November 15, 2023
We went hunting. Not with a gun but with my GPS. But our expedition to find the largest Western Red Cedar in Canada, was not successful. We did find Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, in a very remote area by the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on the west coast, that is only accessable by logging roads that are full of potholes.
We got up at 4:30am to catch the 7:00am ferry. We made it with not a minute to spare. Once at Swartz Bay, Case insisted on taking the Brentwood ferry across Mill Bay, even though it meant waiting another 45 minutes since we'd just missed the last one.
We did a pretty walk along the ocean.
Love the smooth red-orange bark of the Arbutus trees.
We left Hwy 1 and turned onto Hwy 18 to Cowichan Lake. From the west side of the lake we went west from Gordon Bay campground. After about 30 minutes on South Shore Rd, we turned left onto Kissenger bipass Rd which turned into Nitinat Main. Then we did a left turn on South Main and crossed the Caycuse River. An immediate right got us onto Rosander Main. After about 29 km we finally arrived at Carmanah Walbran PP, after staying left at a fork in the road. This was a 2.5 hour drive from Cowichan Lake. We couldn't drive any faster than 40km per hour. So by the time we got there it was already 3:00pm which gave us only 1:30 hours to hike the trail in the park before dark.
The boardwalks were wet and very slippery.
The Heaven tree.
Stoltman Grove.
The campsite has fallen into a state of disrepair, as well as the trail and wooden walkways. But the old-growth trees were amazing!
No we didn't find the Cheewhat Giant. Apparently the trail is not even visible from the logging road. But I'm armed with more knowlege now, even though locals we talked to told us they knew where it was, but didn't want to tell us. I'm just that much more determined to find it.
To be continued...
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