Friday, September 27, 2024

Our day began at Elk Falls Provincial Park, just outside Campbell River, B.C. We planned to drive inland to Strathcona Provincial Park today, British Columbia’s oldest and largest provincial park with over 250,000 hectares of rugged wilderness. Andi wanted to get a jumpstart this morning to secure camping at Buttle Lake, as he expected it to be busy this weekend. Monday is the observed National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in British Columbia, so it’s a three-day holiday weekend.

It finally stopped raining, but there were quite a few leaves and tree debris covering the roadways as we left the Campbell River area. We passed the popular Elk Falls suspension bridge as we left the park, vowing to come back to see it when we circled through Campbell River on Sunday.

There are only two campgrounds in Strathcona Provincial Park — Buttle Lake Campground being one of them. When we arrived, there was only one other camper amongst all 86 sites so we had our choice of spots. Andi strategically picked site number 10 as it had the best clearing to the northeast for our Starlink satellite internet to work. Behind our wooded campsite was a view of the Buttle Narrows. I couldn’t believe how dry it was around the water. It looked like the lake level was down quite a bit.

The four of us walked around the campground looking for the site host so we could pay for our spot, but we couldn’t find anyone. There wasn’t a pay box at the entrance of the campground, so we agreed to go for a hike and come back later to pay.

First, we decided to walk the Three Ponds Loop Trail. Inside the woods, the trees were covered in lichen. Vancouver Island boasts the mildest climate in Canada, and is considered a temperate rainforest. We saw several unique and colorful mushrooms growing throughout the forest floor, but later a Google search told us that these mushrooms are highly poisonous. I suppose the red color is a natural indicator of danger.

This was an easy 2km trial without any elevation gain, so we still felt fresh and ready to keep exploring. We followed signs to “the beach” next, which lead us through more moody, wet forest. The size of some of some of the tree trunks were incredible — these trees had to be hundreds of years old.

Eventually, the forest cleared to an open view of Buttle Lake. Immediately, it was at least five degrees warmer in the sunshine, and we all began peeling off layers of clothing. This was the first time we’d seen the sun since we arrived on Vancouver Island.

This beach walk was not pretty. In fact, it looked as if the lake level had dropped considerably, revealing a gravel shoreline and numerous dead tree stumps that were once submerged underneath the water. The view of the mountains in the distance was nice.

The trail eventually circled back to Buttle Lake Campground. We did another walk-through the campground to look for a park ranger or campground host, but didn’t see anyone.

“Let’s go to the visitor’s centre to see what else there is to do in the park,” Andi suggested. We left a couple orange hazard markers across the entrance of our campsite to stake our claim.

The visitor’s centre wasn’t much more than a shack along the side of the road. Andi got out to talk to the park volunteer who looked like he’d been living in the woods for a while. He told Andi he’d just finished a 10-day hike in the park and saw three people total during his experience. Luckily for us, he was well-versed in the various trails and viewpoints of Strathcona Provincial Park. The volunteer recommended we check out several waterfalls nearby.

To the waterfalls! Lupin Falls wasn’t far from us, so we drove to a small parking lot at the trailhead. This wasn’t a very long hike, but it was steep as we traversed the side of a hill, grabbing onto tree roots as we climbed, to reach the falls.

Lupin Falls were roaring with the recent rains. It was a beautiful sight. I especially loved that we had the entire forest to ourselves which is so different than our experience in British Columbia’s more popular national parks.

We followed the trail back to our RV, and by now a few more cars had filled into the small parking lot. It was a tight squeeze backing our way out of the area without ripping off our jacks underneath the RV on the uneven roadway pull-off.

Next, we decided to drive south along Buttle Lake to see more of the area. Fourteen miles long, the shoreline of Buttle Lake seemed to stretch on forever. From the road, our view of the lake looked all the same but then Andi stopped to fly the drone and it gave us a whole new perspective. Wow!

The third picture of the lake with all the brown stumps shows just how much the water level is down.

Around 4:00pm, we decided to head back to Buttle Lake Campground. A few more campers had rolled into spots since we’d left this morning. I noticed our orange markers were missing from our campsite entrance — hmm? “I bet Ranger Rick has them,” Andi said. “He probably doesn’t like that we haven’t paid for our site yet.”

A few minutes later, a Strathcona park ranger drove up to our campsite. “Pack it up, kids, we’re moving somewhere else,” Andi said when he returned to the RV a few minutes later. What? Why?

Apparently, this campsite is reserved tonight, Andi informed us. I’m not sure how we would have known that considering the campsite post wasn’t marked with a reservation tag. In fact, none of the campsites in Buttle Lake Campground were marked as reserved, but apparently they were all taken for the night. The park ranger told Andi that we were supposed to check the board when we pulled in to see what was available. When Andi told him we did that, the ranger said, “Oh, well, it wasn’t updated for today yet.”

We probably could have found an open campsite in Buttle Lake Campground, but Andi said out of spite he couldn’t stay here. It’s annoying how every campground has different rules and systems for reserving sites and paying for them.

Andi looked at his iOverlander app, and found a couple bookdocking sites closer to the town of Gold River. There was only one other designated campground in Strathcona Provincial Park besides Buttle Lake, and we figured most of the sites were probably taken by now given it was a three-day holiday weekend.

Andi’s boondocking spot was located down a logging road near Heber River. “Ugh, this is the worst part,” I said as we drove down the wooded minimum-maintenance road unsure what we’d find at the end. Fortunately, this road wasn’t terribly rocky and there was a small clearing at the end to park. Bonus, that this camping spot was free and our Starlink actually worked better here!

The four of us stayed in the RV for the remainder of the evening. I made ground beef lettuce wraps for dinner, and then we watched episodes of Young Sheldon together until bedtime.

I felt a little claustrophobic tucked into the weeds at the end of this dead-end road. Two different times, trucks pulled down the narrow road to find us parked in this spot. I don’t think they were very happy that they had to reverse back out since there was nowhere to turn around.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive to the west side of Vancouver Island to a small town called Gold River & do a little exploring in that neck of the woods.