Timberline RV Park, and exploring a bit of Earl’s Cove and Egmont
After reaching Earl’s Cove by ferry on Day 40 of the trip, June 4th, I got a camp site at Timberline RV Park, and then drove to Egmont to see if I could get on a boat tour to Princess Louisa Inlet.
Picking Timberline RV Park as a place to stay for 2 nights was a shot in the dark. I could find no reviews, and their Web site isn’t very descriptive. Directions to find it were simple even with tiny signs pointing the way, but the road to it was a surprise. While paved, it’s very steep, and has some tight turns – there’s a bluff on one of those turns that hides any oncoming traffic. The road is also barely 2 lanes wide. But I made it. Turning into the driveway, I decided that they don’t get many large rigs 🙂
In front of either the office or a rental cabin (it turned out to be the latter) were simple directions: “Check in here. $35.00 per night cash or credit cards. Electricity. Sewer Hook-up. Water. Wi-fi. No camping available. Feel free to choose site 2 or 3 or 4. Someone will come by later to take your payment.”
A sign at the end of the driveway says that there are 10 sites on 7 acres, that long term rates are available, and that reservations are highly advised. From the 3 sites available, 2 was the easy choice, being the only one that’s well separated from a long-term trailer.
Looking across the other 2 available sites towards the rest of the campground. I can see that this would be a good setup for someone in Earl’s Cove long-term.
I had looked at booking the Princess Louisa Inlet tour online that morning, but decided that since I wanted to go the next day, I’d just go and book in person. Sunshine Coast Tours is based in Egmont, about 8 km (5 mi) from the RV park, 6 km from this turn off Highway 101. “Home of the Skookumchuck Rapids” – I had heard about them all my life, but hadn’t given them any thought until seeing the sign
A view of the coast from the Egmont Road. Damn fine country!
Egmont is a confusing maze of little roads, as are most if not all of these little harbour communities. I stopped at a map that showed the location of Sunshine Coast Tours, but I couldn’t find them. When I went into the Backeddy Marina reception, I found out why. They don’t have an office and their boat isn’t it. I was going to leave and go back to the RV and book online. Luckily, another woman who had overheard the first conversation asked if I wanted to book a tour. When I said “yes”, she said that she could book it for me. Success. The next photo was shot right outside the Backeddy Marina office and pub. Stunning.
At the Egmont turnoff is a small parking lot signed “Suncoaster Trail”. I hadn’t heard ot it, so decided to take Bella and Tucker for a look.
The trail, which is a very old logging road, starts off level and in thick forest, then climbs and and down in the open for a bit. The sun was very warm – too warm for Bella.
When we reached this point and I could see a long steep uphill ahead, with no reward like a lake ahead as far as I knew, we turned back. A 4 k walk was a decent afternoon jaunt for the kids. It was now 1:45, and I had a plan for a late lunch / early dinner.
I took Bella and Tucker back to the motorhome for a nap, and I returned to Egmont, to the Backeddy Pub. They have a house beer made by Townsite Brewing in Powell River. What could be better than a cold beer and a view like this?
How about a burger with goat cheese and bacon? Yuuuum! I’m being really bad this year, not cooking much at all. When I’m almost always close to places with unique food, why would I not take advantage of the opportunities? This meal really was notably good. Not just the food and drink, the entire experience was absolutely superb.
Just after I arrived at the pub, this gorgeous Turbo Beaver, C-GMNT, arrived and taxied over to a private island near the marina. About 45 minutes later, it left. I noticed something about it that has me scratching my head. Over the front float strut is a Wardair logo. I overheard a fellow at the next tabe say that the island is owned by a real estate developer, and I see online that the plane is owned by somebody in Langley, BC. What is the Wardair connection??
Heading back to Timberline, I decided to make a detour to check out a Recreation Site on the North Lake Road. The lake is quite pretty, and there are lots of homes along it.
When the sign just said that the Recreation Site was “ahead”, I turned around. In BC, it could be a long way ahead, and I was just mildly curious.
Timberline proved to be an excellent base for exploring. There are endless walking routes on old logging roads, and we never saw a vehicle even on the paved road past the RV park. The trees had shielded the rig from the sun so the kids were all comfortable when I got back from Egmont. At 8:00 that night, Bella and Tucker and I went out for another wander. The cabin next to our site now had an occupant.
A couple of blocks away there’s a very interesting property. This start on a stone castle was done many years ago, and the acre or so property has large concrete pillars for a fence all around it. I wonder why progress stopped. It reminded me, though, that back in the ’60s and early ’70s, the Sunshine Coast was Hippie Heaven, as well as draft-dodger heaven, and interesting characters abounded. The Sunshine Coast still has plenty of interesting characters, it seems – little “Hobbit houses” are seen scattered all through the forests.
At the back of the RV park there’s a multi-acre play area, but the grass was too long to be much fun. A sign on the red “toy box” at the right says “Please take down one side of net at night so elk don’t get caught in it.”
We hadn’t seen elk yet, but deer had come by twice already. These ones were in front of the rig just after we returned from our walk at about 9:00 pm.
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