Port Townsend Jazz Festival

I met up with my friend David in Port Townsend for the jazz festival the weekend of July 29th - 31st.  We went to the Friday and Saturday night stage shows and David went to the music in the clubs on Friday and Saturday nights.  (I'm kind of a stick in the mud about fighting for seating in the clubs so didn't go.)  You can read more about the festival at: www.centrum.org/jazz/jz-performances.html

Dungeness Spit

The day after I took the ferry from Victoria, BC over to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula I spent the day hiking out the Dungeness Spit and on the nearby  beaches and bluffs.

Victoria, British Columbia

After biking the KVRR  I met up with my friend Jeff and his family in Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island.  From Hope, BC I drove to Tsawassen, BC to catch the ferry, about and hour ride on the ferry.

My friend Jeff and I worked together at the Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska in the early '80's.  I was so happy when I found out that it would work for me to meet up with him and his wife Mai and daughter Audrey in Victoria for a couple of days.

These little tiny boats-- they held 11 passengers--  were giving hour long tours around the inner harbor in Victoria.  It was a very cool tour and I think Audrey even thought it was OK.

This is a street musician we saw-- he was pretty terrible...  I gave him a dollar though.  He really needs to look for a real job.

OK, I don't go to church but if I did I'd want it to look like this one...

I went out for a bike ride the night before I met up with Jeff and family and saw this old Checker Cab parked on the street in downtown Victoria.  Checker cabs were manufactured in Kalamazoo, MI-- an hours drive from where I grew up in Lansing.  (pretty cool if you like old cars... and it was a beauty.)

In the afternoon we toured the British Columbia Parliament Building and learned a bit about their provincial government.  I really liked it-- Audrey thought it was pretty boring but she's just eleven.  This picture is of the central capital dome.

I took the Blackball Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA.  It's a privately run ferry and was the most direct way for me to get to Port Townsend on the Olympic Penninsula where I met up with my friend David for the weekend jazz festival in Port Townsend.

The Dewdney Trail

One of the things I like about traveling without a plan is the surprises I run into along the way.  The Dewdney Trail was constructed in the mid-19th century and was a major trade rout across British Columbia.

This surviving segment of the trail was just next to the road at a campground I stayed at near Princeton, BC.

(Click the picture for a larger view)

It would have been a great place to camp right on the Similkamine River except for the major highway just on the other side...  at least it was a free campground.

Biking on the the Kettle Valley Railway

 I left Darrington Bluegrass Festival campgroud on Monday morning and drove to Hope, British Columbia to bicycle the section of the Kettle Valley Railroad located near Hope. 

I stayed at the Coquihalla Campground on the outskirts of town-- an easy bike ride to the store, library, and bank.

As it turned out a section of the Kettle Valley RR goes right through the campground.  And as you can see there's a campsite right on the old roadbed.  That's not where I camped though.

There's a portion of the Kettle Valley RR (KVRR) that goes through Coquihalla Canyon outside of Hope.  A series of five tunnels had to be driven in order to construct the rout-- here are two of the tunnels.

 The weather took a turn for the worse on Wednesday so I headed for the Canadian Okanogan on the east side of the Cascades and hoped for dryer weather.  I ended up in Coalmont, a little town on the KVRR, that was originally settled because of a nearby coal mine.

I spent two days in Coalmont.  The first day I biked the KVRR south towards Princeton, BC and the second day north to Tulameen.

The last time I biked on the KVRR was about 10 years ago.  When I was there this time I found the trail to be REALLY rough to ride.  I don't remember it being that way before.  Ten miles or so per day was about all I wanted to ride on the KVRR.

 My campsite on the Tulameen River.  According to the locals climate change has arrived in the Canadian Okanogan.  The mosquitoes were pretty thick-- unusual for July-- and the pine beetles are wiping out the forests.

Train Wrecks and Mamas Dyin'...

In spite of the fact that bluegrass music is often about train wrecks and mamas dyin' I tend to think of it as happy music.  Maybe that's because I was having such a great time while I was at the Darrington Bluegrass Festival from July 15th through the 17th.   Here's a video I took of my favorite group, Deadwood Revival:



... I love these guys.

You can read more about them at: http://deadwoodrevival.com/

The performances were all terrific but the part I like the best is wandering through the campground in the evening and dropping in on the jam sessions.  It's a just feels like a privilege to play along with people when there's someone in the group who is playing a song because they love it.

Here's my new/used  van that I bought about a month ago camped at the festival campground.

Here's what I wish my van was but will never be...

... and here's my favorite car seen in the festival camp ground.  I think it's a 1932 Ford.

Now, don't you wish you'd been there?