On our way to Campbell River it started to rain and just got heavier and heavier. We got a short break in the weather as we arrived in Campbell River so cycled the coastal path to see the chainsaw carvings. There was some impressive entrants into this year’s competition.
Back at the van we were soggy from a wet return trip. Suddenly the van doesn’t seem so spacious with wet gear hanging all around. We checked the weather forecast and it looked like at least five days of rain was due. Uh oh!
After a brief stop at walmart we drove out into Elk Provincial Park. It was lovely and quiet apart from the bouncing rain all night. The next morning we drove to town and spent the morning on WiFi (narrowly escaping a parking ticket when the kind parking attendant realised we had been sitting in Fred the whole time). With only three weeks left on our trip, we advertised Fred for sale online in Vancouver. It was a sad day! To cheer ourselves up we headed off to see Elk Falls.
It was still raining heavily so we saw the falls flowing fast from the suspension bridge.
After another peaceful night at the provincial park we went exploring Snowden Demonstration Forest.
It has lots of mountain biking trails but because of how much it had rained we decided to walk them.
We found Lost Lake.
The rain started once more so we headed to the swimming pool and after a swim and sauna were suitably warmed through. So much so that Pete was ready for ice cream!
Next we headed to Courtenay, just down the road. As it was a Friday we decided to treat ourselves and visit a couple of breweries. After a 9 per cent cider and a couple of flights things got a bit messy and we headed back to Fred.
With heavy rain the next morning we decided we weren’t going mountain biking but we could go to Mount Washington to check out the downhill race. Those poor guys (and girls). It was an absolute mudfest in the morning with heavy rain still falling.
Luckily the rain stopped for the afternoon and we headed out to watch on the very gnarly and steep course.
The seeding pace was frantic as if all those rocks and roots weren’t there! There were a few big hitters riding as it was the Steve “chainsaw” Smith memorial race as he lived 20km away before his sad death. With more rain forecast, we decided to not stay overnight to watch the finals the next day. We drove down to Cumberland and saw a gorgeous sunset over Comox lake while we cooked our dinner. Just gorgeous!
And then we popped to The Cumberland Brewing Company and chatted to a staff member from Hebden Bridge!
