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Stuck at the Bottom of a Canadian Hill

Monday, June 27th – Victoria to Port Alberni, British Columbia - Day 136 

We woke up early to pack up the trailer to hit the ferry, then pulled a full 180 degree turn and decided to see if Mary could take the bus to the train station. Gen drove her to the bus station in downtown Victoria and was just in time to buy a ticket on a bus ride that delivers you directly to the train station, no fuss, no muss. 

We decided we needed to explore the island and with much help from James, Matthew’s brother/Gen’s cousin, plotted a route along the coast of South-West Vancouver Island, across the island to Nanaimo and then back across the island to Pacific Rim National Park and Tofino. We packed up the trailer and with much love for our gracious hosts, Patrick, Leila, Matthew, Paolina and James, hit the road. Before we left, Pat and Leila, and their friends Dave and Deb, invited us to join them at Dave and Deb’s chalet in Whistler in a few days. We weren’t planning to go to Whistler, but we decided we’d take them up on the invite. 

Before we left Victoria, Gen had heard about our Mount Douglas experience and wanted to go as well. We drove the trailer up the steep grades, parked and walked up to the peak. The view of the ocean, mountains and the islands around Vancouver Island were spectacular. 


After we passed Sooke on the south-west coast of Victoria, we reached the first of our recommended destinations, Mystic Beach. The road down was a very rough gravel road. We thought it looked like we would get stuck at the bottom, we didn’t even bother taking a closer look. 

The next stop was Sombrio Beach. The road looked good, not too steep or rocky. We even asked a few people hanging out at the top of the road if the road was good for a trailer; they said, “Good road, no problems”. As we started moving down the road it got worse and worse. Halfway down, Gen asked me if I thought we would get back up, I was optimistic at the time.

 We arrived at the parking lot and took a trail downhill to a fork in the trail. Gen had gone right to a suspension bridge, unknowingly Jo-Ce, Charlotte and me went the other way to a beautiful rocky beach. We corrected our mistake and met Gen for lunch on a rocky creek bed under a suspension bridge. The hill up was tougher than the way down. 

To be continued...


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