Canada Gulf islands day 6 - Pender day 1

 Pender Island Day 1 

Smog is obvious in this picture on top of Mt Menzies

Pender island is back to the wilderness after Victoria city

Here comes our ride!

View from the ferry on the way out

On the way out of Swartz bay, there is this little sign store at the ferry terminal that has the most amount of hilarious signs.  It provided a lot of entertainment before the crossing

Little sign shop at Swartz Bay

Funny signs

It's not clear how much we can do on the island as after labor day things are starting to shutdown

We end up enjoying this island a lot as it's similar to Salt spring Island but smaller

Hike Mt Menzies 

Pretty sign at Menzies

The most useless hiking map =)

We got up there and got another breath taking view of the islands. We are also starting to see the smog that clouded the islands and Vancouver for 2 days too. But still pretty! 

More views

The islands at the crooked tree views

After the hike we went driftwood center which is the local town center. 

Drift wood center: The center of civilization on Pender Island

Had to check out the book store and saw they have some puzzles too. Canada has some of the best puzzles.I bought a Charles dickens story in Galiano that's not easily found in states. This time I got a Sherlock Holmes one

My new puzzle!

We went to sea star vineyard as the cider place is not open on Wed. But it's what we feared after the Russian river experience. The wine are not full bodied enough without the heat to build that flavor. While the bubbly style isn't bad, it's just not special enough to justify the $31 price tag. 

Seastar Vineyard

View of the pretty cove from Seastar vineyard

Unfortunately Amy bread shed is empty twice that we tried to pick up something there. 

Bummer.. end of season for the bread shed

We also have limited selection at truss Farm Food on Wed and with the season winding down. End up we picked up a pre-made noodles from truss Farm Food and added some zucchini and rotisserie chicken leftover and it's very tasty. 

Dinner with stir fry vegetables noodles and added zucchini and leftover chicken

The prior Centennial Campground is run by BC parks too and have facilities like pit toilets and potable water. Enjoyed going back to the 5pm happy hour kicking back at the campground. 

Back to campground