Yes, I admit.
I've never been camping in my life. Until last weekend, that is. San laughed when I told her I don't even know how to set up a tent 😛
Anyway, summer has finally come to Vancouver area, days are sunny and without clouds, temperatures are going to extreme (25C – 77F 😛 ) and going out of town is the only choice left. Last weekend we went to Sunshine Coast and found one camp site in Roberts Creek, less that 15km from Gibsons. It was our base camp from which we were going to hike in the area. Friday afternoon was spent mostly in setting up and collecting firewood for camp fire 😀 But on Saturday we planned some long hikes and first destination was Smuggler's Cove :bandit:
Smuggler's Cove
According to BritishColumbia.com "the origin of the name Smuggler Cove is subject to much speculation. One theory holds that the bay was used by one Larry "Pig Iron" Kelly to pick up Chinese labourers to be smuggled into the United States after the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Another story is that the concealed cove was used as a transhipment location for the smuggling of bootleg liquor, produced on neighbouring Texada Island, into the US during the prohibition era. Given the cove's proximity to Secret Cove, one can conjecture at some connection."
Trail from parking to the cove is not hard at all, 1.5km mostly on boarded pathway – there are several ponds on the way and walking around would be impossible sometimes. But area is beautiful and it was worth spending some time there.
Even though we hoped to see some wildlife, except few usual birds and a frog, we didn't see anything worth mentioning.
If you look long enough, maybe you will spot a bald eagle on this photo 😛
After that, we went northwards, about 50km on a Highway 101 toward Egmont. We wanted to visit famous Skookumchuck Narrows, second fastest tidal rapids in the world (the fastest one is in Norway, Saltstraumen, maybe Rose would know more about it).
There is about 4km long hike trail from Egmont to one of the two points where tide could be watched.
I've never seen anything like that. I know that difference between the low and high tide in Vancouver is about 2 meters if I am not wrong but usually you won't notice something is happening until it happens 😛 Here, it all look like being on a bank of a very fast river.
Skookumchuck Narrows
Actually, what you see there is Pacific ocean and the place is connection point between open ocean and Sechelt Inlet. Scientific facts: "Each day, tides force large amounts of seawater through the narrows — 200 billion US gallons (760,000,000 m3) of water on a 3-metre (9.8 ft) tide. The difference in water levels on either side of the rapids can exceed 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height. Current speeds can exceed 16 knots (30 km/h),[1] up to 17.68 knots (32.74 km/h)."
Amazing place. Despite hot and humid weather, sweating and pain in the legs after whole day of walking and driving, we were satisfied. I've been once told that BC is probably the most beautiful part of Canada. I am happy to be able to discover some of its beauty :happy:
Tired, we hurried back to our camp for steak and some beer :chef:
***
More photos here.
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gdare 
Today's tents are easy! hell, some of them are blow-up these days! 😆 .
Never been camping in your entire life, Darko?Nah … nothing to be ashamed of. I've only been camping ONCE in my life. That was wayyy back in Boy Scouts. Camped an entire weekend in little tents. And for food, we had to eat experimental meals cooked up by other Boy Scouts trying to get their Cooking Merit Badges! :insane::yikes: :ko: As I type this, my parents, my older brother & his wife, one of my nieces, her husband & 2 kids are camping for a week. As usual, I was invited. And as usual, I of course absolutely declined. 😆 No way I am gonna voluntarily be out there temporarily living in the wilderness. :insane: :jester:
But, but … but, wait a minute, Darko.You were in the Serbian military, right?I would think that many times you HAD to be spending days & nights out in the outdoors in wilderness, desert or whatever type of uncivilized territory without any of the necessities like a TV, Fridge, restroom, running water, Etc.
Sooo … the Summer temperatures are going to the 77° Fahrenheit extremes, huh? That'll practically melt gold. 😆
That is very good logic.But, I would have figured at the very least in Boot Camp where they like to torture recruits and toughen them up, the superior officers would have at some point gone, "Alright, you out of shape lowlifes … today, just for the heck of it, we're going to drop you off 50 Kilometers away from your comfy barracks, out in the middle of nowhere. How you get back and what you eat is YOUR problem." :yikes:
This is what San asked me, too. I was in Air Force therefore no camping for me. As airplane mechanic I was supposed to be where the airplanes were. And airplanes need airport and where is airport, there are military barracks, too 😛
Aadil, you are right, I've just found out that :DCarlos, wilderness is great, only mosquitoes were a bit of annoyance but nothing major. Good thing is that nights are colder here so after the sunset, it is too cold for them 😛 As for food, well, practice makes a master :chef:
Originally posted by Suntana:
Nah, that is only Army! :p (and possibly the Navy Seals)Airforce doesn't do that type of thing because they need people who can actually think for themselves. Whereas, in the Army, thinking for yourself is counter-productive! :whistle:
I'm glad that San is teaching you about camping. It's hard work, but it's fun, too.:smile:
Not to worry. These days you just pull it out of the bag and shake it. Putting a tent down is the real killer. 😉
I'm guessing that there was maybe, at some point in history, a smuggler there. Just a guess, ya know. :whistle:Sounds like you had a pretty cool trip. We, um, went to Tesco today and I bought a brand new t-shirt!!! :yikes:
Carlos, we had some hard time at the Boot Camp but not as hard as they have it in Army. Everyone needed to have a basic training with weapon and tactics. To say the truth I wouldn't mind having it much more difficult but simply they trained us for different purpose :left:Aadil, it is just slight difference, believe me. Or it was, when I was in the old Yugoslav army at the end of '80s. Almost got myself in trouble by expressing my own opinion on a matter of government politics :whistle:Star, it is more fun than hard work. And I can learn new things along with it :DMik, I thought Tesco is a town :doh: 😆 😆 What kind of t-shirt it is? You know I was employed in a company that made t-shirt transfers so I, sort of, like to see different models. :whisper: However, plain ones are still my favourite :cheers:
I hate camping. But your trip looks so beautiful.
Camping in beautiful weather is not hard work especially if you have good equipment. It is mostly relaxing and trying to decide what to eat next :p
When I was in school, we always had camping programm. It was so difficult to set up a tent. But we always had fun when we camped. :It is such a nice place to camp, Darko… You must have enjoyed it… 🙂
As an experimented camper, I can say that it looks like a very nice place to camp! 😀 😎
"Yes, I admit.I've never been camping in my life. Until last weekend, that is. San laughed when I told her I don't even know how to set up a tent":D I suspect San either got fed up and put the tent up for you- or was willing to wait until you figured it out (meaning, willing to sleep en plein air all night long.)San will have you a pro in no time!(I thought I saw a bald eagle in that pic)
Kimmie, you should try it sometimes. Having no proper shower, fighting bloodthirsty mosquitoes and waking up at 4:30 because of birds singing is nothing but a pure fun 😛 And landscape here is beautiful, wait for my next post and photos ;)Sal, when I was a kid even bad weather won't prevent me from walking through a forest or mountain hiking. But I never camped on a rainy weather so I can't tell anything about that :left:Louis, as I said to Kimmie, wait to see my next post :DTeresia, we never had that when I was a kid :awww: Lucky you :up:Jill, I know now almost everything about setting up a proper place. Only problem is packing and forgetting things :whistle:Originally posted by studio41:
Ok, where was it? 😛
He's a pro now! :up:
Originally posted by gdare:
:faint: And they still let you in to Canada? :lol:Looks like you're well into it now. To many more camping trips. :cheers:
Oh my! You have become a real Canadian! 😆 :cheers:
C'mon, what is he waiting for?I still have the plaid coat of my father :p
He doesn't have a plaid shirt yet!
He doesn't realize it will keep the mosquitoes away!
Mick, I promised officer on the border that I will learn how to set up a tent so he let me in :PLouis, I am adopting things I like. Remember poutine? :chef:San, I like plaid shirts, I had one back in Belgrade :knight:
I know! It was all ripped and torn; it would've been perfect!
:yes:
See Kimmie's comment. 😉
Glad you had a nice time! I wish I could id the frog, but my North American amphibian book is in Saskatchewan because I couldn't fit in my suitcase 🙄
We have had the wettest summer in ten years up until now, and it seems to continue. A good Danish summer as we remember it from our childhood: bright sunshine and rain, 50/50, for three, four months. Plus heavy winds – North Sea glades, that swing inland – adding a certain 'touch' to the rain. Tent? It's a word that we use for jokes and mockery in Scandinavia. Or rock'n'roll songs…"Seems like hibernation – but we all wake up by March."
Rose, do you want to say you didn't see Saltstraumen? :yikes:Adele, I guess cameras took all the space :PMartin, my friend visited Kopenhagen about a month ago – 7 days, all with rain. But she liked a city and will probably return :up:
Nope – never been so far north :p
Then you should go immediately :up:
Originally posted by gdare:
my son just returned from a retreat and chose to sleep on the gymnasium floor unlike some buds that went to tent it. he learned the floor is as stiff as the ground 😀 once camping it poured and we awoke to a large puddle- my friend was soaked in it, I happened to sleep on slightly higher ground. I wonder if a completely waterproof tent exists now?!
Originally posted by studio41:
Probably but costs a lot. We use a tarp instead, put a tarp on the ground, then tent and then a fly on top. That should be enough for a normal rain :up:Originally posted by studio41:
😆
Originally posted by gdare:
In Denmark we have a speciality: vertical rain. That is around 30 m/s wind speed and strong rainfall. You'd have to zip all openings, if in a tent. Incidentally, this kind of wheather is very common in June where most of the legendary Danish outdoor music festivals take place. This is why the camping area of these festivals often looks like a North African refugee camp.
Martin, beside waterproof tent a good pair of gum boots is a must, it seems :left:
Definitely! As you can tell, people find the small one man igloo tent the best choice. Mostly they are just used for this one occasion. They get together in camps of perhaps a handful of these tents and cover them with a tarpaulin sheet – like the ones to the right in the picture. You would think this is okay, because they only use them for sleeping, but thing is, they actually spend most of the time in these camps. The music venue is only three days, but the festival guests come a couple of days before it starts and leave a couple of days after the last concert. It's part of the event.My son has been to the Roskilde Festival five times, but this year he returned covered in mudd and said 'That's it. I'm getting too old!'. He is 24, and getting too comfortable for that kind of living, even if it is only for one week every year.That's camping in Scandinavia.
I must admit I can understand him. I mean, it is nice when you have a nice weather, but having a rain almost every year in the same annual event is too much. It is interesting when you are young but in time it is better to overgrow that.What I've found as a biggest challenge so far is the lack of the proper shower. Modern people live in conditions that made us forget what it was like living out of cities 🙂
The thing is that Danish wheather is so mixed up. You can have these very sunny days with 28 – 30C but come four, five in the afternoon clouds start to build up and when evening comes it starts storming and raining and it continues all night. Next day the same thing again. It's the same in the Winter. Nice, sunny days – and the winterland is nice in sunny wheather – and then, come evening, stormy wheather, snow and frost.But, hey, we're used to it.
I gave observed the exact same phenomena in Florida, Martin … well, except for the snow, of course … and it's usually so bloody hot that after the daily rain stops, you're in a damned steambath. I wonder if this is a characteristic of peninsular weather?
You might be right about that, DW. As far as I've been told, the reason is air humidity. Sunshine will make the humidity go down and as the sun disappears it goes up again wich is why it rains in the night time. And when you are surrounded by water on all sides the average humidity is fairly high. Only a minor raise means rain. And the stormy wheather is due to North Sea gales, the legendary Winds of Valhalla, coming from the West almost constantly, bringing more rain and in the summertime also this omenous, lingering thunder. It can be quite spectacular on land but if you've been on say a two masted scooner West of Jutland, half way to Scotland, under that particular sky, you'd know why the vikings respected the god of thunder. 😉
It is similar here, in Vancouver. One day is sunny and then it starts to rain for next 30 days 😛
Originally posted by gdare:
That's a bit of an exaggeration. :irked:
Remember June? Ok, it was not 30 days in a row but it was a lot more than usual :left:
You should try, maybe you'll like it 😀
Beautiful scenery! :)I have never been camping, but I would like to. 🙂
I'm with Carlos on this one, Darko. My idea of roughing it is staying at a Motel 6, although I'd probably like camping if it was sunny. And warm. And close to a diner. 😆
😆
Dennis, most of our places had all of that you mentioned: it was sunny and warm (40C – 104F in Pemberton area :ko: ) and diner couldn't be closer – few meters from our tent. Of course, you need to make it yourself :chef: 😛
Well, If I made my own dinner, I wouldn't have to leave a tip! :yes: