The Sunshine Coast had actually been quite dry all summer. In fact they were on pretty serious water usage restrictions because of it. But that was not the case when we got there. It rained almost daily for the entire week.
Gibsons – We arrived at this pretty (and busy) seaside town after taking the afternoon ferry from Horseshoe Bay/West Vancouver. At this point, it had been a week since we had showered so Mike and I beelined to their aquatic centre for a swim (with our new $1 thrift store goggles), a hot tub and a shower. We then made our way to a provincial park a bit further up the road which unfortunately meant that we didn’t back track back to Gibsons to actually spend any time there.
Sechelt – This was our central point for exploring the south Sunshine Coast. We also happened across their farmer’s market and an electric car event on the same day. We spent way too much money at the farmer’s market buying things like rose hip jelly and blackberry honey but also got some delicious apples, tomatoes and bread.
We hiked a really beautiful and really well marked trail just north of the Sechelt called Hidden Grove. We are talking maps at every intersection and coloured poles so you knew you were on the trail you wanted to be on. There were also some really unique trees and plaques explaining some of the crazy things that happen in a rain forest.
Powell River – We stayed 3 nights in this really lovely community. The last night we splurged and got an actual beach sight at the campground and watched whales doing their thing in the ocean (which was super exciting for the locals who said the whales hadn't been around much in the last 5 years). On this north part of the Sunshine Coast, there exists another well marked trail but this one is a 180 km backcountry trail with 13 back country huts that you can sleep in. This means not having to carry a tent in your backpack whichs cuts down on a lot of weight (although if you are going to do 180 km, you are going to need a lot more food). Some of the huts are even winterized. We did a 12 km portion out to one of the huts and it was great – clean, simple and out of the elements. The work that likely went into building and maintaining the trails and the huts really speaks to how much this area of Canada loves hiking.
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| View from the one of the huts on the Sun Coast Trail near Powell River, BC |
Oh and if you are
still wondering how things are going composting on the road, we have only had to dump our veggie scraps once this whole trip.
It has mostly been community gardents (see composting on the road
post from June) but since arriving in this southwest area of BC, we
have found recycling centres that take our compost/organic waste.
This includes Whistler, Sechelt and Powell River. So as much as we
came across some really nice community gardens on our travels (and
even met some really lovely people who gave us free vegetables), it is great
to be able to drop off our vegetable scraps (and our recycling) at these
centres. Why other communities in Canada are not doing this is still
a mystery to me.
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