« Lunch time | Main | What's that noise »
September 05, 2004
Camping in the Carmanah
Well, it took longer than it should have to get to the Carmanah Valley, but it was worth it! Unaware that the fastest route was through Lake Cowichan, Friday afternoon we headed off towards Port Renfrew. Five hours later, after lots of self-doubt, reading / rereading our map and swearing at the poor, (or lack of signage), we arrived at the Carmanah/Walbran Valley. This was after a mere 140 km of logging road travel.
Click the signage to see more shots...
The forest which is know for the huge Sitka Spruce held true to its reputation. We were dumbfounded at the size of some the trees. It also contained lots of wildlife, namely, slugs, chipmunks, funny looking birds, and bears. The bear was heard but not seen about 15 minutes into our hike. The bear "spotting" left me a little jumpy as we were camping in the park, and I noticed there was only one other car in the parking lot.
That night we hiked in a few kilometers and set up camp on a river bed beside the forest attraction "Three Sisters". The Three Sisters were three Sitka Spruces that appeared to have grown together throughout the centuries. The next day we did a small day hike out to Grunt's Grove. I tripped the whole way as I was craning my neck up to seen the tops of the trees.
We had lunch at camp and then packed up and headed back to the car. With directions from the Ranger we drove back through Youbou. This was only 60 kilometers of logging road and 3 hours from Victoria.
Needless to say the old Subaru was happy to get home and we were happy to cut off 2 hours of drive time.
Posted by jmclean at September 5, 2004 07:56 PM