We spent ten days total travelling through British Columbia. We made our way from Alberta to Vancouver Island and back. I don't think there was a day where we weren't somewhere beautiful. It was great.
I've done that trip a few times. If you're all the way out to Vancouver Island again make a day trip over to Saltspring Island. I was just there again this past weekend. It's a pretty cool island. Brings you back in time a little.
I actually have been to Saltspring Island. It's been quite a few years and I never had my camera last time. It's definitely time to go back again. It was a beautiful place.
My uncle has a cabin there. We went and stayed years ago. It was a really cool trip. We went to one of my uncle's friends houses and took a rowboat over to a little island and went clamming. The little island we rowed over to was just a rock popping out of the ocean with a little bit of sand around it but I remember my uncle saying something about it being a park or something.
We had clam chowder that night and the next day we hiked up to a lake. It was about a half hour walk through the bush. On the way to the lake we passed through an old overgrown orchard. That was kind of neat to see out in the middle of the bush. I think my uncle said the lake was where Ganges got their water supply from. The lake shore was a rock overhang with a fairly steep bank coming down. Someone had set up a rope swing to swing into the lake. We spent a good part of the day there swimming and hanging out by the lake.
Next to the cabin my uncle had a treehouse. It was a 10' x 10' garden shed suspended 80' up in between two trees. He had it hanging from cables. It was probably the coolest tree house I've been in (although I know there are way cooler ones).
Since the last time I was there he lowered the tree house down and expanded it. They rent out the cabin we stayed in last time and the tree house got expanded into the new cabin. I'm sure my uncle would let us stay there if we were out visiting. I just have to make the trip again. It's been over 20 years and I'm sure the island has changed since then.
Thanks for the idea. It's always good to hear new places to check out. Saltspring Island is on my list for the future.
Digital cameras weren't around back then. I was off on my calculations. It was closer to 30 years. Sorry about that. Time flies.
I'm going to see if my mother got any pictures. She's always taking photos on vacations. There's a good chance she has a picture in an album somewhere. I keep thinking about whether we have a picture of it myself. Especially since the treehouse as it was is essentially gone now.
Like most things you take pictures of, I'm sure the photo is less impressive. It's hard to capture the real appearance of things that are tall and steep in photographs for some reason.
I remember taking pictures of steep ski hills thinking how impressive it would be to show people. When I actually had a good look at the pictures I didn't end up showing the pictures to anyone because it didn't look steep at all in the photo. In reality I was wondering how I was going to get down from where I was at.
My uncle had a story about riding out a storm in that treehouse. He was sleeping in it for some reason and woke up to a storm. He had to ride it out until the storm ended because it was too dangerous to try and come down. The treehouse was suspended between two trees from a cable and the ladder was on a third tree not attached to the treehouse. The storm was what was left of a hurricane that came up the coast from the USA. That would have been a wild night.
There were some good stories to go with the things we saw. I wish I had pictures to post from that trip.
We spent ten days total travelling through British Columbia. We made our way from Alberta to Vancouver Island and back. I don't think there was a day where we weren't somewhere beautiful. It was great.
I've done that trip a few times. If you're all the way out to Vancouver Island again make a day trip over to Saltspring Island. I was just there again this past weekend. It's a pretty cool island. Brings you back in time a little.
I actually have been to Saltspring Island. It's been quite a few years and I never had my camera last time. It's definitely time to go back again. It was a beautiful place.
My uncle has a cabin there. We went and stayed years ago. It was a really cool trip. We went to one of my uncle's friends houses and took a rowboat over to a little island and went clamming. The little island we rowed over to was just a rock popping out of the ocean with a little bit of sand around it but I remember my uncle saying something about it being a park or something.
We had clam chowder that night and the next day we hiked up to a lake. It was about a half hour walk through the bush. On the way to the lake we passed through an old overgrown orchard. That was kind of neat to see out in the middle of the bush. I think my uncle said the lake was where Ganges got their water supply from. The lake shore was a rock overhang with a fairly steep bank coming down. Someone had set up a rope swing to swing into the lake. We spent a good part of the day there swimming and hanging out by the lake.
Next to the cabin my uncle had a treehouse. It was a 10' x 10' garden shed suspended 80' up in between two trees. He had it hanging from cables. It was probably the coolest tree house I've been in (although I know there are way cooler ones).
Since the last time I was there he lowered the tree house down and expanded it. They rent out the cabin we stayed in last time and the tree house got expanded into the new cabin. I'm sure my uncle would let us stay there if we were out visiting. I just have to make the trip again. It's been over 20 years and I'm sure the island has changed since then.
Thanks for the idea. It's always good to hear new places to check out. Saltspring Island is on my list for the future.
Sounds like a great trip. Having a local to show you around really helps to find the special spots.
If it's been 20 years it will look about the same. But for Saltspring a lot has actually changed.
Well worth bumping up the vacation list. It's a little easier to get there from Vancouver now as well so that is helpful if driving out.
Oh and that tree house 80 ft in the air sounds awesome. Too bad you didn't have a photo of that.
Digital cameras weren't around back then. I was off on my calculations. It was closer to 30 years. Sorry about that. Time flies.
I'm going to see if my mother got any pictures. She's always taking photos on vacations. There's a good chance she has a picture in an album somewhere. I keep thinking about whether we have a picture of it myself. Especially since the treehouse as it was is essentially gone now.
Like most things you take pictures of, I'm sure the photo is less impressive. It's hard to capture the real appearance of things that are tall and steep in photographs for some reason.
I remember taking pictures of steep ski hills thinking how impressive it would be to show people. When I actually had a good look at the pictures I didn't end up showing the pictures to anyone because it didn't look steep at all in the photo. In reality I was wondering how I was going to get down from where I was at.
My uncle had a story about riding out a storm in that treehouse. He was sleeping in it for some reason and woke up to a storm. He had to ride it out until the storm ended because it was too dangerous to try and come down. The treehouse was suspended between two trees from a cable and the ladder was on a third tree not attached to the treehouse. The storm was what was left of a hurricane that came up the coast from the USA. That would have been a wild night.
There were some good stories to go with the things we saw. I wish I had pictures to post from that trip.
Everything on Salt Spring is magical and makes for a great story and some great memories. Sounds like you need a trip back there for sure.