Vancouver Island
Now making our way out to western BC with our last pit stop in Vancouver. We quickly decided to ditch the truck and snag some bikes for a day. Rolling around Stanley Park, Granville Island and back through the urban city streets of Van. We tore around the trails and paths for 6 hours covering some serious ground fueled by not knowing that laid around the next bend. Heidi booked the perfect Air B&B joint in North Van to get some rest before the ferry to Nanaimo.
THE inukshuk Statue in Vancouver, BC
Photo: Zach Husted
Ripping around Stanley Park
Photo: Heidi
Looking into the bay with Granville Island in the back left.
Photo: Zach Husted
Vancouver island for the next three weeks; covering as much of the island as possible. After making the ferry crossing from Vancouver to Nanaimo. Brian, Heidi, and myself picked up our rations and drinking water, as we headed to her families remote cabin near Salomon beach overlooking the Broken Island group. The Broken Group is a world renowned kayaking area full of small islands and inlets in the middle of the Barkley Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. This magical place was chocked-full with bald eagles, shellfish, driftwood covered beaches, skinny-dipping and solitude.
Heidi's backyard in Salmon Beach, Vancouver Island, BC
Photo: Zach Husted
We all made a day hike bushwhacking alongside a river with salmon ladders, surrounded by a thick old growth forest.
Salomon ladders just upstream of Salomon beach, Vancouver, BC
Photo: Zach Husted
We had booked a flight up to Hot Springs Cove; the Clayoquot sound is North of Tofino 27 nautical miles. Booked to one night stay on the InnChanter. It's a heritage vessel built in the 1920's ad refitted to take you back to style and class with luxury with gourmet meals from an onboard chef. After a short paddle in the bay and roughly 2 km boardwalk you arrive into the Hot Springs Cove. We thankfully had the opportunity to have the hot springs to ourselves that evening with a full moon and calm winds bringing to the ocean tides. At 10:40 pm that night at high tide the pacific ocean rolled into the steamy 104 degree spring water and commingled the unreal combination of temperatures and atmosphere to form a experience we will all never forget. The walk back through the forest that evening brought the whole night together.
Entering Clayoquot sound by float plane
Photo: Zach Husted
The InnChanter Hot Springs Cove, Clayoquot sound, Vancouver Island, BC
Photo: Zach Husted
Hot Springs Cove, BC Sunset
Photo: Zach
A women that used to be the warden in the area was the initial screen play writer of “Avatar”. She got her inspiration from this specific boardwalk to the springs. Which created the mother tree idea, lead by a hallway of bioluminescent flowing energy of an interconnected forest. It was a place of true peace.
Hot Springs Cove
Photo: Zach Husted
The following day, we worked our way through inlets and islands back to Tofino. Next off to Cambell River to meet up with the crew and get fishing for the next two weeks.
