Like the old Paul Simon song...”Slip Sliding Away, Slip Sliding Away, You know the nearer your destination; the more you‘re slip sliding away...”. That song pretty much sums up our day today!
We woke up to another dump of snow. I think it had snowed all night in Fanny Bay and when we headed out of Newman, it was still snowing!
We wanted to take a look at a property we had seen on realtor.ca, in Qualicum Beach, but after speaking with an agent, she said they had probably 30 showings over the weekend and were taking offers tomorrow. We’re just looking at what is possible out here, so we thought we would drive by instead.
We left Fanny Bay around 10:30am in a snow/rain mix at -2C and by the time we got to Qualicum Beach, about 20 minutes later down the Coastal Hwy, it was pouring rain and 0C.
We had packed our lunch today, as I had baked some fresh scones this morning while we were waiting for it to stop snowing. We looked at a few spots to go for a hike in Qualicum Beach, but we were worried about going down the side roads which were full of snow. Jerry does not have snow tires, so we didn’t want to get stuck in the snow or slide into a ditch off the road.
We ended up eating our lunch in Jerry in Qualicum Beach at the beginning of a Trail Head. We couldn’t really see where the trail went, except that it seemed to follow the hydro lines. Given it was so snowy, I thought, it was probably not a good idea to try hiking down a slippery trail, not knowing what was underfoot,
So instead of hiking in Qualicum Beach, we drove over to Coombs, where I had found a gravel trail called the “Coombs to Parksville Rail Trail”. As we were heading to Coombs I asked Richard to pull over so I could take a photo of this funny gym sign that I saw as we entered Coombs.
Quite an interesting name for a gym!
I wonder how you know you’ve reach your goal - especially if the training is “One on One?”
We drove into Coombs and discovered that ‘Goats on the Roof’ market was open again. We decided we would stop into the market after our hike down the ‘Coombs to Parksville Rail Trail’.
The market has been closed since the beginning of the year until this past weekend, so it was nice to have it open again. The goats are safely hidden away in their winter accommodations right now though, and we won’t see them on our visit to the Island this time.
We parked at the Goats on the Roof parking lot and walked down to the start of the trail on Station Road. There was no parking at the start of the trail unfortunately.
Jerry sitting patiently in the Coombs Emporium parking lot.
We got to the start of the 7km ‘Coombs to Parksville Rail Trail’ which was a wide compacted gravel trail. The trail opened for use in 2016 and forms part of a network of long trails being developed within the Regional District of Nanaimo. Eventually all of these regional trails will connect all major parks and communities and link the Region with similar trails in adjacent regions. The trail is open to pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians. Equestrians have the right-of-way; pedestrians yield to equestrians; cyclists yield to equestrIan’s and pedestrians. Interesting that when you walk the trail, the horse has the right of way!
Walking out on the trail. Deep snow and very slippery. The rail line is to the left of the trail from Coombs to Parksville.
We really found this a tough trail to walk since there hadn’t been too many other people walking it to pack down the snow. I have snow boots, but we were “slip sliding away” for most of the walk today down the trail.
Warm enough for my sweater again today. I haven’t worn a winter coat yet on the Island this winter.
Just when you think you’ve seen everything, you see something you have never seen before! I’m just glad I had my camera handy to capture this sight!
Meet ’Skittles’, the miniature pony being walked by her owner.
Skittles owner. Skittles lives in their home and walks around barefoot. She is fully grown now and is their house pet! Oh my goodness! Now I’ve seen everything! We wondered how you train a pony to let you know she has to go outside to the bathroom, but we didn’t ask and kept on hiking, giving Skittles the right of way!
As we crossed the street in Coombs to head back to Jerry, I took some photos of the interesting stores in Coombs. Coombs is definitely an ‘edgy’ place which lives off the tourism of people coming to visit ‘Goats on the Roof’ in the warmer months.
The Coombstock store is for sale. The sign said that 1.2 million people a year go by their property, primarily I would presume because of the ‘Goats on the Roof” attraction.
Dutch Store was closed today.
The Rasta Church was re-opening today (probably yesterday). From their wares that they are selling I wonder what kind of church it is?
It would appear the Rasta Church burned down, and that is why the Rasta Church is now next door!
We headed back to Goats on the Roof.
Goats on the Roof.
We took this picture for my Scottish friend Shauna. Iron Bru is a carbonated drink known as ‘Scotland’s other national drink’ and was being sold at Goats on the Roof today.
What a display of lanterns decorating the roof of Goats on the Roof for Lunar New Year.
Such an interesting store. We will definitely be back as they have all sorts of kids wooden toys and we would love to buy our grandson something for our next visit when we see him in April!
Today we bought all things to make Caesars!
Using up our potato vodka with the caesar cocktail mixes and spicy green beans we bought today at Goats on the Roof.
Sometimes you just need a spicy Caesar!
We headed home after visiting Coombs and as we were approaching Fanny Bay, the sun came out and the temperature reached a balmy +2C.
I walked down to the pier to take some photos and I thought this was a cool shot of Chrome Island sitting on the fence on Fanny Bay. Chrome Island was lit up by the sunshine beaming off the lighthouses today in the late afternoon. It was nice to sit on a bench and try and photograph the sea birds by panning my camera with the birds in flight. I was really enjoying myself on the point after we got home from our hike today.
Tomorrow is supposed to +7C and I’m sure a lot of the residual snow we have on the ground will all melt away with such warm temperatures we’re going to have this week!
I’m off to Courtenay for a hair cut and colour tomorrow with Jerry and me going solo.
Richard is going to hang around Newman tomorrow waiting for the Viper Fuels truck to arrive, to fill us back up with propane. We’ve been managing to ration our propane from our 30 gallon auxiliary tank pretty well since St. Stephen came down on Friday night to fix us up with the new t-connection and valve on our propane tank in Newman. We never want to run out of propane or that means cold showers! We still have our BBQ tank on our Napoleon BBQ if we did run out on our 30 lb tank we got from Costco. Now that Viper is coming tomorrow, we can get all of our propane tanks filled up and we should be good for awhile, with warmer weather heading our way!
So while we were slip sliding away today, I think tomorrow we will need rain boots for the puddles instead of the snow and slush! And hopefully that was winter as we know it, on the Island for this year!
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