written in the dusk of July 3 in a river side campground:
Quatse River I am camped beside
It is 9:15 and I am ready for bed. I am tired. I have been finding it hard to leave great conversations with a host and go to bed. Often I am headed there at 11:30 and still wanting to post on my blog. Tonight I am in a campsite just outside of Port Hardy. This is not something I can do very often but it is quiet here. I didn’t take an electrical site on purpose. That way I have limited time on the computer. I made supper. Did some cut and paste in my scrape book and now I am writing this. There is supposed to be wireless here but not at my campsite so I won’t spend time up loading to the blog. I sense an early night coming on. Sigh. I thought about taking the tent out. It is beautiful, but Vincent was a little offended that I would think that at all so we are cozied up. I have everything I need. I can hear a night bird chirping. It is beautiful. I think I will try to camp more…although the budget doesn’t really allow for that.
Jane's Mini House in Sointula
Today I slept in. It must be all of those late nights. I didn’t even wake up til 8. I got up and Jane and I did some errands around Sointula. What a nice place. I could picture living there. It seemed all too soon that I packed up to leave. The ferry was late and then I was glad I had gone early because there were lots of people trying to get on (that Friday thing again) and lots didn’t make it. The last vehicle to pull on was a truck towing a trailer. I couldn’t believe it because after negotiating the narrow ramp down to the ferry deck with just inches to spare on each side, the trailer was about 2 feet too long for the ferry. What now. The trailer certainly couldn’t back off and there was no room to move forward. The ferry crew gathered in a group and talked it up. Finally they put lots of blocks under the wheels of truck and trailer and went anyway. There was some trouble raising the ramp so we could launch but it worked. I think that on a longer sailing they couldn’t have done it but with the short Sointula to Port McNeil trip and very calm seas, I guess they could. I am glad I was not the one in that situation. That was one packed ferry.
After that I headed for Port Hardy. FINALLY. I saw a black bear on the side of the road. I wouldn’t want to meet one while walking but from Vincent I felt pretty safe. He was very taken by some berries or ants, I couldn’t tell which, that he was scooping off of a bush. He didn’t even look when I stopped and snapped his photo. Probably that was a good thing. I had the van stopped but didn’t open the door Mom.
The trip from Port McNeil to Port Hardy is not a long one. Maybe 30km but I found myself thinking about Laura the cyclist that I met yesterday. It was still a long enough road with several hills. I wonder how long it took her. She was taking the ferry to the mainland so was going to have a day of traveling the easy way. The rest of her route is not likely to be so easy.
When I got to town I took a bit of a hike along the water front. I stopped in at the info centre. I find them hit and miss. Sometimes the people in them bend over backwards for you. At others they are not so great. Today, they were friendly but the directions I was given were poor and I sensed a lack of enthusiasm for the job.
It is great to finally be in Port Hardy. That was the place that I envisioned my trip starting. It seems like a friendly place and to everyone that told me that it always rains here….well, it doesn’t seem to be true. The weather is great.
Talk soon. Vicki
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