Paradise Still Exists
Tim and I had been talking about getting back to Vancouver Island to do some work on his cabin…
We set mid-June as the time to go…
On Friday, June 16, I left my home in Olympia at 3pm, just in time to hit every major traffic slowdown in the Puget Sound area…
The 150 mile drive to Tim’s home in Bellingham was spent more in first gear than fifth…
When I got to Tim’s and we quickly loaded my stuff into his truck and were soon off to Canada…
A quick peak into Tim’s shop revealed he had these buoyancy tanks that will be bonded under his 24’ Carolina Skiff…
It’s a real workhorse and at times needs a bit more lift…
The US / Canadian boarder crossing required us to go inside and hassle with some minor paperwork,
pay some duties on things we were bringing up, and discussed Tim’s residency status…
We could have been there for at least a couple of hours, but the agent looked like she had better things to do (read a magazine)…
Soon we were off into the Canadian nighttime, on our way to Tim’s wife Tracy’s other home a few miles into B.C. where we spent the night…
Day One
In the morning we loaded up and were soon on the road to “The End Of The Road”…
But first, a stop at Fourbuck$…
Fully caffeinated we arrived at the Ferry Terminal…
We wandered around while waiting for our ferry over to V.I…
There is a state of the art delivery truck in Canada…
Gotta love that exchange rate…
The rental fleet was ready and waiting…
The ferry ride was uneventful after you’ve done it a few times…
No pictures of that…
Once on the ground, the miles just flew by…
Soon we were deep into B.C greenery…
The road to “The End Of The Road”, where the smart give priority to the working class…
These falls are over 5,200 ft in height…
Once near “The End Of The Road”, we went to the lumberyard where Tim keeps his boat…
We fired it up, then headed to the launch ramp…
Game on…
A quick stop for fuel and some local color…
Next stop The Island…
The weather was drippy and the wind was up a bit, but the ride out was fine…
Tim keeping an eye on the temperature gauge…
Almost there…
Typical scenery in the fjords…
Farm Point...
It would be real easy to go over the top trying to describe the beauty, but you can see it for yourself…
After one hour and 20 miles, The Island…
Dan’s cabin now has a new roof…
Tim’s deep water dock has a new roto-molded dory…
Surprise surprise, Dan is up…
Here he’s moving the oyster barge to “dry-dock”…
The dry-dock is some beams near high tide line…
With tidal assistance the barge is lifted for some fresh bottom paint at low tide…
So simple…
Bob’s here…
His place looks better than ever…
Rounding the final turn, we see Tim’s place…
Day 2
Early the next day we got started on some things that Tim has wanted to finish for a while…
First for me was to make and install some door trim…
Check out the width of this thing…
Ripped…
Planed…
I love this stuff…
Meanwhile Jessie starts taking apart the deck and rails…
Tim has dropped some trees…
and Jessie is now peeling the bark off…
Here’s the float log that Pam and I made last September, now in use…
At low tide…
And high tide…
With the high tide, Tim took the opportunity to move some logs he has from near the cabin to the deep water dock…
The empty gas tanks bolted to the transom give just enough extra buoyancy to make this a real work boat…
Again, simple and functional…
This ain’t Tim’s first rodeo…
This picture says a lot about Tim and the place…
Thirty years of experience showing…
Later the logs will be towed to “The End Of The Road” to be milled into dimension lumber…
On the dock around I captured these views…
Dan’s cabin with a fresh roof…
Inside things don’t change much…
Board storage…Dan’s logs and Evan’s sticks…
I saw a red fin…
Rod’s fish killing boat…
Some guys really do it right…
Dan’s new custom 20’er…
This boat fits Dan like a glove…
Nothing like thirty years of working these boats every day to figure out what works best…
I crossed over the Island the long way and enjoyed the scenery…
Tim all done with after a long day of travel and work…
Time to kick back…
After a huge dinner we went over to Bob’s for a beer…
This is Bob’s handbuilt Sawmill with a work in progress…
The log is bigger than it looks…
We chatted it up with Bob and enjoyed the view to the west from his kitchen table…
And the view to the south…
The end of a long day, in more ways than one…
Day 3
Another day dawns…
Looking over to Indian Island…
Today we go back to The End Of The Road and pick up the cedar for the deck…
Dan enjoys his customary quadruple frappachino non-fat moca-choka soy latté with ginseng and taro, as we ready for the ride…
7 am…Perfect boating conditions…Jessie absorbs it all…
Tim behind the wheel as he’s done hundreds of times…
The beauty of this place, during a trip like this simply can’t be overstated…
At the end of the channel, “The End Of The Road”…
We tied off the boat…
Then retrieved the truck and went to the baaadside of town…
Cousin Billy’s Sawmill…
Cedar central…
Scratch and sniff…
We hurried back to the ramp to load the wood onto the skiff before the wind comes up…
Loaded with about a ton and ready for the trip back to The Island…
Like no lumber truck I ever saw…
Familiar landmarks at the corners…
Remember early on, Tim watching the temp gauge, well it was spiking regularly forcing Tim to alternate between planing and high idling…
Near a small village, we stopped the skiff to check for obstructions in the water intake…
Nothing…
Re- hook up the hoses and ready to go…
Except the boat won’t start…
Won’t turn over…
Nothing…
Exasperated we each grab a plank from the pile and like Huck Finn paddle the boat towards shore…
Just as the wind is kicking in…
We make forward progress but we are drifting sideways away from the dock…
Just then one of The Shantymen gets in their boat and comes over to give us a tow…Whew…
Better than AAA Plus…
Tim conferred with an old friend who runs the place and soon the motor was hotwired and we were back in the channel…
All part of the great unplanned…
Turning the corner at Paddlewheel Point, the wind is now a bit of a factor…
Choppy and salt spraying, as we putt-putt at low speed toward the ocean…
No hurry, just get there…
And we do…
It just took an extra hour…
Back at the cabin, and after lunch and a much needed nap,
we three were back on task with unloading the cedar and continuing prep work for replacing the deck…
Here, I’m peeling the bark off of a young cedar that will be the new deck posts and rails…
It’s easy to do in the spring…
Smooth and slimy…
Meanwhile, Jessie burns the peeled bark and other things I can’t mention…
We quit work early (for us) and had a quiet evening…
Day 4
Another dead calm morning…
Bob and a visiting Spaniard head out to whale watch…
We get right onto getting the deck done…
Tim nails the ceremonial first spike…
Ten hours later…
Over half way done…
We were invited over to Rod’s for dinner and to get caught up on “all things Island”…
Dan built this place solo…
The view we enjoyed while having an incredible dinner…
Nice view, eh…???...
The end of another long day…
Day 5
The night before over dinner, Dan and I planned a trip down the coast with hopes of riding a few waves…
Dan’s new boat is a masterpiece of aluminum fabrication and proven boat design…
His previous boat had about 25,000 mile on it before he had this custom made…
Look for about the same mileage on this one…
Jessie helps load a kayak designed by Tim…
Dan doing what Dan does better than almost anyone…
A man in his element…
The ride out to the open ocean was fine…
Low, crossed up swells…
Little wind…
Fine conditions for a run down the coast…
But no swell for riding waves…
Lake Pacifico…
The north reef at a place I’ll just call Spot S…
One foot on the sets…
So we go on down to The Falls…
Seventy feet wide x Thirty feet high…
Plenty of water this time of year…
The reef at Spot C…
One foot high, nine inches deep…
Ok, no surf, lets go whale watching…!!!...
Thar she blows…!!!...
“Dan, where’s that harpoon…???...”
Seals watching us watch them watch us…
“Got fish…???...”
After all that it was back to the cabin for another full day’s work…
Tim notching the rail posts…
“Hey, ever heard of a ‘broom’…???...”
Hours later the posts and rails are installed…
So that means it’s time for another boat ride…
A well deserved diversion…
Out to a small island in search of mill-able logs…
Tim beaches the boat and Jess and I walk around the island...
It’s got to be cedar…
Tim shuttles the boat from beach to beach while Jess and I explore…
Among the driftwood I found a marvelous photographic prop…
“Orange Ball”…
Random symmetry and flow…
Spatial Relationships
Hey, this is ART…!!!...
…???...
…OOOHHH…
Unfortunately after that last picture, I dropped my camera onto the rock and watched it splash into a tide pool…
The Camera is dead…Oh well…
Back on the beach we ramped and rolled a couple yellow cedar logs into the surf, got a rope on ‘em and towed them back to Tim’s…
More future milled lumber…
We next went to an above ground Indian burial site, better than the one we saw last year…No pictures though…
Back at the cabin I put my memory card in Tim’s camera and shot the final deck shots…
After we finished our projects, we cleaned up the place and got ready for the trip to civilization the next day…
The boat ride back to “The End Of The Road” was another spectacular, warm calm sunny day …
The drive and ferry ride back to Bellingham went fast, considering the mileage involved…
I made it home near 11pm, stoked about a great trip…
Paul…Tim…Jessie
In the past thirteen months I have been able to spend over four weeks either at Tim’s cabin or camping down the coast…
To be able to experience life away from the grid for another week,
and get to know better those who've lived that way for decades, is inspiring...
This trip also turned out to be a chance to again reflect on the things in my life, which is very, very good...
In the end, I came away with the fact that in my life there are some things I often take for granted, that I probably shouldn't...
I looked at what material things I have and why I have them...
I looked at the values I hold and the reasons behind those...
I looked at the relationships I have and what they mean...
I'm sure this trip will continue to subtly impact my life for the better, far into the future...
Finally, this weeklong trip was a confirmation that paradise still exits…
And even though I can’t be there all the time, just to know it’s still there and reachable gives me great comfort…
I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride...
I can’t wait to go back…!!!...
Paul
“Jessie, I told you leave those mushrooms alone”