For her 18th birthday (last July), we had offered to organize a trip for our niece Mackenzie to come to Vancouver for a week or so. We finally got the trip organized around Christmas time, and she decided she wanted to come out in February - much to our surprise. As it turned out, she picked a good week! We had snow just before she arrived and a high pressure system settled in that gave us cold temperatures and sunny skies.
Heading over to Galiano. We were in for pretty spectacular views after the recent snow.
I suspect this trip will need a series of posts to cover our various adventures while Mackenzie was with us. Her flight came into Vancouver on Friday afternoon, but was delayed a couple of hours leaving Toronto. We were heading over to Galiano on the afternoon ferry, so timing ended up being a little bit tighter than we had planned. But it all worked out. After I picked her up at the airport, we headed home, grabbed Justine and all of our things for the weekend, then turned around and headed for the ferry.
We arrived to very snowy conditions at the cottage.
In catching the afternoon ferry, it meant that we could arrive in the daylight, which meant we were able to see how much snow we had received. It wasn’t a lot (at least compared to what Toronto’s getting hammered with), but it’s more than we usually get, and with the prolonged cold snap ahead f us, it was going to stick around for at least another week.
We didn’t have a lot to do on Friday afternoon and evening. It was mostly just getting unpacked and organized, getting a fire going to warm the place up, and then settling in for a relaxing evening.
We played a game of Ticket to Ride Europe - a rare tie between Justine and I!
Saturday morning Justine and Mackenzie slept in a bit, and we had a leisurely start to the day. After we were all up and about, we went outside to see how the day was looking and to explore the snowy conditions. We did a few chores - feeding the birds, checking on the property and such. Justine and Mackenzie tried to do some sliding on a crazy carpet Justine had bought, but the snow was pretty thick and heavy, so there was not a lot of success.
Snowy Galiano!
New signs on the trail - looking very fancy.
We then decided to go out for a short hike up to the top of Bodega Ridge. This is a pretty short hike, but all uphill from our place, up to the top of the ridge on the island. It would be interesting to see it in the snow.
The Galiano Trail Society has recently done a lot of work creating the trail that links the trails near us to the main trail at the top of the ridge. Two years ago they put in a proper trail where we used to do a hike-a-bike with our mountain bikes.
Last year they extended the trail down past the property at the end of our lane to the road below us, and then again down to the ocean on the other side. It makes for a nice trail that basically goes across the island.
There was a decent amount of snow on the trails - not enough that it made walking difficult, but enough that everything looked rather nice.
We did the short part of the trail that starts across from our driveway, working slightly uphill towards the fork where you can either follow the new trail back down, or continue on to the trail that takes you up to the ridge. We headed that way.
The trail descends a fairly sleep slope, which Justine and Mackenzie tried to slide down. Ir worked OK - but there wasn’t really enough snow for more than one run each. After that, the trail goes a short distance along the valley floor, before climbing fairly steeply up the ridge on the other side. There were a few footsteps in the snow (along with some deer tracks), but generally we were breaking new trail as we followed the little orange markers to make sure we were headed in the right direction.
The hike takes you up to the top of Bodega Ridge, with great views out over the Gulf Islands and off to Vancouver Island. It was pretty clear, and we had a nice view. We sat and enjoyed the view, as well as a couple of eagle fly overs, before heading back down and back to our place.
The map of our hike up to the top of Bodega Ridge.
After walking back down, Justine and Mackenzie took advantage of the perfect snow conditions to build some snow… creatures? We ended up with a person, a beaver and a mouse (at least that’s that they called them…). We’ll see how long they survive once things warm up.
After building the snow critters, it was time for some lunch.
After lunch we headed out for a couple more short excursions. The first stop was to drive down to Bodega Beach Drive, park in the beach access lot and walk down to the water. We were hoping for sea lions, as we often see them there. The walk is only a short one - about 1/2 a kilometer, so it’s not too bad.
Sadly, we did not find any big sea life. There were a handful of harbour seals (which are always there), and we did have 2-3 sea lions do a very fast swim by, but they were quite far out. So this stop was a bit of a strike out.
We then headed further south, about half way down the island to the other side, to do a final short walk to see what we might see. I like heading to this spot in the winter, as there’s a small creek that turns into a waterfall. But the real attraction is the crazy house that sits right over the ocean. It’s a wellness retreat, but it’s just so fun.
Sadly, there was not a lot going on in the ocean on this side of the island either. A few ducks were about, but that was about it. So it was not a long visit. We watched the water for a bit before heading home and settling in for another relaxing evening.
We didn’t get a lot of colour in the sunset, but the mountains were still looking spectacular.
The snow critters watching the sunset.