Day 4: Cathedral Grove

October 15, 2021

Dodie had taken the assignment of responding to all people's kind comments. But though she claimed yesterday's ride was fine, she conked out really early. There could be more time today, as you will see as you read on.

Finding that our motel is not offering its advertised "continental breakfast", I walked over to McDonald's. This means I have now exhausted the culinary prospects of the immediate neighbourhood.

I also got to look at our surroundings in the cold light of morning. I like doing this on tours. The excitement and mystery of a new place in evening is replaced by delivery trucks and people going to work, which is interesting as well. This time, though, it looked pretty much the same.

The weather forecast yesterday, and everyone we talked to, warned of torrential rains coming today (and tomorrow). This sounded serious enough (a five raindrop event on the little weather forecast graphic!) that we arranged with our friends the Price's to make our planned meetup into a drive to Cathedral Grove. As of this 9 a.m. writing there is no sign of rain. Could it turn out disappointingly dry? Tune back in this evening to see what happened!

We made it to Coombs and Cathedral Grove. Stay tuned for the whole story...

We kept looking for the promised deluge, but things stayed frustratingly quite dry. Sue and Jim arrived, and we set off with them in their van, with a keen eye to road conditions to see how it would have been had we been cycling. A light rain came, and things did not look too pleasant for biking, though not terrible. We did spy some heavy traffic and spots where the shoulder was very narrow or non-existent, so overall we were glad to be riding in luxury with friends.

Just 10 km from Parksville is the little town of Coombs. There is a rail trail out that far, and we stopped to have a look at it. It's nice, but again its just a short bit, installed beside the rail line.

The road alternative to the rail trail. Not so great.

Coombs is a self conscious and very interesting little tourist stop, that actually features some very good and not ticky tacky stuff. The grocery has a huge variety of specialty foods, there is a great fruit and vegetable vendor, a decent restaurant, and more. However Coombs also plays to tourists with stuff like this:

And shops like this:

There is a square with impressive solid stone statues. I am not sure if these are for sale as garden ornaments or what. But you would need a forklift to move one at all.

Dodie with Sue and Jim Price in the statue square. It was great (and reasonably easy) to be able to meet up with the Price's this day. We are talking about a much trickier to arrange get together at the Bodensee next year!

The real trademark of Coombs is the market buildings with grass roofs, and goats!

Buildings at Coombs market feature grass roofs, with goats!

The trademark goats on the roof at Coombs

Inside, the main market has a great selection of stuff.

Candied salmon is a really characteristic treat for this region. The market had an unusually large selection of types, including these.

Also in Coombs, beside the food market, is a donut shop. Sue made a bee line for this. The reason is clear - the quality is #1 and the selection of at least twelve types is innovative.

Here is the complete "menu":

A woman walking by as I took this photo laughed, and I asked her what was so funny. She replied that the Dirty Dozen looked like a gimmick to sell stuff to tourists. Silly lady, does not appreciate culinary artistry! Let her eat at Tim Horton's (yuck).

Stay tuned, as we now head out to Cathedral Grove:

Cathedral Grove is at the end of Cameron Lake, which in itself is extremely lovely. The Price's have kayaked on the lake, but didn't find a spot to pull the boats out near the grove.

In Germany we enjoyed recording all the "gefahr's", or danger warnings. But for sure they can not advise you to watch out for a tree taller than the Tower of Pisa falling on your head!

By the grove entrance, an "orange shirt". The orange shirt in Canada has become a remembrance of the indigenous children who died in residential schools.

The grove trail is relatively short, though there are longer walks layed out all around.

This tree is estimated at 800 years old. Most are just 300 years old, having started out after a fire at that time.

My camera is not that great at capturing difficult subjects, like a grove of giant trees. Here is one shot I stole from the internet. I have also seen great ones pointed straight up a tree.

Here is my source for the Tower of Pisa comment.

This interesting stump is sign posted as still alive. Though it has no leaves it is receiving nourishment from the roots of the nearby tree. The old growth forests are of course wonderlands of biology and full of things worth studying and preserving.

I must confess, however, that I again did not fully feel the "life force" of the trees, as I have done in the Carmanah Valley. I would have to go back to Carmanah to see if the problem is with the trees or me. I would bet on me being at fault - maybe too old. For the trees, the time between now and my last visit is just a blink in their life spans. But look, even today, being by the lake and with these trees was wonderful. And as far as World Class goes, only on the Avenue of the Giants, in California, can anyone see anything remotely like this.

Stay tuned for the world's most luxurious "Quality Foods" grocery....

Although never really heavy, the rain was enough for us not to linger overly at Cathedral Grove. The Price's took us back into Parksville, to a Quality Foods grocery that while not exactly Galeries Lafayette in Paris still seemed pretty world class (we must have been hungry!).

Quality Foods (QF) in Parksville is a glitzy grocery.

After showing our vaccination cards, we could go upstairs in QF, and choose seats with either a view of the outdoors or of shoppers below. This was a great place chat and to eat the sandwiches we had bought below.

Because the rain had dramatically failed to come and drown out the day, we returned to the motel and brought our bikes out. We planned to ride back to Coombs, though it was now too late to make a bicycle attempt to return to Cathedral Grove. Sue tried out Dodie's bike, as we tried to sell her on how great an ebike can be. But "feels weird" was her main comment.

The trail to Coombs was easy to find. And our route passed by our now favourite QF! The trail surface is well groomed, and it makes a really pleasant 20 km return ride.

Along the Coombs trail, a not carved eagle.

In the "carved animal" department, here along the trail is the work of a rogue chainsaw artist. This frog, of course, has no need to fear an actual train coming along.

Back at Coombs, we explored a little bit more, finding a great fruit seller among the grass roofed shops.

Showing that it is not just a tourist trap, this seller in Coombs is offering large quantities of apples. There were a number of varieties, including "Salish", a local one we had never heard of. Good quality!

This is the normal price for local "Red Russian" garlic. But the quantity on offer is also unusually large.

As I write this, at 7:30 p.m., there is not a drop of rain outside. However the forecasters remain adamant about a downpour coming.

Well, our raingear is ready and we are resting up. So let's see it!

Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 203 km (126 miles)

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Sue PriceWe had such a fun day with you today! For sure you would have made it on your own but we were happy to be able to go with you!
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Sue PriceYes, it turned out to be way more fun this way. And now we've also added QF and Coombs donuts to our favourites list!
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2 years ago