After spending more time away than home in the last 6 months we were not keen to make a big trip for our birthdays. But haing missed the last four holidays, I thought somewhere nearby was in order. We have skied at Whistler for many birthday weekends, but this year it sounded too ambitious. And, with Vail taking ownership, the lift ticket prices have skyrocketed. It would cost us $300 per person per day to ski. Those are Canadian dollars, so discounted a little, but still ridiculous.
After looking around a bit I found a ski area on Vancouver Island (who knew?) with lift tickets less than $100 per person per day. That sure sounded more reasonable and like a nice quiet trip compared to the mass of humanity that is Whistler in February. So I found a little AirBnB in the country between the mountain and the coast, and we were off.
Of course the Black Ball ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria was down for maintenance, so we headed out and across the Canadian border to Tsawwassen. The kitties ride along in the back seat without a peep. We first saw snow in Bellingham on the way north, then not again until the next day.
We had a cute little cabin on a small lake/bog near the end of the road in a very quiet and rural area about 30 minutes from everywhere. The kitties settled in and then the snow started. It was light enough on my birthday that we made it to Campbell River for lunch, then took a little ferry across to Quadra Island.
On the boat was a local named Bärbel (German for Barbara), who was looking for a ride home. We got a nice little tour of the island and even invited in for coffee. It being late in the day, we opted to skip coffee and explored around the island a little more.
What we found was another gorgeous BC Provincial Park and a really nice protected anchorage for the boat when we get it this far north again. The next day it snowed and snowed and snowed. About a foot. So we chose to stay home on Rob’s birthday instead of going to explore Comox. Notice how no mention of skiing or snow shoeing? Well it was about 17 degrees and breezy. Even with all of our ski gear on, we didn’t have confidence that we would really be warm enough to enjoy a day in the mountains. And while the main roads were clear, the driving wasn’t really fantastic, so why not just hang out by the fire with the cats?
We did make a couple more trips out, one to the beach and also to Comox for a late birthday lumch for Rob. We didn’t see nearly as much of the island as we had hoped, but definitely know we’ll be back for another visit.
Pix from this trip are here
