Pacific Northwest and Vancouver Island
We’ve been back in the van for about three weeks so it feels like it’s time to fire up the Tumbleweed Blog again. I’m sure you’ve missed it sorely but please do not fret as it’ll be coming to your inbox intermittently for the next three months or so.
After a soggy winter parked at our friend Susie’s house in
Lakeside, CA, Gemma was in fairly good condition. We had to jumpstart Gemma to
get her started as the battery was dead, which had happened last year as well.
The bigger issue though was that we discovered mold all over a couple of our
sleeping cushions, the interior siding and the bench. We’ve had a small roof
leak ever since we bought the van and despite our best efforts to fix it, it
obviously still persists. We were fortunately able to buy some foam in Santa
Monica to replace the moldy cushions and we spent a couple of days sanding and
treating the moldy wood to rid our van of all of the mildew. We’re hoping to
find covered parking for our van this coming winter since that’s probably
easier than fixing our persnickety roof leak.
Once Gemma was rearing to go, we headed north and took three
days to drive from Santa Monica to Bend, OR, where we had a housesit for nearly
a week. My cousin James was getting married in Bend that weekend so we lucked
out lining up our housesit to coincide with his wedding. We took care of two
dogs (Luka and Paloma) who were relatively well behaved and the house was
centrally located in NW Bend. I’m fairly certain that James and Claudia set a
record for organizing at least eight separate events surrounding their wedding.
It was great though as it provided ample opportunity to hang out with family
and friends of the bridal party. Their wedding was beautiful with some of the most heartfelt vows that I've ever heard! All in all, it was a great time in Bend and we
were fortunate to get out of town just as the dreaded ‘heat dome’ was
descending upon the west coast!
After Bend, we headed north up to Mt Hood, where we had plans to go camping with family. The Corbetts represented and hopefully didn’t terrorize the other campers at Lost Creek Campground too much. Along with my aunt Caitlin and her husband Dennis, we moved campsites from Mt Hood to Mt Adams for the 4th of July weekend. We scored a highly coveted double campsite near Takhlakh Lake on the western slopes of Mt Adams. It was a great few days of hiking, running, fishing and swimming in the lake to cool off from the heat wave. The only downside were the mosquitoes which were tenacious and ubiquitous. Dennis came equipped for battle with the mosquitoes though (citronella, mosquito coils, fire starting equipment, etc.) for which we are eternally grateful!
Once we left Mt Adams, we made our way up to the Olympic
Peninsula, where we were planning to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island. We
were fortunate to catch up with old friends from New Zealand who now live in
Port Townsend, WA, an idyllic seaside town at the mouth of the Puget Sound. We took
the Black Ball ferry out of Port Angeles and arrived in Victoria, BC about a
week ago. Our first night in Vancouver Island we camped on a small farm with
old friends who were bike touring around the island for a week. Since then,
we’ve been meandering around the island staying at a mix of boondocking sites
and official campgrounds. Once we left the southeast corner of the island, it’s
been sparsely populated and extremely beautiful – lots of snowcapped peaks,
frigid lakes and lush green forests. And of course the people are ever
so friendly, being Canadians and all.
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