I awoke to rain. I made a quick run to the Ruddy Potato Market for last minute holiday groceries, and shovelled the ice from our walkway.
I was really itching to take a "real" walk, and I was so tired of walking the same route over and over.
Colin and I planned to drive to Quarry Park near Josephine Lake, but but upon arrival, we couldn't get into the snowy parking lot. There was no nearby shoulder to park on either, because both sides of Cowan Point Rd were buried under the white piles left by the snowploughs.
We circled around a little bit on the nearby roads, looking for a spot to Park near Josephine Rd, with no success. Then it started snowing... :( Everything was going wrong...
So we switched to Plan B: get a coffee at the Ruddy Kitchen, park in their lot, and walk somewhere from there. Colin had never been to the Ruddy Kitchen, because they were normally open M-F 7:30-3pm, when he was normally at work. But he had taken the day off "for Christmas," giving us the window we needed.
(click to enlarge)
The outdoor patio was really not so welcoming on this day, but the covered patio looked cozy and I walked up to the door of the cafe.
The door rattled but would not open. I stood there confused for a moment, before seeing the sign on the door. Apparently, the Ruddy closed at noon due to the holidays. I looked at my phone: it was 12:30pm. This was really not our day... ;p
On the bright side, having the Ruddy be closed meant we didn't feel guilty about parking in their lot. We walked down their long driveway to Sunset Rd, and turned right.
Sunset Rd dropped down to Adams Rd, about 120m later. At Adams, we took a left, with the plan of taking taking the Trans-Island-Trail along Bowen Bay Rd and over to Evergreen. The bowentrails.ca map showed a trail network over there.
On Adams Rd, we quickly located a TIT trail sign, but couldn't figure out where the trail ran. It looked like it might go away from the road, into the trees, but there were no obvious footprints to follow.
We dove in, but soon were facing what looked like a creek!
We looked around us: we were in a decent-sized clearing. Were we on a pond??? On the everything-going-wrong day, we decided not to test our luck, and quickly backtracked out.
So, if that was not the TIT, where was it? Did it simply run along the shoulder of Adams Rd, as it did along Grafton Rd? If so, it was buried under snowplough piles.
We walked on the pavement along Adams Rd towards Bowen Bay Rd. Fortunately, traffic was light.
We passed Bowen's satellite firehall (Firehall No. 2), and I noticed a very official Parks Board sign announcing "Cromie Trail" beside the entrance to the firehall parking lot.
Apparently, Cromie Trail was rerouted and upgraded in 2011, in preparation for the construction of the new firehall. I assume that is when the nifty new trail signs were posted.
Peering at my various maps, I saw no trace of "Cromie Trail." But we couldn't resist, and abandoned "Plan B" (or were we already on "Plan C" by now?) for this new adventure. :)
Peering at my various maps, I saw no trace of "Cromie Trail." But we couldn't resist, and abandoned "Plan B" (or were we already on "Plan C" by now?) for this new adventure. :)
The trail was named after Don Cromie, who inherited the Vancouver Sun Newspaper from his father Robert Cromie in 1942. Often described as "flamboyant," he was high-energy and anything but predictable. Wild stories abound about his exploits, and when he sold the paper in 1964, many mourned the loss of "the last independently-owned newspaper in Canada."
But Cromie was more than just a newspaper publisher (his other publications included Vancouver Life & About Town magazine, as well as Palm Springs Lie, and Toronto Life). He also did fairly well in real estate. After selling the Sun, he bought 227 acres of land on Bowen Island from the Adams, the family after which Adam Rd is named.
George Adams had bought about 800-850 acres of the area now known as Bowen Bay and Tunstall Bay, on the West side of the island, after a "long walk" led him across island from the famous Bowen Resort on the East side of the island. In the 1940s, he sold 100-acre waterfront lots to 14 families. This became the basis of the Bowen Bay Association (later Bowen Bay Holdings). The area was very isolated, with no roads, running water, or electricity, and all 14 families shared one telephone. But it was the beginning of residential life on the West side of the island.
For two decades, Adams had leased a portion of his lands for a summer camp for Vancouver Sun newspaper carriers (called "Camp Gates"). This was perhaps the spark for Cromie's land purchase.
Cromie dreamed up "a modern resort community" in Tunstall Bay. He subdivided his new property into 130 lots with underground cables for electricity, a community clubhouse with recreational amenities including a swimming pool, and a large community pier. This became the basis of the Tunstall Bay Commnunity Association.
According to the Bowen Island Museum, "Club membership came with property ownership. Don and [his wife] Geri were granted lifetime memberships. [Don's company] DeeCee Projects closed about 1989. Don died in 1993 and Geri in 1995. Their family scattered their ashes on the waters of Tunstall Bay."
As we proceeded down Cromie Trail, past a tiny frozen pond, we were happy that there was not too much snow on the ground. The path was well-stablished; it was really surprising that it was not on any map (I later found it on the BIM Schedule E map).
After the first little stretch, it started heading downhill. It was a lovely stroll through the woods. There were many picturesque trees.
The trail just kept heading downhill. That was a little slippery on the snowy parts. Colin had fun sliding down on his feet. I followed, more slowly.
We ended up in a tree-lined lane
Near the end of the lines of trees was a sign: Cromie Trail. A notice below it read: "Welcome to Bowen Island's multi-use trail system. You may see horses and riders on this trail," and included instructions on what to do "when you encounter an equestrian."
I checked my GPS as we went, and it appeared that we were walking between Sunset Dr and Tunstall Blvd, which was where Cromie Rd would be.
We kept following the road and ended up meeting up with Whitesails Dr. A street sign at the intersection confirmed that we had indeed been walking on Cromie Rd.
We turned left onto Whitesails Rd. I really liked the vibe of this neighborhood. We had looked at several properties in the area when we were house searching. It had so many features I was looking for! However, one drawback of this area was its distance from the ferry.
While a 7-8 km drive to the ferry might not sound like much, it was not really walkable for a daily commute, or to pop out for a missing grocery item, or to grab a beer at the pub (most amenities were in Snug Cove, on the East side of the island).
Furthermore, despite the promotion of the Trans-Island-Trail as a way to hike across the island, much of the "trail" was simply the gravel shoulder along busy Grafton/Adam Rd, the ONLY driving route that led cross-island. At some points, the shoulder dropped down to nearly non-existent, and playing chicken with big trucks was quite nerve-wracking. Furthermore, as I quickly discovered this winter, it was not really passable when the shoulder was covered in snow.
But Whitesails Dr was quiet, and we admired the local decor as we strolled by. I particularly liked the little lighthouse in the photo below.
Since we were flying a little blind, between our "Plan C" walk and relying on google maps, which was a little out-of-date in this neighborhood, we missed the chance to turn left just after Reef Rd, and head down DeeCee Rd to Cromie Park, a 6-acre greenspace donated by Dan Cromie, when he subdivided the area. Although these designations had been used by the locals for decades, Ed Booiman petitioned for the municipality to make the names official, and succeeded only in the last year or two (DeeCee Projects Ltd being the name for Don Cromie's development company).
In our ignorance, we instead decided to loop around to Reef Rd and head back by turning right onto Tunstall Blvd. If we had instead turned left on Tunstall Blvd, it would have led us past the previously mentioned Tunstall Bay Community Association, and down to Tunstall Beach, one of the earliest beaches on Bowen Island.
In modern times, Tunstall Beach was a great recreational beach, and the nearby Community Association provided members with all kinds of activities, like tennis, a swimming pool, and a clubhouse. But it was not always such an entertaining destination: in contrast to the tourist heyday of Snug Cove and Mannion Bay on the other side of the island, Tunstall Bay was originally used for industry, particularly for logging and a dynamite factory.
The Creek that ran alongside Tunstall Blvd and into the bay was actually called Explosives Creek. Although we couldn't see the Creek as we turned right onto Tunstall Blvd from Reef Rd, we did see an eagle overhead. (I know those are in no way related. lol.)
By the time we started heading back along Tunstall Blvd, it was really raining hard, but we saw no point in pulling out our umbrellas, because we were already soaked.
We walked steadily up and up... My lower back and butt hurt from my recent stints shovelling.
At least I was amused by the "fauna" of the neighboourhood... ;) There were two large bird carvings in front of one house.
Then, a shy flamingo... oh maybe not so shy... as I passed it, I realized it was actually reaching outward toward the road, as if asking for a hug. Yep. It's wearing a Santa suit. You betcha!
In the rain, a smart deer sheltered itself under a tree. It didn't budge as we walked by.
We took Tunstall back to Adams Rd, and braved the traffic on Adams about 400m until we reached Sunset Rd, passing the satellite firehall on the way.
At Sunset, we turned right and were soon back at the Ruddy Kitchen parking lot.
Back at home, we wrapped our presents to each other, in preparation for the following evening. Can you guess what this one was? ;)
Soon we were all done. Well, save one last gift...
I put a ribbon around a meat stick for my dog Rory, and also put it under the tree.
Well, it seemed like that was not such a good idea after all, as Rory was not keen on waiting, and the delectable scent urged him to start pawing at the gifts... so then I had to perch it high on the tree like an ornament, lest Rory dug through all the gifts trying to get his precious meat.
