Pacific Rim

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Pacific Rim

Monday, June 27 we left Victoria around 1 pm, heading for Pacific Rim National Park, where we planned to camp for seven nights. We made the almost obligatory stop at Coombs to visit Goats on the Roof, but we didn’t do much shopping - we’ll be coming back this way again in a week. The ice cream cones were a bit too much to resist, however. If you love ice cream, this is the place to get it. Dozens of flavors and their single dip cone is enormous enough to feed us both. (Unfortunately we were greedy, though, and we each had our own, for which Roberta paid dearly a bit later that day.)

We arrived at our destination about 6 pm, and had our first glimpse of wildlife almost the moment we entered the park: a doe came out of the drainage ditch onto the road right in front of us, and just stood there for half a minute, looking at us, before heading back into the bush.

We have been here many times before, but this was the first time we have managed to get an ocean view site in this campground, which is now the only one left in the national park. The roar of the waves lulls us to sleep at night, and provides soothing background music throughout the day. This campground fills up quickly in the summer months, and reservations are recommended. We reserved very early, which probably accounts for our getting such a nice site.

Nine years ago we came to this park for the first time together, and spent a memorable week camping right on the beach near here, but that campground is no longer open. You can still visit the location - we did so the last time we came here, two years ago. That was a fabulous camping trip, the fulfillment of many years longing to camp on the beach at Pacific Rim, on Kath’s part, at least. Good thing we did it then, because the idea of trekking in all our gear seems rather daunting to us at this point in our lives. I suspect if we didn’t have the VW, camping might have lost its appeal by now.

The evening program at Green Point Monday night was on bears, cougars, and wolves. It was a debut program, with still a few rough edges, but some great songs, including We won’t, we won’t feed you (sung to the tune of We will, we will rock you) and a version of I will survive (about how to survive a cougar attack) that might make Gloria Gaynor smile. Very much fun. Made us think of Kath’s son-in-law Don, who creates shows like this in Alberta. Wish you’d been here, Don!

After the interpretive show, we walked around the entire campsite. We were actually looking for other Westfalias. Kath posted an item in the Wet Westies listserve a month or so ago, saying we’d be here, and inviting other Wet Westies to join us. There were about 5 or 6 Westies here, but we don’t yet know if any of them are actually Wet Westies. At one site we spotted a beautiful old orange Kombi, and we had to drop in and have a visit. The owners were an elderly German couple who had owned it since it was new. It’s a 1975, and I think they said it had 50,000 miles on it! It’s in beautiful shape, the exterior finish is flawless. Only the front panel has ever been repainted - they keep it inside all the time, and don’t use it in the winter at all. They have done lots of customizing in the interior - nice little touches like extra lights, solar battery charger, grey water tank, and nicely optimized storage. A real pleasure to see this vehicle. Kath says it’s very reminiscent of the 1974 she used to own, and in which she did many camping trips with her kids when they were young.

We were on the go most of the day Tuesday. After breakfast we headed for Wickanninish Interpretive Centre. Low tide was at 12;35 PM, and we wanted to go on the guided low tide walk which started at 11:00. It was pretty good, but we’ve both participated in these walks many times before, and about two-thirds of the way through, we’d had enough and headed back toward the Wick at our own pace.

Cooking

We next headed for Ucleulet where we parked near the wharf and prepared chicken soup for the thermos cooker, so it would be ready for dinner later in the day. The thermos cooker is a wonderful device we got strictly for camping. It consists of an ordinary stainless steel pot, with a lid, which fits snuggly into an insulated outer pot. You start the stew (or whatever), boil it for maybe half an hour to get everything well heated, then slip the inner pot into the thermos, and just tuck it away to cook on the residual heat for another 3-4 hours. When we opened it at 6:00, it was tender and tasty, and steaming hot. Enough for a substantial feast, and leftovers for the next night. We can even travel with the stew cooking! Kath constructed a sturdy stool from plywood, just to fit this pot. It has a hinged, padded lid, and we use it for extra seating in the camper, or when we need to climb into the pop top. The thermos cooker fits snugly in the bottom, where it’s held in a stable position when the camper is in motions. We we’re not actually cooking with this pot, we can store miscellaneous stuff on top of the pot inside the stool.

Wednesday has been misty and cool. We spent the day housekeeping - filled the gas tank, did laundry, emptied the toilet, refilled the water tank. Then we had lunch with Kath’s friend Carol in Ukee, and came to Tofino to look for better internet services than we found in Ukee so far. Once this has been posted, we’re back to camp to read, knit, and attend the evening show on grey whales. It’s a good life here in the far west!

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Photos

Our campsite, Pacific Rim
All set up and ready to relax

Our sea view
For the first time camping here, we got a sea view campsite!

Roberta getting things in order
Only Roberta could possibly fit in this little space!

Low tide
We took a walk on Wick Beach at low tide Tuesday

In the mist
Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre

Comments

[Carmen]

Your travelogue reminds me of a trip I made to Vancouver Island and specifically Ucluelet in 1971. I slept on the beach.... something I wouldn't do now with my older bones. Enjoy the ocean !