Keats Island Walk
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Four of us met on the 9:20 a.m. ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale. Two parties of students were on board, one going to Elphinstone and the other to Gibsons. We bought coffee, muffins, sandwiches and whatever each of us wanted for the day. The ferry was five minutes late but this didn’t affect the easy transfer to the passenger vessel Stornaway III in the next dock. The first port of call was New Brighton on Gambier Island and then across the water to Eastbourne on Keats Island by about 10:40.
It was an ideal blue-sky sunny day and we were all in the mood for a simple walk with stops to enjoy the scenery. We set off up the hill from the ferry, zigzagging right, left and right to reach the intersection at the top with an old Bus Stop sign on the power pole. We took Government Road to the left and within five minutes had arrived at the Puddiford’s llama farm. Sometimes there is no one in attendance and sometimes Maureen is there. Today there was no one. We went in and looked at the llamas, the females in a field lower down the hill and the males in their separate pens closer to the stables.
Carrying on, we stopped briefly to try to find Silver Lake in a park on the right but were unsuccessful. We followed the road on to reach Power Pole 40, where the road on the right announced Private Drive and leads to Barnabas Family Missions. We took it as we have always been well-received there. On arrival, the road forks, with the left one signed to General Store and the right one to Office. There seemed to be no sign today, but we found the brambles had grown over it and we cleared it as far as we were able. Taking the left road, we followed it down to Corkum’s Farm which houses the general store and boat rentals for the campers when the camp is in session. There was a couple getting the lawns and facilities ready for the upcoming season and they didn’t like the idea of us being on private property. We went back up the hill and had lunch with a view out across Howe Sound.
.
View from Barnabas Family Mission
Back up the hill and bearing right, a road leads down to shoreline private houses north of Barnabas, but before the road reaches there, a signed trail leads left to Plumper Provincial Marine Park. This trail is maintained by the residents to allow hikers to pass above their properties to reach the park. We followed the trail, with the sounds of homeowners hammering and sawing to get their cottages ready for the season. Plumper Cove has thirty camp sites and you reach #20 first, count down to #1 on the waterfront and then find #21 to #30 to the north. The dock, boat moorings and picnic tables are by site #1 and offer a beautiful view of the strait over to Langdale and Gibsons. Two Shelter Islets are in the immediate bay, the left one being parkland and the right one being private. We took a tea-break here and enjoyed the view.
After our break, we took the yellow-markered trail to Keats Landing. On the way, a major trail leads up to Highest Peak, which we would normally have taken. However, as we had had a leisurely stroll, we sauntered on towards the ferry. At the end of Marine Park Trail we chose the trail when a notice offered the choice of finishing on trail or on road. At the BC Hydro shed at the top of the hill down to the dock, we still had half an hour until the ferry’s arrival, so we decided to take a side trip. We went briefly back to find the orange-markered Wandering Trail and took it down to Gus Lund Road and turned right. At its end, we followed the trail sign right to come to the water’s edge at the last property in Keats Camp lands. It bears a sign saying Welcome to Our Garden and its owner, Mr. Wicks, has always encouraged us to visit, only asking us to shut the gate to keep the deer out. He often entertains visitors from garden clubs and walking groups. The garden has palm trees, ginger plants and a variety of special plants, all labelled with their common and botanical names. Arriving close to the house, we saw he was in but it was only ten minutes until he normally leaves for the ferry, so we went on our way. We passed Camper’s Cove and then across the camp lands to the ferry dock. Mr. Wicks came down the ramp as we were waiting and we told him of our brief look in.
The Keats Landing ferry was on time but the Horseshoe Bay ferry was about a half hour late because of "extreme tidal conditions".
Route across Keats Island
June 12 2006
Return to Further Walks
Archives
