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First thing in the morning we were headed for the ferry. If we missed the first one, our day would be spent waiting for the next one instead of exploring. It turned out we were the 3rd in line and it didn’t fill, better safe than sorry I suppose. It was a scenic ride from Earls Cove to Saltery Bay.

Back on highway 101 at Saltery Bay we were again without a lot of plans or information, other than, ‘head north’. We checked out Saltery Bay Provincial Park but we were wanting to find a central place to explore this section of coast and it seemed a bit too far south so we moved on. Despite the signage we were finally able to find the visitors information center in Powell River after a few attempts and get our hands on a few maps of the area and a few ideas for a campsite. The campsite we found was my favorite of the trip, Dinner Rock. Dinner Rock happened to be a free campground with minimal amenities (one bathroom a table and a fire pit) which also has direct access to the water and a few really nice waterfront sites. There is a site there I would like to go back to and stay in for two weeks just to watch the sunsets and possibly do a little paddling exploration. Two days would have to do it this time around.

After establishing camp we headed to a lunch spot we received a offhand unsolicited recommendation for that just happened to be nearby. The Laughing Oyster did not disappoint. The view alone was worth it, but the seafood and bottle of wine put it over the top.

Next up we headed to the end (start) of highway 101, Lund. Lund is a compact little town situated right on the water. It’s the end of the road as far as highway 101 is concerned but there’s a lot I’d lot to explore past the end of the pavement. For now we’ll just have to ‘put it on the list’. We heard of pollen sweaters, the hot thing there, and we checked them out, but quickly moved on to blackberry cinnamon buns at Nancy’s Bakery, with a salmon empanada (!) to go for breakfast the next day.

After a bit of looking around we headed back to Dinner Rock and enjoyed the sunset. The water was calm and Dinner Rock proved to be a good spot to watch the sun call it a day.

The next day we explored the area around Powell River including a walk along Willingdon Beach. The sign at the beginning of the trail promised pet squirrels among other things. The walk did not disappoint.

I’m not sure who does the flight control for bald eagles, but they are good at it.

We happened to spot a mini golf opportunity when we finished our walk at Willingdon. Road trips present opportunities, we took this one and it was fun. After that we took a short hike to an overlook on Valentine Mountain. We had seen signs the day before touting fresh Prawns for sale, and thought we better grab some local seafood while we were here, so we began a search. We searched high and low, and I never would have believed we would have had such trouble finding seafood on the coast. We had an opportunity for some shrimp from Thailand and fish from somewhere in south America, frozen of course. That was an opportunity we didn’t take. We came up empty handed. Back to Dinner Rock, we went to view another spectacular sunset.

Our time at Dinner Rock was coming to a close. The next morning was another early ferry ride. It was time to start the turn towards the south and back home. We decided to take the entire circle route and head to Vancouver Island provided the ferry wasn’t full. If it was, we’d backtrack the way we came. Looking back at how much more busy and full of people and big cities Vancouver Island was I may have wished that the ferry was full, but it wasn’t. The weather also changed a bit to the rainy side of things for our last full day in Canada.

Working our way southbound on Vancouver Island we found a nice beach at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park. There were more unbroken sand dollars there than I’ve seen in several years combined. The tide was way out and there were several crabs seeking refuge in small pockets of water.

Our obsession for fresh prawns (or something, give me something!) carried over and we continued on in our search. We also didn’t know where we’d end up for the night quite yet and were on the lookout. After several more failed attempts at some waterfront sites we finally found our fresh prawns. We then ended up back at Rathtrevor as the campsites there were the nicest we encountered on the island.

Once again we had an early ferry to catch back to Vancouver, and then a long drive, so after a while around the fire between rain showers we called it a night. The ferry ride the next day was nice but not quite as scenic at the Sunshine Coast.

Our time in Canada had run out. We headed to the border and hopefully a quick exit to match our speedy no event entry into Canada. It was not to be. When we departed the ferry south of Vancouver we were looking forward to a quick 8 hour drive home. The border patrol had other things in mind. Our two sticks of firewood sent us to secondary inspection where our US originating produce we hadn’t eaten on the trip was seized. No big deal. But, it turns out that you can’t come back to the US with any firewood, and typical of the service you can expect in the US, they also won’t take it from you. So after the long wait in the wrong line of someone who was asking a million questions of everyone in front of us, then a big delay for a secondary inspection, we were presented with our one choice, go back to Canada and give them your wood. Look, I understand you don’t want unknown pests. Just take my wood! Nope. Luckily, there was no line to get back into Canada, they happily took our wood and we went and did the entire re-entry process over again to get into the US. Let that be a lesson to you. Next time, stay in Canada!!

After finally getting through the border it was prime time Seattle traffic. Instead of getting home at 6 we arrived at 10. Overall a trip for the books. Next time maybe we’ll stay.