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.