RON, SOPHIE, & MAPLE: HAVE A WONDERFUL TRIP!
Day 249 – It was partly sunny this morning. Supposed to rain later, so we were on the road before 9 a.m. When driving out of the campground this morning, we saw that many campsites had cleared out. Although the campground was supposed to be full this weekend, we think the weather is stopping people from sticking around.
We drove into the town of Lake Cowichan, a pretty little lake town surrounded by mountains. There’s something about these lake towns in the mountains, with all the trees that go all the way to shoreline, they sure are inviting! And bordering the rivers that flow from the lake, there are cute houses with little docks. Sometimes the cute little houses have been replaced by a huge, modern-style mansion, but normally those houses are found in newer developments. And the cute little cottages with their gardens and their docks remain as they’ve been for many years.
We had wanted to drive all the way around the large Lake, and not knowing what the weather would do, we decided to go ahead and drive. We went around the north side first and the road was paved for a little bit. A very nice little town. Then the forest became denser again and the signs for new housing developments began. They are building like crazy here. We drove through a couple of the developments. The houses, like most we’ve seen on Vancouver Island, were tastefully done – not outrageously showing off wealth, but more modern-style cottages probably for seasonal recreational use. The views out over the lake were outstanding.
The road was soon gravel and with the recent rains, there were big puddles and some potholes. We were determined to drive all the way around the lake, but because it was a logging road and the road was narrow in places, we had to be careful. The logging trucks, when they passed by, took up the whole road and we always hoped for enough space to pull over to the side. Bridges were always one-lane bridges.
The scenery was gorgeous. There were several forest service campgrounds and we stopped and drove through, but we didn’t look at them all because the road was just too rough to bring the RV in and we knew we couldn’t camp at any of them.
Back around the south side of the lake, there were a couple of small, actually tiny towns, then we entered the other side of the town of Lake Cowichan. We had lunch at Jake’s on the Lake on the outdoor patio overlooking the lake. It was a little cool and breezy and the dark clouds signaled that rain was on the way. We ran a few errands in town: got gas in the Honda and propane for the RV, and stopped at a BC Liquor store and got Rob some beer. Then we headed back to the RV. We sat outside in the screened tent until that threatening rain storm arrived, making the campground muddier than it already was.