Cortes Island - September 8 - 13, 2011

                                            
                     View Of SYC Outstation in Cortes Island from Easter Bluff



For an island that is just 10 miles wide and 20 miles long, north to south, we managed to spend five fun filled days there.  We hiked  the island top to bottom, middle to the edges, inside-out,well..., you get the point.  And still, we did not get tired of Cortes.

We started our exploration in Squirrel Cove.  Upon leaving Prideaux Haven our anchor roller broke and I was quite excited by the prospect of no more anchoring until I realized we have... a second anchor.  Oh. Yea.  So we once again dropped anchor, realized we were too close to another boat, tried to raise anchor, snagged said second anchor on something, and, well, you get the  picture.

When we were finally  settled we took the dinghy to town for provisions at the grocery store.  Even once I was in the store, I was still  looking for the grocery store.  They ended up having most things we needed but cheese is not BC's strong suit - a fact I have now witnessed many times.  Nevertheless, they had fantastic tomatoes which were turned into a tomato tart on board for dinner that night.

The next morning we left for Cortes Bay, just around the the corner from Squirrel Cove, where we docked at the SYC Outstation - it had a real live dock, with electricity and everything.  It was very exciting to finally be able to just walk off the boat instead of dinghy off.



Cortes Island from Easter Bluff

Cortes Island has a Farmers Market every Friday so we hiked  5 1/2 miles to get there.  Just  before we reached "downtown" ( a community center,  cafe, two stores, and oddly enough, one was a fully stocked health food store) there was a 6.4 earthquake on neighboring Vancouver Island.  By the time we reached the town, everyone was chattering about the shaking.  Jim and I never felt it, although after 5 1/2 miles we would have attributed any ground tremors to our noodle legs.

The Farmers Market had neither farmers, flowers, fruit nor produce.  It did have an abundance of amazing baked goods and we loaded up.  Luckily, a couple we had met at our marina was there by car and gave us a ride back. 

Our days here could best be called The Invasion of the Mosquitos.  They were so viscious we had to close the windows and lock the doors.  Jim spent one evening doing a mosquito round-up with his trusty electric zapper - after 30 were downed, he  quit counting, but the bloodbath continued.  Bees plagued us as well.

                                               Bees: An Official Menance



We did a lot of hiking on Cortes Island.  One climb was up to Easter Bluff, the highest point of the island at 705 feet - but it felt much higher as we climbed.  Zippy was like a billy goat, leading the way up.

We also hiked to Whaletown - a tiny little port that had only two businesses, a US Post Office and a libraary.  Neither of which were open in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week.  Nor did they have posted hours.  Nor did they look like they ever opened.

                                                          Post Office

                                                                Library



By day 3 we had to escape the mosquitos so we  took our boat around the corner and north to Gorge Harbor, also on Cortes.  There we embarked on several hikes, one through the woods and around a lake.  Let me be clear here about these hikes.  This is not a stoll on a grassy neighborhood path - this is hand to hand combat with boulders and trees on hilly, rocky terrain.  Shortly into our climb, we saw a sign warning of black wolves in the woods.  We knew there was a wolf population on the island, we didn't expect that they lived in the very area we were now hiking.  But, sure enough, we saw numerous wolf droppings along our path.  We were warned of cougars too, but luckily can report we saw none.

Entrance to Gorge Harbor

 

Our march through the woods and around the two lakes  lasted much longer than we imagined and we ended up in a different place than we expected, the signs were most unclear. Essentially we ended up back near Cortes Bay where we were moored the previous day.  By the time we walked back, through town and got back to our boat, we had probably walked the island twice over, vertically and horizontally.  And it took us all day to do so.

                                                        No Wolfs - but eerie

Gorge Harbor



Gorge Harbor has a wonderful restaurant and we had two amazing dinners there.  Our waitress, Rose, regaled us with stories of life on the island.  The population is 950 permanent residents, which swells to 3,500 people in the summer.  The residents are mostly new-age hippies and artists.  Many don't have septic systems or wells.  She explained it this way: people prioritize their living needs.  Islanders chose windows over water, water over septic systems.  Thus, many people live without running water and with out-houses.  There is no cable or satellite TV and she believed creative thinking was more abundant on the island because of this.



We could actually spend several more days here, there's a few more places we haven't hiked but, all good things must come to an end, so tomorrow we will head north for Quadra Island.