Thursday, September 21 to Wednesday, September 27, 2023 (Puntledge RV Park, Courtenay, BC)

Steve decided to get out fishing early on Thursday (Sept. 21) morning, wanting to be down at the river by daybreak. I wished him luck and finished my coffee as I relaxed in my recliner.

Steve here: I arrived at my spot next to the bridge shortly after daybreak. There were three other anglers further down in the early morning mist...

My spot on a little sand bar...

On my first cast I snagged the first of 4 snagged fish, caught only one by the mouth, and lost 3 within 40 minutes! They sure fight when snagged! Snagged fish cannot be kept...not that I was going to keep any anyway. A 4:15 minute video...

View from the bridge as I head home...

With so many fish holding in a school it's no wonder I snagged so many...a 32 second video...

By around 9 a.m. Steve was back and we were soon ready for our morning walk, at the Airpark and Riverwalk. As we walked along the pathway, there is a culvert that goes under the path from a saltwater lagoon over to the river. We noticed some salmon struggling to make their way through the culvert...Steve took a short :32 second video...

Friday (Sept. 22) is the last of our nice, sunny days...the first fall storm is heading in tomorrow and expected to last most of next week. So, with that forecast, we decided to get out hiking and geocaching. 

A portion of the 'One Spot' trail has access from the spot we parked in when we went geocaching last Monday in the Wildwood Forest. So that is where we are headed...but first, a little info on the trail. "One Spot" is a unique name so I thought I'd to do a little research, and this is what I found...

The One Spot Trail is located primarily along the former railway grade of the Comox Logging & Railway Company. The trail is named after the first locomotive to work on the grade, the “One Spot”. It was a wood burning Baldwin engine, built in 1909. The One Spot engine operated in this area for 34 years before it was scrapped in 1943.

Apparently the goal of the Comox Valley Regional District is to have the trail run from Courtenay to the Oyster River. So far there are 3 separate sections...one section is 8.5 kms; one is 8 kms; and one is 4 kms. The first section actually starts fairly close to where we are...just down the road...but we are driving to the other end and will hike a short section of it, gathering geocaches along the way. The complete trail has a string of geocaches all of the way along...we will eventually gather them all.

A very cool 'blue bird hide' placed on top of a stump, covered with moss...

This one was particularly hard to find.  When in the forest our GPS's have difficulty and continually send us in different directions! We had basically given up after running around in circles on both sides of the trail for 30 minutes or so when I happened to see a stick sticking out of some ferns. I picked it up and the cache was attached to it...

Gold bird find...

Black bird...

I really had to crawl through the branches to get this one after spotting it from the trail...

Some funny signs posted on trees alongside the trail...

This one's for you Dino!

A blue and red bird...

We hiked as far as the paved road, finding 6 geocaches before turning around and walking back up the trail. We hadn't realized that it had been a steady decline as we walked...but sure noticed it on our way back. We had walked 5 kms/3 miles by the time we got back to the car. The One Spot Trail goes off in another direction from here and we started to walk towards another cache but decided to drive the car to it. This was a fairly easy find along the trail...

So with 7 geocaches under our belt, we headed home for lunch.

Steve decided he should run the truck, etc...so he started it, along with my quad and the generator and let them run for a bit. He then went up onto the roof to check it out before the rains start..finding a crack in the bedroom vent cover. He managed to fix it with JB Weld.

Saturday (Sept. 23), as predicted, we woke to clouds...the rain started a little later. Since we had a few errands to run, we thought we'd go out anyway. With the errands taken care of, it was just sprinkling out a bit, so we decided to go for a walk. It was pretty blustery out, so we made it a short one on the treed section of the trail that's protected from the wind. Yup Fall has arrived...

Afterwards, we took a drive through Comox and out to Goose Spit Park...the kite boarders and wind surfers were sure taking advantage of the blustery weather. The water on this side of the spit stays calm but still has sufficient wind.

Getting some airtime!

Not so calm on this side of the spit for this wind surfer. This is the beach we had been at last July when Chris, Angela and Isaac were visiting...looks a tad different today!

A 2:15 minute video...getting some air!

That night we decided to try a new (to us) place for dinner...The Flying Canoe West Coast Pub. I checked their menu on-line and found that they have a special on Saturday nights starting at 5pm...a special $6.95 menu, as long as you also purchased a beverage. Well, okay...that sounds good. We were surprised at how extensive the menu options were...Steve had "The Works Burger" (substituting onion rings for the fries for an extra $1.95) and I had a Chicken Quesadilla. Both were delicious and our plates were cleaned up since it was a smaller portion...more than adequate though.

We arrived just at 5:00 which was good timing judging by the line up at the door shortly afterwards!

Sunday (Sept. 24) and Monday (Sept. 25) were rather non-descript days...basically raining, making us hunker down inside. 

Tuesday (Sept. 26) was more rain and wind but after basically being inside the last couple of days, we decided to at least get out for a drive. We went back to Goose Spit but the tide was way out so the bay where the wind surfers were last Saturday was high and dry. We also went to Kye Bay...it was a little more sheltered from the wind. Yup, the tide is way out!

We noticed some people were gathering seaweed for their gardens that had washed ashore after the windstorms...

By this time, it had stopped raining, so we decided to go for a walk. We went back to the sheltered trail in Courtenay and walked the whole way this time, even the unsheltered part...yes it was pretty blustery!

Something that we have been wanting to do is check out the museum that we pass by regularly...and today seemed like a good day since it was so yucky outside. So on the way home we stopped at the Courtenay and District Museum and Palaeontology Centre...

The Courtenay and District Museum was established in 1961 as a non-profit organization with the mandate to collect, preserve and interpret natural and cultural heritage of the Comox Valley region.

Throughout the year, the museum offers on-site and outdoor programming suitable for all age groups. Program subjects include fossils, geology, First Nations history, pioneer settlement history, social history of the Comox Valley, logging and lumber history, river way study, as well as, a series of changing exhibitions.e

The museum operates by donation.They have weekly guided tours to local areas where fossils have been found. They will supply tools so you can dig for your own to keep unless you discover something of significance.

Views as you enter the museum...

A water feature on the left...

Featuring a gator and eggs...

The fossils in the next 3 photos were found locally in the Puntledge and Trent Rivers, Parksville, Hornby and Denman Islands and Campbell River...

The long fossil in front is Dinosaur poop!

This is a replica of a partial skeleton found when the new inland Island highway was being built...

How do they come up with these names? 😂

This is the partial skull found....

Description of the one featured on the wood panel...

There were areas on both floors with info and displays on the First Nations people of the area...

Wow, this tree was a seedling in 822 CE! Looks like one was missing...

This area describes the history of the area when settlers first arrived, farming, logging and coal mining...

Displaying provisions of a bygone era...

Next was a section on mushrooms and fungi. Apparently there are around 3000 varieties in BC...who knew!

We were really impressed with the displays...very well done!

Wednesday (Sept. 27) we woke, again, to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. The forecast is for brighter sky and no rain this afternoon, so we spent the morning inside...I worked on this blog and Steve read.

As promised, the rain had stopped and the sun was out so after lunch, we headed out for our daily walk around the Courtenay Air Park and Riverwalk, the great 3.5 km that we walk most days. Once back, it was Steve's turn to edit this blog.

And that pretty well sums up our week!