West Coast Power Outage

The post for today is written but I can't post it because the power has been out all along the Pacific Rim. It is now approaching nine hours and we are starting to get concerned our beer might get warm.

Tofino: 110.8 km
Cumulative distance: 1860 km
Maximum speed: 97 kph
Moving average: 55 kph
Overall average: 58 kph
Moving time: 2:02
Total time: 2:17

Got power back at 7 this morning. Pictures tonight, including the great fireworks display!

As per usual, it is foggy and on the cool side. Nan and I start with a walk on the beach with our morning coffees and we decide we need to see if we can find some sunshine somewhere.

Good morning, Chesterman Beach!

After a bite of breakfast, we jump on the bike and head south to Ucluelet. Amazingly, we get fifty feet from our house on Chesterman Beach and we are in sunshine. It is still on the cool side with the temperature alternating between 14 and 19, depending on whether we are in sun or shade but for the most part, along the highway we are in sunshine.

Honest! Those are shadows in this picture!

On the way, we stop at a few points of interest on the way.  One such stop is Combers Beach, like "Beach Combers" only no “Relic”. The hike down to the beach is through rain forest and everything is covered in a serious amount of moss.  It is in Pacific Rim National Park so the area is maintained by Parks Canada; there are signs that Parks has ripped out old wooden walking paths and constructed replacements but it is eerie to see the old paths leading to nowhere.  I always assume abandoned anything is haunted because why else would you abandon a perfectly good whatever and so in this case, no doubt some former logger has been felled by the tree he has cut down in some weird form of Karma. Certainly, there are tree stumps around, evidence of past logging activity but it has probably been many, many decades as the tree stumps in most cases are sporting very large trees that have taken root in the old stumps. 
 

We reach the beach and it’s in fog. But there are people on the beach walking or picnicking and a few surfers.  There is a tangled mess of driftwood logs and trees that are guarding the edge of the beach from the forest. It looks like it would be difficult passage for any invading army but I doubt that was the intention.

We also stop and look through a Parks Canada campground.  The sign says “full” so we just zoom by the entrance building so that we don’t have to explain that we are just checking it out. Someone is at the gate trying to talk his way into the campground.  It’s a beautiful campground and the camp sites are large and spaced out.  However, this is in the rainforest, too, so campers are almost always in trees and there is no sun anywhere. I think that people would have to be fairly well equipped because it is so cold.

This is what Zoe's looks like. Not on Main Street.

Ucluelet is bigger than Tofino though it seems a little less tourist-developed. Not to say that it is NOT touristy, just not so overt. We need a place to get some lunch and we ride through a lot of the town looking for something suitable and eventually settle on Zoe’s Bakery and Café. YOU SHOULD EAT THERE! We walk in and even though there are several customers and staff the place is quiet and there are no lights on. I am thinking that this is some kind of weird, “we don’t use electricity because it is not environmentally friendly” thing because out here, you just never know.  We have seen so many hitch hikers, hippies and people living off the grid, simply drifting from one joint to the next, that we don’t even realize that we are part of the establishment anymore. We don’t say anything to anybody that might risk us of being labeled “environmental haters” or something because we have a combustion engine on the motorcycle or our house has been framed with wood.  We don’t want to be bludgeoned with baby seal bones.

You might have guessed that I am Zoe's newest, biggest fan.

As it turns out, the power is off. Not just for Zoe but for the entire Pacific Rim. Nan texts her sister in Tofino and the power has been off there some time.  For our intrepid café owner, a little power outage is no big deal, unless you want a latte. Her husband Peter, a month on-month off Canadian Coast Guard guy, whips up the sandwich special of the day, which is chicken pesto with alfalfa sprouts on homemade bread. Really delicious.  Then we have rhubarb-strawberry-raspberry pie. The crust is made with butter and it is very flaky. Nan’s piece has a crumble on top. We are enjoying ourselves so much that we throw all caution to the wind and split a piece of carrot cake.  It seemed to make so much sense at the time...to have a "food baby" but we later regretted it but it was really good. I.E. it made no sense.

Any time you are away from home and can get something as good as home, or better, you better take advantage of it.

That`s Zoe on the left. The ``V`machine, she explains, is for Pilades...

 In the back of my mind, I am thinking about getting gas for the bike. While we are riding around Ucluelet, the gas warning light has flickered a couple of times. I know this is an indication that it is getting low but we are probably not on fumes yet since we would likely get a “false signal” from riding up and down the hills (I know you think you know where this is heading but it is not heading there).  However, it is far enough away to the Tofino gas station that I am concerned there is a chance we can’t make it. This year though, I started carrying a siphon pump in my gear so in an emergency, we could get gas out of something, as long as we had a willing contributor.  My concern is that the gas station will likely have lots of gas, just not accessible without power. Our plan is that failing gas, we will ride as far to Tofino as we can and if we run out of gas, we will call somebody at the house to drive to us so that we can siphon gas from them. Actually, that`s my plan. No point in having TWO people worried. As it turns out, the local PetroCan station has a generator going and they can pump regular gas. In fact, the tank only takes 22.5 litres, so we were really nowhere near running dry as we have over two litres left.

We ride back to Tofino as Nan wants to pick up a gift for some people but the place she wants to shop is closed due to the power outage. We have to pick up whole, organic milk for our 13 month old grandnephew and the Co-op has a generator and can run a few lights and the tills. The freezer section is covered in blue blankets so I get the sense they have been through this before.

Back at the house, our people are out walking or out and about. Nan and I walk along the beach. The power has been out for about four hours and it is quaint. Fortunately, the sun is out and while it is not real warm, the sunshine goes a long way.

These are Chesterman Beach photos...

...which is the beach where we are staying.

These are rare photos....

...taken in the absence of fog.

 By 9:00 pm, we have eaten, having barbequed burgers and a nice, fresh sockeye. When I say “fresh”, I don’t mean, “caught, sat around a boat for three days, sat around a packing plant for two days, flown to a wholesaler in Edmonton, distributed to the retail store where it is labeled “packed fresh today”. This fish was caught yesterday. There is a difference. 

By 10:00 pm, the novelty of the power outage is wearing thin for some people. There is not much to do about it though. We have organized flash lights for everybody here (for the record, there are about 16 people staying tonight) and at least people will be able to find the bathroom, if nothing else.

That is Wikkaninish Inn in the distance.

So, here is what happened after the last paragraph. Nan's nephew Justin had organized some fireworks for the family and had set them up on the beach. Originally, the fireworks were meant to be for Thursday night but one of his visiting friends had to leave Thursday morning, so he elected to put the show on for Wednesday night. It was nothing short of epic, as you will see from some photos below.

Pre-launch mode.

Who ever get`s tired of fireworks!