Road trip to Port Renfrew Sept 25 2021

Saturday September 25th - Port Renfrew

This morning is a foggy start, but was supposed to be sunny for most of the day before the predicted rains come in tonight.  So today we decided to drive to Port Renfrew on this last sunny warm day for some time. It's still a little foggy when we left, but as soon as we hit Mesachie Lake, the sun came out. It was sunny all the way until half way down the summit on the other side. Nothing but fog and cold. We hit the road  after fueling up with Freya on board, and headed down the road. It's in pretty good shape and paved all the way. After the summit, it's very windy with a lot of narrow single lane patches and huge switchbacks. The Lizard Lake Rec remained in fog so we carried on but stopped at the Fairy Creek Rec area for Ray to get some pics. There are dozens of campsites, but they are small and the ground is muddy in many of them. Only one could fit a rig our size, but a few branches would need trimming.

Unfortunately, when arriving at  Port Renfrew the fog is still relatively thick. We toured around anyways, waiting for The Renfrew Pub to open for lunch at 11:30 am. We planned to eat at Bridgeman's Bistro, but they don't open until 12 and we didn't want to hang around that long. They have a new marina that appears to be open all year as it's behind a huge breakwater.

Bridgeman's Bistro

Overview shot of the Bistro and the Pacific Gateway Marina from the overflow parking lot. Very well protected for the winter with the large breakwaters.

A lot of the town is already being put to bed for the winter. Several eateries are closed for the season.

We toured the Wild Renfrew Marina and Cottages. Their dock system were all being lifted out of the water for the winter. See the gangway standing up? Then headed back to a viewpoint to get some pics of the mouth of the San Juan River.  Port Renfrew features some beautiful beaches, namely Botanical Beach, and it would've been lovely to hike the many kilometres in and back, but no way Ray could handle that.

Very rocky shore.

Last day for the crew for this year.

The Renfrew Pub

They offer several cottages, some on the boardwalk and some further back facing the ocean.

My picture ... I found this rock pinnacle fascinating with all of it's shale layers, up thrust from the bottom of the sea. lol

The spiders are busy here like at home. Lots of webs all along the railings.

Just before we went into the Renfrew Pub for lunch we noticed this funky rock with ferns growing under the overhang. These look like Japanese Painted Ferns we bought for our garden. 

After our wander around we returned for lunch. They were strict with Covid protocols (perfect), and we were happy we came at opening as they filled up substantially when we left. Great decor with lots of local art on the walls.

Back in the car we headed back out of town stopping at the San Juan River to watch all the people salmon fishing. Unfortunately the fog never cleared. Here is the mouth of the San Juan River with lots of people fishing for the returning spring (king) salmon. Tyler, the guy who stained our deck boxes, fished there last week and came home with a 24 and 30 pounder.

Unfortunately viewed more fishing than catching. lol

Back in the car and across the bridge, we stopped at the Indigenous campsite to take pictures of the San Juan River and giving Freya a leg stretch.

Tried to get Freya out of the water ... as the tide was coming in so was salt water. We paid for this later.

 :(

As we travelled to slightly higher elevation on the road, the sun broke out. We stopped at Lizard Lake Recreation Site. Again the camping area is pretty tight for us in the Motorhome so we would not bother. Ray noticed this area is forested by second growth timer, compared to the huge Spruce at Fairy Creek. These pictures are from the Picnic site and walk in campsites. A cute little lake though. They do have a couple of fishing docks for people to use.

Onward we go. As we did, on the way you must drive through the protest camp for Fairy Creek watershed. They are protesting the logging of old growth. A lot more people here now than when we came earlier this morning. Sure wish they would all go home and get a job!

As you can see by the picture below, very few are wearing masks and there's more than 50 people here! They have made the highway into one lane only with all the cars parked on both sides of the road. I guess they have a big presence on Saturday's in the sunshine. 

Back home by 2 pm. A longer day for us. When we got home, we noticed Freya thrown up ... poor thing after drinking the salt water and a very windy road.

A nice day for a drive even if it was foggy there. Another check on our list. :)

We managed to sit for awhile down on the dock enjoying the last rays of sun for the next week. Great Day.

The first fall monsoon is here! Sept 17 - 25

Friday, as predicted the rain started overnight. The morning rainfall started out easy, but by 2pm it came down in streams. Pat and Darryl's rain gauge at 2 pm showed over 1 1/2 inches since yesterday. The lake should definitely start refilling with this amount of rain.

Picture taken at noon on Friday

Picture taken at 10:30 Saturday morning... 3 1/2 inches of rain.

It poured all night. Ray noticed this morning the lake is finally rising up, I think 8 inches. By 7:30 there were patches of blue sky and some sun. We will take it! It's supposed to start raining again this afternoon.

Zeus settled in well, following Ray around in case he drops a cookie. lol Freya seems happier to have company. Kristi is missing her dog though. Zeus is enjoying playing with Freya's treat ball. (we have two so they each get one)

We decided to go to the Farmer's Market in Duncan and pick up some fresh produce and apples for Ray. After stopping for lunch at the Oak Tap House we were back home by 1:30 pm just in time before the showers started again. Ray turned on the bilge pump for the boat and by the lenght of time it ran, there's quite a bit of water on board. To leave the pump on it drains the battery as the float sticks, so we just make sure we check it.

Sunday morning, cloudy, but the rain overnight stopped. Big outing ... to the dump. lol Ray's back's pretty sore so that's it for him. I played in my kitchen and reorganized my pantry. It's amazing how much stuff I get in that closet. :) 

Monday morning we were out the door by 7:30 am to vote. Even though there are not many people there ... it still is slow getting processed. I hope for their sakes they speed it up when it actually gets busy. lol So glad all the hoopla regarding the election is over. We are tired of all the commercials and it consuming the news etc. 

Decided I'm craving a Southern Fried Chicken Burger, as we had such tasty one at the Fanny Bay Inn last month. Off to Country Grocer after my hair cut and colour. Lunch ended up later but delicious. No complaints from Ray eating at Chez Debbie's. lol

Tuesday morning I was up at 4:45 am ... getting my Traeger fired up for smoking a brisket today. Hopefully it cooks in the appropriate amount of time and we are not eating it for lunch or eating it for bedtime snack instead of for dinner. lol Time to use up these cuts of beef that I've had frozen for a year ... no company. It turned out excellent. Took 14 hours and is juicy. Look at it glisten with moisture. :)

Ray went out fishing and caught a small trout on his fly line. Happy camper.

Amelia's her hip surgery is today and it is successful. Poor little muffin. She came through fine, but it will be a 3 month struggle for her before it comes off in December for good. The kids opted to take her home at the end of the day instead of keeping her overnight in the hospital, so a late night for the whole family not getting home until 10 pm.

Wednesday morning, she is wide awake and is pretty good until she moves and then the tears come, poor little muffin.

It was raining a bit this morning. The forecast this week is downgraded somewhat, with more rain which is needed. Quiet day, just puttering around the house. Made a batch of Turkey Soup for Jason and Amelia to bring tomorrow when we return Zeus. It really got nice later in the afternoon, so we started our first fire of the season in the backyard. Lovely day.

Have you got any cookies?

Thursday, a beautiful morning. We headed up to Nanaimo to return Zeus and visit with Kristi, Jason and Amelia. Apparently she is more like herself this morning. Her new cast weighs 3 pounds, so definitely more difficult to move her around as you have to support it and not pick her up under her arms.

Zeus will be happy to get back to his famiy. He goes everywhere the baby goes. We enjoyed a good visit although short. Miss Amelia needed a nap and is refusing to take one. I held her for awhile until she fussed. We did get smiles in spite of her feeling cranky. Finally, she did go down for her nap so we left, leaving the kids an hour for themselves. :)

While we were away in Nanaimo this morning, a big black bear decided to wander down our street inside the gate. As our neighbour picked all their plums, I guess nothing was here to interest him so off he went.

Friday morning was a beautiful day. Ray headed out for fishing while I prepped the ribs for the smoker and puttered around. 

Received an email from CRVD that our Stage 3 water restrictions are reduced back to Stage 1. Yeah ... I can pressure wash the deck from all of the planters. I hauled it out and set it up. Just needed Ray to start it for me. I have trouble pulling the crank.

The deck looked so much better.

After that, I put the ribs on the Traeger and then sat down for lunch about 1 pm. Our gardener showed up at 2 and after mowing the lawn I basically supervised him pulling out all of the stuff from the front planters and clear out the front garden, cutting all the flowers down for the winter. (He is new to this gardening business and needs to be shown what to cut and what to leave lol)

Grass has greened up since the last rain.

I also requested he dolly the front planters under the sundeck at the back with the others, saving Ray and I. Yeah! The area will need pressure washing next week.

With the forecasted rain this week, all that stuff needed to be out of the garden or it will just end up a big slimy mess. I'd already pruned a bunch of stuff and Ray pruned the maple trees in the front garden, so there's a lot of yard waste to go. We are pretty much ready for the fall rainy weather now.

This picture is from the end of July, so it's even bushier just before being chopped down.

Hard to believe it looked like this April 2019 lol. Sure does not take long to grow with irrigation. :)

You can see the deer footprints checking out the garden.

Herb garden boxes are now emptied, other than the four herb boxes I will keep until January. Trent move some to the one stand, so Ray and I can move the other stand under the sundeck for the winter. After Ray spent so much time making the planters and staining them, it makes sense to keep them out of the winter elements.

Nice to have another thing off my fall list of "to do's" lol

I think the development across the lake from us is finally finished with the huge hill they've been digging at for months. Today, they sprayed it with dirt and then with the "green stuff" to grow the grass, and finally put some water on it to keep it from blowing away. Hopefully the heavy rain forecast Sunday and Monday don't destroy it for them.