Funnily enough, until Dave told me about Quadra and
Cortes, I had never heard of them and had no idea where they were located. As I learned, Quadra and Cortes are part of
the Discovery Islands, a collection of islands between Vancouver Island and the
British Columbia mainland. The
southernmost of the Discovery Islands, including Quadra and Cortes, are
sometimes considered to be part of the Northern Gulf Islands.
A recurring theme throughout the trip was the occurrence
of unusually dry conditions for this time of year, due to two winters of low
precipitation and the beginning of a second summer of unusually high
temperatures. Dave frequently pointed to
ponds that had evaporated or were evaporating ahead of schedule, as well as
vernal streams that had already run dry and year-round creeks with low water
levels. He noted that this did not bode
well for the coming wildfire season in British Columbia, which was already far
ahead of the usual schedule.
The first day of our trip involved driving from Princeton
to Victoria. We managed to get an
earlier ferry than anticipated, and so we had more time than expected to spend
with my sister and her family in Victoria.
The next day, my Dad and I picked up Dave and began the
drive to Campbell River. After stopping
to grab a bite to eat in Campbell River, we got on the short ferry to Quadra
Island.
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| Ferry terminal in Campbell River |
I had never been on a ferry this small before. It had only one vehicle deck and was finished
loading in a few minutes.
I checked out the outside passenger deck of the
ferry. It was pretty windy, so after a
minute or two, I went back inside.
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| Approaching Quadra Island |
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| Looking back at Campbell River |
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| The Quathiaski Cove ferry terminal on Quadra Island |
In what felt like no time at all, we arrived at
Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island. We got
off the ferry and headed for the Quadra Farmers Market. It was an interesting market. The highlight for me was the stand with the
Salmonberry Butter. After sampling some,
I knew I had no choice but to buy some.
It was quite delicious.
After the market, we went to the Kay Dubois Trail. Named after a local resident, the trail is
near the southern end of Quadra Island, along the east side.
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| The Kay Dubois Trail |
The trail was a reasonably easy meander through the
woods, just tucked away from the shoreline.
The trail had numerous beach accesses.
We stopped at one and took a short break, enjoying the scenery.
Early on the trail, there was a bizarre and surreal Sitka
Spruce. The way the branches of the tree
jutted out gave it an almost spider-like appearance. There was something eerie and magical about
this tree. I’m inclined to think that it
may be related to the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter.
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| A spider-like Sitka Spruce |
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| View from a beach access |
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| Back on the Kay Dubois Trail |
The trail took us only a couple of hours to do, and soon
we were back at the jeep, heading towards Rebecca Spit. We were going to be camping at the We Wai Kai
Campsite, which is located near the spit.
After getting our tents set up, we headed to Rebecca Spit
to do the trail around it. A grassy area
on the spit was the site of a battle between two Aboriginal peoples, during
which it changed hands from the Coast Salish to the Kwakwaka’wakw. There were visible mounds on the sides of the
area that the Natives built for defensive purposes. I found it kind of interesting that such a
peaceful and pleasant place was the location of such violence.
The trail around the spit went through a forest of almost
exclusively Douglas firs. One section
had experienced a fire about ten years ago, but was in the process of
recovering.
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| On Rebecca Spit |
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| Doogie Dowler Mountain in the background (Coast Mountains on the Mainland) |
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| The Rebecca Spit Trail |
The next day we headed to Granite Bay, on the northern
end of the island, to do the hike to Newton Lake, Small Inlet, and Waiatt
Bay. The trail was originally a logging
road, but the forest has since taken it back to the point that it seems like a
normal trail now.
The first section of trail was pretty easy, going through
the woods and by a few small lakes. We
were soon at Newton Lake. We took a
short break on a swimming rock before continuing on.
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| A small lake before Newton Lake |
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| Newton Lake |
The trail to Small Inlet was quite a bit more strenuous,
descending very steeply. I was not
looking forward to coming back up it, especially given the hot weather. The last several hundred meters of the trail
to Small Inlet are in a low-lying, marshy area that crosses the creek that
drains Newton Lake and flows into Small Inlet; however, the dry conditions of
this year meant that the usually wet and muddy trail was dry and easy to hike.
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| Small Inlet |
After Small Inlet, we continued on to Waiatt Bay, which was
the site of an Aboriginal village. The
Aboriginals of Waiatt Bay cleared and tended clam beds. Evidence of this is still visible today, in
the form of a midden.
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| Waiatt Bay |
We took a lunch break at Waiatt Bay. My lunch was one of those flavoured cans of
tuna (basically cat food) and crackers.
As I was eating, I was harassed by some very aggressive wasps. One even flew into my can of tuna and
appeared to die. Then again, maybe it
was taking a nap. I don’t know. All I know is that I didn’t really want to
eat any more of my tuna after that.
After lunch we started heading back to Granite Bay. As I had anticipated, the climb from Small
Inlet to Newton Lake was horrible in the intense heat. Once we got back to the swimming rock at
Newton Lake I felt I had no choice but to jump in the lake. It was quite chilly, but it felt nice after
working up such a sweat.
After returning to the jeep, we headed to the parking lot
for the hike up Chinese Mountain. We
were going to be climbing the south peak, which seemed kind of daunting after
already having done a fairly lengthy hike.
Chinese Mountain, with its granite basalt cliffs, is quite
popular for rock climbing. Rock climbing
disagrees with my acrophobia, so I was more than happy just to be hiking.
The climb was short, but extremely intense. There were one or two places where the
footing was a little tricky, and I had to use my poles to save myself from
falling on my face on one occasion.
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| The trail up South Chinese Mountain |
I was pretty drained by the time we got to the top, but
the view was worth the effort. We were
rewarded with a view of Campbell River, Rebecca Spit, and the mountains of
Vancouver Island and the mainland. I
took many pictures and vowed to return to this place next time I visit Quadra
Island.
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| Rebecca Spit in the middle of the photo |
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| I think the climb finished me off |
The next day, we were due to leave for Cortes Island, but
we still had time for a short hike up Heriot Ridge.
The Heriot Ridge trails are located near Heriot Bay, so
they were only a short drive from our campsite.
We got on the Hope Spring Trail, and soon we were on
Heriot Ridge. The views were quite nice
and once again, I took quite a few pictures.
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| The Hope Spring Trail |
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| View from Heriot Ridge |
After descending Heriot Ridge, we proceeded to the
Gowlland Harbour Trail and entered an area with some Douglas fir trees that were
approximately 500 years old. This trail
is in a relatively flat, low-lying area and is typically very wet and muddy in
early June, but once again, it was relatively dry due to this year’s unusual
weather conditions. After stopping to
admire the trees, we turned around and headed back to the jeep, not wanting to
miss our ferry.
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| Ancient Douglas fir |
We were soon departing the Heriot Bay ferry terminal and
heading for Cortes Island and the next chapter of our adventure. While our first stint on Quadra Island had
been short, I enjoyed it immensely.
While I looked forward to Cortes, I was also looking forward to
returning to Quadra Island. It was truly
a special place.
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