When we backed the little trailer into the spot in front of our fifth-wheel, the site across from us was empty, making it very easy to maneuver it in. That was not the case today...all the sites are full, so it was a bit of a challenge backing Buster in to hook up. But we eventually got it out and with everything packed, we pulled out of Puntledge RV Park and headed to Highway 19 north.
We pulled over a couple of hours later for a break and do a walk around to check everything out...
It was around 2:00 when we pulled into Cluxewe Resort. After checking in, we made our way down the spit to our site, #55, right next to Rob's site. It's like a double site, so knowing your neighbours is a real plus! They have been here a week having had a couple of different neighbours.
After greeting everyone, we easily backed into our site, unhitched...and got set up...
View of the ocean and Malcom Island...
Angie had been out fishing when we arrived and pulled in this beautiful Coho...good job, Angie! She catchy but no touchy! 😂This year there are some Coho being caught as well as Pinks.
Rob cleaning Angie's catch.
As a matter of fact, Conner caught a beautiful Coho on their first full day here...
Processing the coho for brining...he's going to put it in the smoker tomorrow...
A 1:55 minute video of Conner catching his fish...
Bryce's turn to fish...
We had a great first night in our new trailer. It has an "east-west" bed and the only thing that I found a little awkward is having to climb over Steve to get in and out during the night. Not as "nimble" as I used to be. We had a good laugh as I slid over him, and off the bed.
After coffee and breakfast Sunday (July 28), Steve got geared up to go fishing...
Monday (July 29) We started our morning with coffee on the beach...
Freighter being loaded at Orca Sand and Gravel...
The fog begins to roll in...
Almost totally obscuring the freighter...
RCAF Search and Rescue fly's by...
Chris, Angela and Isaac arrived around noon. Like yesterday, the weather for the next couple of days is not the greatest...cloudy, foggy and cool. But it didn't stop Chris and Isaac taking a rod down to the water to try fishing...
Luckily Chris booked a cabin for their stay, which worked out wonderful for the rest of us! I had planned a lasagne dinner tonight and with 11 of us, there is no way we all could fit under a tarp, so we'll all cram into their small cabin...at least it also has a covered porch.
The cabin is small but really cute...
With a loft...
View from their porch...
Dinner time...Chris, Glenda, Emery, Rob and Angie on the porch...
The rest of us inside...Steve is taking the picture and Isaac is probably in his favourite "fort" under the stairs...
Bryce and Isaac...
Tuesday (July 30)...Conner and Steve fishing, and sitting and beach watching for me...
Chris bringing his fish in, while Conner looks on...
Angie and Bryce took the blow-up kayak out...
It was another chilly day, so happy hour was at the cabin...
Wednesday (July 31) morning started off foggy and cool, as usual. Cleanup crew arrives every morning at low tide to gobble up all the unwanted fish remains thrown into the ocean...
Tugs arrived to guide the freighter from it's mooring...
Lots of choppers in the area, some for sight seeing tours...
The freighter now looks ghostly as it cuts through the fog...
By late morning, the clouds started to part with some blue sky finally showing...Yay! Angie and the boys are leaving today as they are flying to Winnipeg on Saturday to spend 3 weeks with her family. So she was busy packing up the car. With big hugs, we said our goodbyes to them and they drove off just before 1:00. A short visit with you 3, but we'll see you all in 3 weeks when you are back and we are down visiting. Have a safe and wonderful time in Winnipeg!
Chris, Angela, Isaac, Steve and I drove into Port McNeill to have lunch at the Devil's Bath Brewery, run a couple of errands and generally have a look. Rob opted to stay and fish. Devil's Bath is a cool little brewery with good beer but the food menu was very limited...it was good but basically pizza and tacos...
Thursday (Aug. 1) we left Rob alone at camp while the rest of us drove to check out Telegraph Cove. Rob tying flies...since he lost 3 yesterday...
A short 26 second video of the area...
Just a few of the many signs describing the history of Telegraph Cove as we walk down the boardwalk...
Bus tour having lunch...
Exterior of the pub...
Wow, the whale museum was very well done and very interesting!
Prince of Whales tour boat coming in. Tours to see grizzly bears, seals and whales...
Always lots of activity on the water or in the air...
Coast Guard helicopter leaving the Pulteney Point Lighthouse...
Another cruise ship going by, Viking Orion...
Larger cruise ships seem to go on the other side of the Malcolm Island...
Two of Steve's salmon that Rob did on his smoker...
Steve and I have been taking our morning coffee and sitting down at the beach and Friday (Aug. 2) morning was spectacular!
Steve took his drone up and took a 4:31 minute video of the area...
Drone photos of another passing cruise ship...
Steve asked us to wave as he returns to land...
Our last night together...
Isaac didn't want to be in the previous picture, but Grampa managed to get one of him just as he tried to run away, LOL!
The end to another beautiful day...
Lots of fishers at low tide on another beautiful start to the day Saturday (Aug. 3)...
Chris and Angela had to be out of their cabin by 10:00, so once their car was all packed, they drove down to say goodbye to us. We all chatted for a bit and then after big hugs, they climbed into their car. We even managed to coax Isaac for a hug...by daring him NOT to give Gramma and Grampa a hug. He never likes to say goodbye...too funny! Like on their way here, they are splitting up their travel back home to Coquitlam by stopping for the night in Parksville. Isaac will be happy...the hotel has a pool!
Rob had started packing his camp up yesterday, bit by bit. Of course, the rest had to be done this morning. He was done just before Chris and Angela left...and after saying goodbye to them, we sat down at the beach for a bit. Check-out time is 11:00...so sadly, he had one last look at the water and then did the final prep to leave. It has been an absolutely wonderful time having our whole family together! Next time (in 2 years) I think we will come up with him and spend the full 2 weeks. He has a good 6 to 7 hour drive home...safe travels, Rob!
We're all alone now...for another 2 nights. Well we did have a young couple in a rented van camp next to us that night who joined us for a drink on the beach...
Drone photo...can you see the school of fish?
After lunch, we walked the beach all the way to the end of the spit...a tough walk in the loose rocks. Steve had taken his drone to get video of fish in the river and almost lost it as communication between the controller and drone was lost. He walked along the river until he could hear it and managed to fly it back to land even though the controller displayed nothing. This happened the other day when he was flying in this direction from our campsite, but it acted as it should as it automatically returns to home if signal is lost...a great feature when it works. Halfway up the spit there was an antenna set up with batteries in a cooler and a solar panel that Steve suspects interfered with his drone signals. Then after all that, his video was accidentally deleted...he was not happy about that!
Sunday (Aug. 4) and another fabulous day! This is where I sat for most of the day watching the fishers and the "goings-on" at the beach...
We decided to go for another walk...this time down to the river. The trail to it is off another part of the campground near the office. We found it, but we'd have to walk across a log to get over a small creek to where the main river was. Well, that wasn't happening for me. This is the view from what we think is the campsite Emery and Glenda were in...great view of the river estuary...
Back at camp, we resumed position in our chairs on the beach...watching cruise ships go by. This is the Oceania Regatta...
A 1:16 minute Drone Video of the Pinks...
Our last happy hour on the beach. What a fabulous getaway with the family! As we were a week earlier than our visit here 2 years ago there weren't nearly as many fish, however it was almost impossible to not catch any...
Monday (Aug. 5) morning after getting the trailer and truck all packed up, we sat down on the beach enjoying our last moments there. Just before 11:00, we packed up the chairs and hitched the trailer to the truck...and pulled out just after 11:00...
Since today is a holiday (first Monday in August is BC Day), our storage facility isn't open, so we decided to book a night at Alder Bay RV Park and Marina, just south of Port McNeill. Had we really thought about it, we should have booked a site at our RV Park so that we could have emptied the trailer and cleaned it...sheesh! When I booked our site at Cluxewe last January, we thought that Buster would have been sold and we would have a pick-up truck and we would continue camping for another week or so at a lake we used to camp at before we retired. It is quite a drive on gravel/logging roads...where we do not want to take Buster. Thus...we had to leave Cluxewe today.
Check-in time at Alder Bay isn't until 1:00, so we drove into Port McNeill and parked the truck and trailer in the shopping centre lot and walked down to the waterfront and Gus' Pub for lunch. The timing worked out well, because by the time we were finished lunch and made it to Alder Bay, it was just 1:00. We pulled into our site #41...which I had confirmed yesterday.
The campground is popular with boating fishermen as they have a marina...no shore fishing here. It is nice but as usual with private campgrounds, it is basically "awning to awning". But we had a full service, pull-through site. We ended up only using the power because we had plenty of water in our tank and the sewer connection was half-way up the site and our sewer hose wouldn't reach...we'll empty the tanks in the morning before we leave.
After getting set up, we went for a walk around the Park. We noticed a small cruise ship anchored outside of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island across from us...
The office that also houses the washrooms, showers and laundry at the back....there is even a cool deck with tables, umbrellas and a food truck...Roxy's Diner...
The view from inside our trailer looking out the side window...
Tuesday (Aug. 6) morning, after packing up and pulling the trailer forward to empty the holding tanks, we pulled out...it was shortly after 9:30. We made our way back to Highway 19 and headed south.
After making a couple of stops...one on a gravel pull-out to drain our fresh water tank (amazing how much water we had left!)...we pulled into the Crossroads Restaurant at the Sayward junction for lunch.
We finally pulled into the storage facility around 2-2:30, got the trailer situated back into its spot, unhitched...and then got to work on the arduous job of emptying everything out of the fridge and cupboards. Most of the freezer/fridge stuff went into the cooler but I used all of my cloth shopping bags for everything else...oh why, oh why hadn't we booked a site at our park so that we could just move the stuff right into our fifth-wheel? As it was, we had to load everything into the truck and then unload the truck into the fifth-wheel when we got home. It was a long hot tiring job.
Steve here: I noticed our neighbour Sharon was trying to unload a large box from her truck so I offered to help. She had purchased a working desk for her dual computer screens for work and was removing her dining table. After helping her I returned to unloading the truck. Just as I was finishing up, dripping in sweat and exhausted from the heat, Sharon came over to ask for some help removing 4 screws she couldn't get out. Thinking I'd be back in a few minutes for a cool shower I ended up with the job from hell! Sharon had 3 of the 4 screws out about an inch. I failed to remove any of them with a screw driver, drill, or impact driver. I had to use my vise grips and tediously turn and turn and turn each one which felt like forever! What a workout...those fricken self tapping screws were about 5" long! So when I was done, a cold beer tasted really good before a cool shower!
And so ends a fabulous 10 night camping trip...I love our new little trailer and we look forward to taking it out again. I do have a few minor adjustments to make and things to add that I forgot, but all-in-all it was great!
Looks like a fun time with the family.
ReplyDeleteThat type of fishing is encouraging. Good thing Steve was able to get control of his Drone.
The way things are built in factories, leaves a lot to be desired. That's not the way a real Craftsman would have done it.
Glad you are enjoying your Travel Trailer for the shorter runs.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
All I thought was...thank goodness his drone is insured! So glad he managed to gain control of it though.
DeleteSo glad your little trailer worked out well for you guys. So many fish lol You will be dreaming of them. :)
ReplyDeleteThe trailer is great! Would be nice to get rid of Buster and get a pickup to tow it though!
DeleteThis was the post I was waiting for! Great fishing, family time and incredible scenery. Nice that you were able to get a few coho in addition to the pinks. What did you do with the pinks? Did you smoke those or just the coho?
ReplyDeleteThis is one trip we always look forward to. I personally never caught a coho. Rob smoked some of both with their catches. Our possession limit was 8 and I only kept 6 because of our RV freezer space. We managed to smoke 3 of our pinks before Rob left. Once home we barbecued a couple of fillets which tasted much better than I expected as I’m more of a halibut fan. We have to use barbless hooks so I couldn’t tell you how many fish I lost, but what fun. Also couldn’t tell you how many I released. Cheers! 🍻
DeleteWhat a blast! New trailer, family and hit fishing! Fabulous!!
ReplyDeleteAn awesome time! Thanks Debbie.
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