Quading In Tofino
Quading in Tofino by Warren and Janice Brubacher.
Janice and I recently invested in an ATV for our Tantalus View Retreat, homestead. It is the 'Harley Davidson' of all quads and as far as I know, the only quad out there designed for ultimate comfort with passenger in mind. It is the CanAm 800cc., MaxXT(with all the bells and whistles)
We'd been planning a quading vacation all year and managed to coordinate Becky, Jay and their little girl, Emily into taking their vacation time managing our Retreat while away to Tofino. On a beautiful, sunny September day we set sail (by ferry) for Vancouver Island, up Hwy 4, past Cathedral Grove and on down to the Wild Pacific Coast. We pre-booked a rustic, secluded cabin for our 5 night stay right on the shore of Browning Passage, just before the town of Tofino. We had the entire Pacific Rim Provincial Park practically to ourselves to hike the endless beaches and old growth trails with the tourist season almost to an end. The backroads into the Tofino Inlet and Clayoquat Arm were our chosen areas to explore by quad on our fair weather days. Monday, September 24th, our first morning, we woke up to a dreary, misty day. We decided to play the part of tourists and walk some of the trails and beaches in the park.
Long Beach, we found is very well named. It is an endless strip of driftwood and sand that looks very much the same from end to end. Imagine what it must be like in mid-summer.....wall to wall people. 800,000 tourists come here each year. I wonder how much of that number come to storm watch? Peak month for storm-watching is March. Next, we drove up to the war memorial on Radar Hill. A short walk from the parking area took us to a wonderful viewpoint where we could look up the pennisula toward Tofino and Clayoquat Sound. Up here the trees are all stunted and the domineering undergrowth makes for an impassable jungle. We were told by a local dirt biker that an hour hike nearby will take you to an old bomber crash site. It is these unmarked trails that are extremely vulnerable to erosion as they soon turn into new watercourses. Janice wanted to do some beachcombing for shells, pebbles and small driftwood so we chose for our next walk a trail that led us through old growth cedar, hemlock, fir and Sitka Spruce and down onto Florencia Beach. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.........this is more like it!
As the tide receded, we found tidal pools, shell and pebble dunes and driftwood. A beachcombers paradise. The park officials frown on people taking this stuff with them. I guess with the shear numbers here, in high season, the beaches would be picked clean of cool stuff to look at. We kept our pickin's to a minimum. We made the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre our final stop of the day. This bay has extremely strong rip tides that can carry away even the most experienced surfer. Warning signs are posted. Here, we were able to study topographic maps and a large model of the coast and mountains. Of particular interest was the color coding that showed us the best areas we could quad in old growth forest. We wanted to avoid clearcuts. We were able to also make decisions as to how far we would drive the truck before off-loading our quad.
Day two, Tuesday, the weather improved as the day progressed. After picking up a backroads map from the Info Centre at the Junction to Ucluelet, we headed up the Kennedy Lake west main for about 20km. We off-loaded the quad near Berryman Point, Tofino Inlet. Here the road narrowed and we were soon quading along the shores of the Inlet through mostly old growth cedar stands with the occasional eye-popping view of the water and her islands.
Words cannot describe the beauty of it all.
Being an artist in 'wildwood', I found most of the trees here are of the wild nature meaning very twisted. Back home in Squamish I have to search for these trees. Here I'd have to search for the straight ones.
Wind-blown pine on the rocky bluffs remind me of those African plains trees.
Me thinks maybe the Charlottes next summer.
Tofino Creek at the end of the Tofino Inlet has a splendid waterfalls. It is called the Virgin Falls and we set out this day hoping to find it. At the first bridge crossing we spotted a pair of eagles feeding on the river.
About 8km furthur upstream we found the Virgin Falls. A small path led us through giant Sitka spruce from the bridge. Someone had made a driftwood hut. Very common here on the coast.
Sitka Spruce
We continued on from the falls to a fork in the road. The sign says Tofino pointing in the wrong direction. How can that be?
The road came to a grassy end with fresh bear scat everywhere. Time to head back.
This giant, candelebra cedar snag stands majestically over the second growth and the distant road from which we came.
By mid-afternoon and half way back to the truck the skies are clearing giving a new perspective over the waters of Tofino Inlet.
We put over 74 km on the quad this day and only used a quarter of a tank of gas. We rarely needed low range or 4 wheel drive on this trek making for excellent fuel economy. Once back to the Junction, we decided to check out the town of Ucluelet. At the end of the pennisula we found the lighthouse and the 'Wild Pacific Trail'. This is Barkley Sound off this point and the Broken Islands way in the distance.
Memorial benches along the Wild Pacific Trail.
Absolutely glorious day of wild, Pacific west coast scenes from ocean to Inlet.
We were so exhilarated from our eventful day that I suggested to Janice we treat ourselves to a fabulous meal at the Wickaninnish Inn. I could just picture ourselves sitting in their glassed-in restaurant located right out on the point and watching the sun go down over the Pacific Ocean. We pulled into the very ritzy looking lodge; walked in looking very grubby and I could see Janice looking incredibly uncomfortable amongst the high-class clientelle. She was signalling me to exit this joint quickly. One look at the menu podium on the way out was enough to convince me she was right. Seventeen dollars for a salad ! Probably of the ornamental variety too. Oh well, we got a glimpse of how the wealthy live anyway. We carried on down the highway into Tofino and found a seafood restaurant next to the fisherman's wharf. The waiter suggested we couldn't go wrong with the 'cedar plank salmon' dish. Fresh, wild coho. I replied back, "if you can't get fresh seafood in Tofino, where can you get it." It was the driest salmon I have ever tasted. About the texture of an old cedar board. Oh well, the ambiance was incredible with a gorgeous view of the sun going down on one side of us and a huge, full moon coming up over Meares Island on our left through a large portal window.
