Stepping off the edge

Today we drove to Campbell River, the northern most city on the island.

When I was here for the first time in 2004 with my Mum I commented that it reminded me of northern Alberta. The trees aren’t as tall. Yet, when I checked it’s the same latitude as Lethbridge, Alberta!

We started the day driving into the back country to find Horne Lake Caves. I like exploring caves and have entered some in the Rockies, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, USA and a cavernous cave in Thailand with my daughter Stefanie. Keith doesn’t like caves as much but he’s come along with me caving in Vietnam, New Zealand and Mexico.

We learned that to be called a cave it must have 3 qualities: be naturally formed, fit a 6 ft. tall human and be completely dark. On these notes I am not nearly 6 ft. but I bumped my head a few times. And we turned off our headlamps for a few minutes and experienced complete darkness. We had to gradually adjust our eyes back to the light.

Vancouver Island has more caves than the rest of Canada. Two thousand have been documented. Our guide has discovered some of them and volunteers doing cave rescue in BC and Alberta. He was both knowledgeable and funny!

The caves on the island are formed in limestone and have lots of unique calcite formations.

We weren’t allowed to touch the Calcite. Stalactites grow down from the ceiling at a rate of one inch every one hundred years, hence the need to protect them.

We were ready for lunch in Campbell River after our caving experience and hour and a half drive.

After lunch we hiked around the powerful Elk Lake Falls.

We ended our day in a unique cabin at Oyster Bay Resort looking over to the peaks of the North Shore Mountains.