Port Renfrew Winter 2022 Camping Trip

[SFP]

Part 1 - The Idea

Way back in late 2019 I had the idea of spending New Years Eve Camping in Port Renfrew at Pacheedaht Campground. If I go by number of times I have camped there over the last thirty years, it is by far my favourite campground on Vancouver Island. I first discovered this gem of a location in the summer of 1996 and since then I try to make it up there a few times a year. This beautiful spot is on the traditional land of the Pacheedaht First Nation (which means “People of the Sea Foam”).

Port Renfrew is at the end of Highway 14 coming out of Victoria (2 hour drive) or, via the Pacific Marine Road if coming from Lake Cowichan. Located at the head of the Port San Juan Inlet, it lies adjacent to the natural harbour as well as the San Juan River. As of 2016 Port Renfrew has a full time population of 144. This little community is an outdoor persons playground - hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, photo-hiking, fishing, surfing, 4x4ing, camping, storm watching, and birding are just a few of the activities people travel to this little hamlet for.

Over the years I have made friends with the locals and come to call the place my second home on Vancouver Island. It’s a place I go to get away from it all and to recharge my soul. My children grew up camping there and learning the basics of outdoorsmanship and wilderness survival. The weather is typical pacific northwest in that it rains, is foggy and can have a chill to the air all year round. My plan had been to load up my trusty 1991 Volvo 240 wagon and if need be camp/sleep in the back as I have the rear seats removed. As someone who has been winter camping his entire life, I am well aware of what the challenges are - be it the snow and -40C temperatures of the Rocky Mountains of Alberta or the non-stop cold rain of the Pacific Northwest of Vancouver island in December and January. I have the gear, I have the experience and I figure what better way to start a new year than waking up on New Year’s morning on the beautiful beach of San Juan Inlet on the Pacheedaht campground.

Well the best laid plans don’t always work the way one wants. Life happened and I wasn’t able to bring in 2020 on my beach. There is always next year. So I decide fine, I’d head out in February to do some winter camping instead and work towards bringing in 2021 at my beach campground.

Enter Covid.

There goes that idea out the window.

By March of 2020 the small hamlet of Port Renfrew and the First Nations were asking people to please stay away - there is no hospital or clinic in town. Being a respectful person I did as asked and didn't make a single trip up there all of 2020 or 2021 and had the hopes that maybe I could bring in 2022 on my beach. As many are aware of, South West British Columbia got hit with an insane amount of rain during November of 2021 resulting in a mass flooding that hammered Vancouver Island as well as the mainland. Like many this natural disaster flooded my home.

Within driving distance of Port Renfrew one can find the following attractions:
- Avatar Grove
- Juan de Fuca Provincial Park (including Botanical Beach)
- Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
- San Juan River Estuary Ecological Reserve
- Fairy Lake campground
- Lizard Lake campground
- Big Lonely Doug (second largest Douglas Fir in Canada)
- Eden Grove
- Harris Creek Spruce
- San Juan Sitka Spruce
- Red Creek Fir (worlds largest Douglas Fir)

I’m including some photos of the campground and surrounding area from over the years.

The next installment will be the start of the February 2022 Camping trip in my new to me 2002 GMC Jimmy.

Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoy the photos.

If you’d like to see more go check out the new IG profile @pacificnorthwesttraveller or find me on Facebook at Pacific Northwest Traveller (There is a YouTube channel but it doesn’t have anything yet).

 

[Jeep or Tacoma]

Wow looks like an awesome place, nice photos too. A few questions. Is it surfable looks like it is? how big does it get? Some shot looks pretty big! What is set up you shooting the pictures with? Bears? very nice I can see why you love it there must be an abundance of sea life there too!

 

[keane]

That is a beautiful looking location. I will add that to my list to check out next time I am on the southern part of the island. I spent 2 weeks on the northern end last summer.

 

[SFP]

Wow looks like an awesome place, nice photos too. A few questions. Is it surfable looks like it is? how big does it get? Some shot looks pretty big! What is set up you shooting the pictures with? Bears? very nice I can see why you love it there must be an abundance of sea life there too!

Black bears, cougars and coastal wolves. As well elk, deer and of course eagles, ravens, etc. TONS of sea life - ocras, grey whales, starfish, etc

The bears (on the island) are pretty chill in my experience as long as one uses common sense. The wolves may "stalk" ya as you hike but it's just them being curious. Keep dogs on leashes and no problems. Cougars... well they can be a problem, especially the young males but again common sense goes a long way.

Total surfable - on a good day ya might see 8 to 10 feet - if you want good surfing people go to Sombrio (not for beginners) and it's about a twenty minute drive from Renfrew.

I'm a Nikon and prime lens guy. Body wise, D700, D7000, D750. Lens wise 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4 (I like my fast glass). Post I use Capture One Pro followed by PS6 for resizing, watermark and conversion to print or web as the case may be.

 

[Jeep or Tacoma]

pretty cool I am old, old ,surfer started when I was 12 now 68 my big-wave days are long past Now it is standup surf ( back injuries) like a nice mellow 2-3 footer. been an amatuer photographer for many years always been a canon guy just upped the ante with the eos r5 and am relearning the art and science What a beautiful spot, !!!

 

[SFP]

pretty cool I am old, old ,surfer started when I was 12 now 68 my big-wave days are long past Now it is standup surf ( back injuries) like a nice mellow 2-3 footer. been an amatuer photographer for many years always been a canon guy just upped the ante with the eos r5 and am relearning the art and science What a beautiful spot, !!!

Renfrew will be perfect for ya surfing wise then. All year round with the bigger stuff in winter of course.

Nice.

Keep thinking of jumping to mirrorless myself, and loving the D9 just not the investment - I work full time as a portrait/commercial photographer so the past couple of years have been a tad harsh on the bank account one might say.

 

[SFP]

pretty cool I am old, old ,surfer started when I was 12 now 68 my big-wave days are long past Now it is standup surf ( back injuries) like a nice mellow 2-3 footer. been an amatuer photographer for many years always been a canon guy just upped the ante with the eos r5 and am relearning the art and science What a beautiful spot, !!!

Started young myself... but honestly haven't been out in over a decade. Still have dreams of one day riding Mavericks (been there twice to watch from shore) - figure it may kill me lol.

next up for me is a SUP - I like em, good work out and a nice way to spend a day.

 

[Jeep or Tacoma]

Funny story In the 70's I was in school at San Jose State, and being the furthest from the ocean I had ever lived ( grew up surfing in Palos Verdes, rat beach Haggertys, Bluff cove, and even the dreaded Lunada Bay once or twice but I am a goofy foot. , So my go-to was rat beach and Haggerty's Fast forward to the early 70s We used to go up and down the coast highway north of Santa Cruz.... way different back then surfers waved to each other, we wandered and went down to the beach where we could and surfed a lot of places we did not know names for one of which was Mavericks, never surfed it really big just in the 10 -12 range and not very often there were better quality breaks around an in town when it was big there were great kelp beds that smoothed it all out. I did not know we had surfed mavericks until the Jay Moriarity movie came out and then I recognized the place. The places we surfed we made up names for "RED White and Blue" for the mailbox on the highway close by, "hole in the wall" for an ocean arch that has long since collapsed etc.

SUP is awesome I found it to be like being a 12-year grom and starting over it reinvents the stoke. The view is different you see a lot more sea life and good workout and versatile no big waves for me though about 6 ft is my limit when my game is really on.
I tried mirrorless with Sony first but was underwhelmed and I had a boatload of good long, lenses ( wildlife ). MY son shoots Sony so I sold the camera to him for a cheap deal. and bit the bullet withe r5. The deal maker was that with an adpater all my old lenses would work very nicely with no loss in function > It is a learning curve again. MY work as a geologist I shot air photos from helicopters and ground shots of landslides etc. The hobby part was wildlife and landscape.

when you get ready to take the "plunge" (pun intended) into sup look up standup zone there are a lot of good sources there or hit me up and I will help out as I can.

 

[billiebob]

Gorgeous country. I have relatives from Sannichton to Powell River. A few still live in Campbell River. My plan was the island this summer and even gas at $2.00 is not too discouraging but if it gets closer to $3.00 there might be a rethink and trips closer to home.

Everyone raves about the beach on a hot summer day. I'm more a fan of the beach when it is stormy. I think GoreTex is more flattering on my figure than Speedo.

Nice pics, look forward to following this thread.

 

[Jeep or Tacoma]

yep nothing like a 5 mil wet suit to show off your err bulges and what not

 

[SFP]

Gorgeous country. I have relatives from Sannichton to Powell River. A few still live in Campbell River. My plan was the island this summer and even gas at $2.00 is not too discouraging but if it gets closer to $3.00 there might be a rethink and trips closer to home.

Everyone raves about the beach on a hot summer day. I'm more a fan of the beach when it is stormy. I think GoreTex is more flattering on my figure than Speedo.

Nice pics, look forward to following this thread.

Lets be real, even if it hits $4.00 we are all still going to be driving - limiting our back country rigs, but still cheaper than flying or train.

If ya make it out this way, look me up.

And I so hear ya about the Goretex

As I like to say... it's easy to look good (or really bad) in swimwear - let me see your rain gear photos - the Photographer dig is - anyone can have a great portolio of beautiful women in bikinis and nude, lets see your men portfolio - it separates the boys from the man, the wannabes from the pros.

 

[rgallant]

See now I have to get to the island this year - I have not spent much time down south.

 

[SFP]

Part Two - The Big Day

Most camping trips don’t start the day you leave and head out to go camping, no they start a few weeks or months ahead of the time one actually leaves and heads out on the highway as it were. I had recently purchased a used 2002 GMC Jimmy I named Blue. I had been wanting to add a 4x4 SUV to my life for a while now, and when the Volvo developed brake issues I decided it was time to pull the trigger. (Build Link)

The idea of a winter camping trip to Port Renfrew had been the idea of my oldest friend back over the Christmas holidays. As luck would have it though, Jason was unable to make this trip due to funds and work, so I reached out to a great friend of mine and asked her to join me. Snowman (think Smoky & The Bandit) had mentioned she would be interested in joining me if Jason had to bail on the trip. Although she doesn’t own a ton of winter camping gear she is someone I enjoy spending time with and is a good friend and had been winter camping with me in the past and well, I have a bunch of extra gear for friends who want to join me but who don’t own gear. The weekend of February 19, 20 is a long weekend here in BC with Monday the 21 being a stat holiday. We decided to head out on Thursday the 17th thereby insuring we got a good spot at the campground before all the long weekend people showed up.

With the addition of Blue in my life, I decided it was the perfect time to take the Jimmy out for its first wilderness and back road trip. Snowman and I began putting our lists together of what we needed as I dug through my stuff locating all my camping gear for the trip. Snowman had also picked up a Mr. Heater Buddy to bring along, which for me was something new as I have never had a heater along on a trip before. For a couple of weeks prior to leaving we tracked the weather up in Renfrew for the weekend in question - high’s of 9 C with lows of -1 to -3 C were called for, rain for the Saturday and snow possible every night. For myself all I needed/wanted was a couple of telescoping poles for the tarp and a Bulldog Tire deflator/tire pressure gauge for airing down once I finally got into the back country. The heater and gauge were easy to get thanks to the local Canadian Tire and Lordco auto parts - the poles turned out to be a problem - there were zero to be had anywhere in Victoria. As luck would have it, we ended up bringing a pair down from an up island Canadian Tire location.

For this trip Plan “A” was to camp in my trusty Eureka Apex 4XTC tent with the backup plan, being to sleep in the back of the Jimmy. As the days to leaving were marked off the calendar everything was looking good for us leaving on the 17th. The Jimmy was running good (other than a couple of quirks), the gear was located and my list was being shortened as I tried to take only what was required. I had discovered my two first aid kits had been compromised thanks to the flood in November but Snowman had her small wilderness first aid kit as well as a full size kit she would be able to bring along (and it was good she did as we ended up needing it). Tuesday the 15 I went and did grocery run for the trip which included me making a beef and barley stew to take with us as an easy and tasty meal on a cold day. Once again I bought and brought too much food along but we were both grateful for what we had with us.

Now I don’t know about you but I still get as excited as a child on Christmas Eve the night before leaving for a camping trip. I’m lucky if I get two to four hours sleep. I managed four hours and was awake and roaring to go at 4:15 A.M. the morning of the 17th. My window to leave was between 10 A.M. and noon if all went well. I wasn’t planning on racing to Renfrew as it’s not really the road to fly down at high speed in a loaded up SUV. Snowman is not an early morning person and I knew this. I had told her to take her time in the morning but even she was up and ready to go by 7 A.M., so all I had to do was wait for my roommates to head off to work, go pick her up and then load up and leave. The roomies were gone by quarter to eight and I started preliminary gear gathering on the main floor of the house in preparation to load up.

At roughly nine I headed over to the local grocery store to grab three bags of ice, a quick stop at home to drop them into the cooler then over to pick up Snowman and the gear she was bringing along. By ten we were half loaded up - firewood, cooler, tent, sleeping bags, etc. I ended up strapping the small ladder, full size shovel and fold out camping chairs to the roof. 11:11 we were loaded and Snowman snapped a photo of the truck and I in the driveway. Time to hop in and make our first stop - the local cold beer and wine store to grab myself some Nutrls. Time to cut through the city and head out. First stop along the trip is the gas station in Sooke that sells ice cream. It’s become a ritual over the years to stop there. I always get two Hot Rod sausage sticks, a bag of dill flavoured chips and a coke. In this case it was also the place to top up fuel. With fuel being over $1.509 per L the tank took $17.00 to top up and off we went. Next stop in Sooke the Home Hardware to grab a couple of bags of firewood. A little shuffling of things in the back and here we go.



The road out to Jordan River is a windy, hilly drive that follows the coast line. With beautiful views looking across the Juan de Fuca Strait to the USA it’s one of those drives that you can really enjoy the scenic views while constantly reminding one’s self to focus on the road and not the view. Along the way we passed the French Beach Provincial Campground as well as passed through the hamlet of Shirley. Forty minutes later we pulled off the highway to stop and stretch our legs at Jordan River. The place was busy, the waves we two to four feet and there was a ton of surfers out enjoying the day. The weather had been overcast but no real rain so far. Knock on wood it would be beautiful when we got to Renfrew.







After the short stop at Jordan River where we each scarfed down a half of a chicken salad sandwich we were off. In recent years the province has been investing in upgrading highway 14 but there still remains a few single lane bridges and one has to be on the lookout for fully loaded longing trucks. There ain’t many places to pass, the locals drive it like its a speedway and one can get stuck behind an overloaded RV and spend the next thirty minutes cursing the driver in front hoping they pull off to let you pass. As there is not much of a shoulder those places can be few are far between. After Jordan River you pass China Beach Provincial Campground and after that it is Sombrio. The province has added a new lookout pull off spot just past Sombrio that has washrooms and picnic tables for those who need to pull over or have something to eat. The view from said location is pretty much none existent as the trees have grown since the place was created so we all joke about the “lookout without a view”. The final stretch of road brings you down from the mountain line to sea level with a twisty bit of road, zero shoulders followed by the left turn towards Port Renfrew.



A quick stop to grab a photo, then it’s onto the campground. The sun was a out, big fluffy clouds and great music playing via the stereo. We’re finally here. As we turned off the main road to head to the campground the song Lovers In a Dangerous Time was playing and just as we hit the bridge the line "Next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all” came on and Snowman and I both looked at one another as well pulled up to the long single lane bridge that connects the First Nations land with Port Renfrew.





The smile on my face as I drove down the road to the entrance to the campground was priceless. After two plus years I was finally at my Happy Place.

 

[shortbus4x4]

Gorgeous country. I have relatives from Sannichton to Powell River. A few still live in Campbell River. My plan was the island this summer and even gas at $2.00 is not too discouraging but if it gets closer to $3.00 there might be a rethink and trips closer to home.

Everyone raves about the beach on a hot summer day. I'm more a fan of the beach when it is stormy. I think GoreTex is more flattering on my figure than Speedo.

Nice pics, look forward to following this thread.

Speedos are year 'round wear, just wear GoreTex speedos in the winter.

I grew up in northern CA near the coast, there's something just awe inspiring about being on the beach in a raging winter storm. Makes a person feel very small and insignificant compared to mother nature.

 

[SFP]

Part Three - The Campground, First Night, Best Laid Plans

We all have our own idea of what makes a good campground. For some it is full service for their RVs, for others it’s the middle of nowhere with absolutely zero chance of having to share your location with another human being. Some like rustic, some prefer groomed with amenities. The Pacheedaht is a bit of all of it. I have had the pleasure of spending time at this place since the late spring of 1996. Back then the office was a glorified shed with a service window, it was a tad chaotic and rustic described the place. There were pit toilets, taps with water, campsites that could accommodate a motorhome, walk in tent spots on the beach, picnic tables & fire pits at the main sites and an amazing vibe to the place. It was not the spot one would see rental RVs, or a bunch of tourists from the mainland or the USA. Times change, the highway got upgraded and so did the campsite.

(these two photos are not mine)



These days there is a formal office with small store, showers, washer & dryers, tube-cabins, full service (water and electricity) sites, no service sites, walk-in sites and the campgrounds are now broken into the north beach and south beach campgrounds with the middle section being walk in tent sites. The office is a mini general store which includes some basic camping supplies as well as things like t-shirts, hoodies and such which help support the local First Nation’s. Cell service is virtually non-existent but once in a while you can grab a signal from a USA tower or in a rare occasion a Shaw Open Wifi shows up. My advice, is don’t plan on having cell or data service. Firewood can be hit and miss to get at the campsite but there are locals in Port Renfrew who sell bundles (average is $20.xx CDN a bundle) - officially there is a no burning beach wood and no chainsaws allowed on the beach at all. If you like a campfire, plan accordingly. I typically bring some with me and in the mornings I head out to the back country to forage for deadfall (I bring an axe, a buck saw and hatchet). This trip the high temperatures called for were only 9 C/ 48 F and the lows called for were -3 C/26 F which meant fire was something I wanted to stay warm with, so I figured we would be buying a few bundles once we got there (ended up buying 4 bundles while there).

Our hope had been to get one of the beach front sites, ideally #32 or #38B (38 is a double spot) but as luck would have it, they were already booked. Plan B was the “wooded” spot I like, #41. It’s close to a pit toilet, away from other locations and offers some privacy. The fee per night was $20.00 CDN so we booked our spot for Thursday and Friday with Saturday being an option of staying at the campsite or maybe Saturday night we would hit a back country site. Snowman has never stayed anywhere but a campsite and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for back country. The north beach campsite was maybe 30 percent full when we arrived Thursday afternoon.

The Jimmy had done great on the trip up, the weather was sunny with clouds and by 2:30 P.M. I was unloading and figuring out where I wanted the tent to go. Rain and snow was called for, and as these are more rustic campsites one needs to think about placement of a tent in the event of rain and rain runoff. This also means one should bring along a tarp or two as well as a shovel to trench around your tent. When it rains here it rains, and the rain can last for days (it is a rainforest after all) so be smart and watch weather reports before you go and plan accordingly.

The tent and tarp went up without a hitch, followed by getting the fire going. The truck now unloaded it was time to finalize setting up the rest of camp.






The best laid plans… well we all know how that can go.

At roughly 4:30 I decided I wanted a couple more poles for the tarp over the tent. As we only had two with us this meant looking for deadfall and making a couple out of wood. I had recently purchased a new machete and I did have my safety gloves with me. Being a man which means I will do dumb things, I didn’t bother with my gloves. I had found a branch that would work and I was cleaning it off when I turned to answer a question Snowman asked and as I turned my left hand bumped into the brand new razor sharp machete driving the curved tip to the bone on the top of my left hand.

“Ouch” followed by “Frak” (use your imagination as to the actual word) as I felt the steel hit bone. I looked down to see a two inch long cut on the back of my hand. It had not started bleeding, so I took that as a good sign. Trying to stay calm I walked over to the picnic table and asked Snowman for the big first aid kit. She asked what I wanted and I replied with, “Crazy glue or duct tape and gauze bandage or the suture kit”. At that point she turned to see me and my hand that I was holding which was now bleeding like a stuck pig.

Snowman has wilderness first aid training and myself I have both wilderness and industrial training. I knew that it was a brand new blade and clean (the part my hand had come in contact with), I knew it was a very sharp and clean cut, I knew I could still move my fingers so I had not severed any tendons, it was bleeding a deep red and flowing really well so yeah I had gone deep but also knew this wasn’t a fatal wound. As Snowman looked through the kit and informed we we had none of what I was asking for, I asked for butterfly bandaids and/or suture strips. The strips we did have. Cool. Now to clean the wound. Her kit (mine was destroyed by the flood and has not been replaced) didn’t have anything to clean the cut with. I said, “there is vodka in the truck, grab that” and with that, proceeded to clean the wound out followed by apply pressure with gauze. After a few moments it stopped bleeding. I smiled as that was a good thing. Snowman wanted to head back to Victoria and have it examined and get stitches but given my knowledge I said “No, we can deal with this here safely”. Snowman got together everything I needed to dress the wound and I ended up with the blood flowing again, so once again, rise it off with vodka as I prepped it for the suture strips. I applied five across the cut, followed by folded up gauze and then I taped it with medical tape. The final bit was to put my glove to help keep a slight pressure on it.


Time for a drink. As well I now really wanted food. We cleaned up the first aid kit, keeping out items I would need to change the dressing, and I planned on wearing the glove the entire night. And now, the pain started to set in. Ode to being dumb. I freely laughed as I looked down on my one gloved hand thinking if I had been smart thirty minutes ago and wore the glove then, that I would be wearing it now. A little Thank You to the Universe for having a good first aid kit with us as well as both of us having the training to deal with it.

Time for dinner. Snowman headed out to the beach to see the sunset and I started prepping the fire for cooking. She was having hot dogs, I was having Italian sausages. By the time she got back the coals were ready and we had a nice simple dinner.



The evening was a beautiful west coast winter night topped off by a light snowfall starting at around 11:00 P.M. We put the fire out and crawled into the tent for our first night. I was excited for the next day as we had planned to hit the back country and I was going to take Snowman to meet Big Lonely Doug and hike Eden Grove.


The Campsite doesn’t have a formal website but they do have a Facebook Page.