed all the people watching!

...I'm just going to post this picture here and leave it at that for now...

💗😝💗

Later we went grocery shopping and the silly girl didn't want to sit properly in the shopping cart. 

So we compromised. 😝

Friday morning snuggles! 😍

I really wanted to get out and see what Cowichan Lake all had to offer (which unfortunately wasn't much) so we got into the car and started up this logging road. 

With our empty light on I kept asking Will if we could turn around to get gas. After a few more kilometers he agreed and we went back to civilization. 

When we first started out on the road I noticed that all the colours were very muted. 

EVERYTHING, every leaf, pebble, and pineneedle was COVERED in dust. It was eerie. 

Next we went to Bald Mountain Park in Youbou which was across the lake from where we were camping. 

I was not in the mood to climb a mountain and the sign in the parking lot advertised a Plateau Loop Trail which we decided to give a shot. 

It was just going to be a short walk so we didn't even bother to bring a carrier for Delilah or any water or snacks for ourselves. 

(This was all a very bad idea as you'll soon find out)

Will acknowledged arbutus trees for the first time. 

(I say acknowledged because I know he's seen them before)

"This trail sure is fern-tile"

-Will Vanspronsen

Delilah was being very clingy and only wanted me to to carry her, but I kept switching off with Will and she never liked that too much. 

So. 

We were doing fine on our way to to the plateau, but then we reached a 4-way intersection and we went straight. Then we reached a few more intersections, some 3, some 4, and we kept taking the path that seemed most traveled. 

But none of these paths really were plateaus. We were going up, and then down, curving all over the place. We walked some gravel paths, some dirt, some grass. 

1km before this picture we saw a truck through the trees and we came out to a gravel road. 

The truck was gone but there was a sign that said, "Scout's Camp 1km."

I remembered from reading the map in the parking lot that the Scout's Camp was on the other side of the mountain... 

We pulled out our phone maps which kindly told us we were in the middle of nowhere. And then we proceeded to walk along the road in the opposite of the camp, in hopes that it would bring us to a main road, and then in turn to where we had left our car.

This part was mostly all down hill and using our phones we were able to get a rough idea of which way the road was taking us. 

A main road!

After walking along the road for some time we made it back into the park (apparently we were on private property - oops) and took one of the wetland trails back to our car. 

What an unexpected adventure!

For fun I put socks on Dee's hands. 

She actually thought it was the funniest thing ever!

And she played that for probably five minutes before one came off. Then she tried to get it back on by herself! 

We had roughly 4 minutes of light rain that night but we had packed most of our things already and put a tarp over the tent. 

Saturday morning we packed up the tent and got ready to head back home!

We kept ourselves entertained by Delilah on the ferry

She seemed very unimpressed 

😝

She loves 'drinking' out of cups! Even makes the proper slurping and smacking noises. 

Gotta love her!