Day 2 (September 17, 2021): Chemainus, Coombs and Campbell River

We woke and looked out the hotel window, only to confirm our fear:  torrential rain.  Well, it rained.  And rained and rained and then rained some more.  Rain makes it tough for taking pics, and the fog that often accompanies it -- as it did today -- makes it impossible to even see the sights.  

After breakfast at Dennys, we set off for the drive up-island, with our ultimate destination for today being Campbell River.  The Trans-Canada Highway extends as far as the Nanaimo Ferry Terminal.  The rest of the route north to Campbell River is BC Route 19.  The traffic on both was incredibly heavy, but at least the route is divided all the way.

We stopped in Chemainus to see about half of the murals that adorn the town.  We had scheduled to meet my cousin and her husband at a German cafe in Coombs (halfway up-island) at noon.  After a great catch-up lunch, we continued on to Campbell River, arriving just after 3PM.  We checked into our hotel, visited the Museum of Campbell River, had dinner at a local pub, and took a swim in the hotel pool.  Despite the rain, it was a good day!

A typical logging truck on the highway near Duncan.  The logs are simply huge!

Vertical tree harvester.  Another key development in the history of harvesting the Pacific Northwest's extremely tall trees.

THE MURALS OF CHEMAINUS:

In the early 1980s, the small town of Chemainus lost its mill, and the town seemed destined to spiral into oblivion.  That is, until the idea of adorning the town's buildings with murals.  There are now approximately 45 murals all over town, which draw tourists in droves.  It was an incredible vision to save a town, and the tourism model that has evolved in the almost-40 years since then has proven to be solid.  We saw roughly half of the murals in the pouring rain.

The town's post office.

The murals share the town's history, including key figures in the town's development.

Indigenous culture and history are prevalent in the murals' themes.

Some murals incorporate sculptures

 



Even the local Subway is in on the action!

As you can see, the murals are huge - notice how the car is dwarfed by the mural's size.

On the town's thrift shop

And on one of the hotels in town.

COOMBS:

At the BoMe Cheese production facility, a batch of cheese curds was in production.


The highlight of today was lunch with my cousin, Shelley, and her husband, Peter, from Port Alberni.  It was a wonderful time of catching up - the first time we had seen them in 13 years.

MUSEUM OF CAMPBELL RIVER:

Totem pole at the Museum of Campbell River.

Cross-section of a Douglas Fir, which was 1034 years old at the time of being felled.  The tree was 155 feet high and measured eight feet at the base.

Early logging truck.

Early chainsaw.

Pioneer's cabin from the Campbell River area.

A 'floathouse', which had been used in the early 20th century in the Campbell River area.

 

Five types of Pacific salmon.

Gill net fishing was a significant aspect of the salmon fishing industry for a large part of the 20th century.  The technique involved a "net wall" being towed by a boat.  Salmon would become entangled in the net wall by their gills.

Model of a seine vessel, which was the 20th century workhorse in the salmon fishing industry in the Campbell River area.

In the early 20th century, there were over 30 canneries in the northern part of Vancouver Island.  This stack of cans shows the diversification of salmon varieties that were canned here during each decade from 1880 to 1940.  Yellow cans are sockeye.  As sockeye stocks began to decline, other varieties had to fill the gap.  The advent of onboard refrigeration meant that canning operations could be consolidated, so the small local cannery operations began to die out.

This is a "steam donkey".  In the history of logging development, one of the key challenges was getting trees from the point where they were felled to the mill.  With the advent of steam in the late 1800s, the steam donkey replaced teams of oxen and became a key tool to move logs. By the early 1900s, there were a few thousand steam donkeys at work in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Logs that have washed up on the shores of Campbell River, as well as logs floating offshore.  It reminded me of a common scene in the famous CBC series, "The Beachcombers".  Quadra Island is in the background.

Medusa? Octopus Lady? Not sure which! (An entry in the local chainsaw carving competition.)