Thursday June 23, Ucluelet BC

Our great run of sunny hot weather has ended and tonight we are sitting inside listening to the rain on the roof. Sadly the campfire is still spluttering away.

First stop this morning was at Coombs which has been made a great tourist stopping point by the Country Market with goats on the roof. The large flattish roof is fenced and several goats make it their home. The store itself is great, with a huge variety of food and bakery items, including lots of imported goods. A fun place to spend awhile browsing the shelves.

 Then it was on the road again heading back to the west coast with another stop at the Macmillan Provincial Park where there were walkways through a great stand of very old Douglas Fir Trees, one over 800 years old. As they have died and fallen over, they have been left on the forest floor and as you can imagine Ed Bright, Ian was just drooling and wishing he could have brought his chainsaw mill.

We climbed up over the pass with the snow still high up on the peaks, a really pretty drive following crystal clear rivers and forested hills, then down into Port Alberni in the valley. It is a very busy port and logging town. There is quite an Indian population here and were intrigued to see their many signs on the roadside selling fresh iced sockeye salmon. Might have to stop and get some on the way back.

Stopped for lunch out on the wharf, then continued on to Ucluelet in the rain, but by the time we had found a good campsite the weather had cleared. Ian was keen to go halibut fishing and we heard that a local company, Canadian Princess runs a very good operation with good boats. So he is booked to head off at 6am in the morning for a 7 hour fishing trip, which is only a short walk from our camp.

Ucluelet is a really nice town, not as busy or touristy as neighbouring Tofino we have been told. The weather cleared so we did a really good hike around the lighthouse point following the coastline for much of the way. Just love the rugged rocky outcrops with cedars growing from all sorts of nooks and crannys.

Ian was all set with the chairs outside and the campfire going when the rain came down.