Last year, a friend group of mine all went camping at Shingle Bay on Pender Island together, taking over the bulk of the small and bare bones campground, on the weekend of their Fall Fair. We had a great time and the fair itself, while quaint by city standards, was a wholesome experience seeing everyone from all over the island and neighbouring islands there to celebrate. We did the same trip again this year, and hopefully we’ll do it again next year too.
All photos will be from my Lumix ZS300 in this post. I took a total of 223 photos, but many had soft focus – something I need to sort out with my settings, I guess.
I rode to the ferry, a 51km route I’ve done a bunch of times now. Not very exciting, no photos from that. Once aboard the ferry, before it left dock I saw some surf scoters – a bird I was familiar with but hadn’t seen before.
The southern gulf islands often require a multi-stop ferry ride; in this case it was a stop at Saltspring Island before continuing on to Pender. I was on the Salish Raven, which looked just like the boat ahead of us here (Salish Eagle).
Below is an example of one of the soft-focus photos, but it demonstrates the setup for this trip: my new Stooge Rambler (just over 300km on it at the start of the trip, almost 500km by the end) set up with the same part of Fab’s Chests I’ve used for a few years now on the Bombadil but with the added capacity of the Randi Jo Big MUT’s on the fork. This is just the right volume for my current kit for a two-night trip. I had installed fenders immediately before this trip based on the forecast, but we only received light sprinkles while I was in my tent – optimal!
Shingle Bay is a small orchard, and in late August you can count on deer visiting every evening for the day’s fallen apples.
I arrived to camp along with Charmaine and Trevor, and Stephanie and her two kids were there upon our arrival. The rest of the group arriving by bike were on later ferries, but even I only got an about an hour before the sun started to set, thankfully providing a good sky in the process:
The posts sticking out of the water in the second image above are relics from a fish processing setup that once existed here; now there are bird boxes mounted to these posts that support a rebounding purple martin population. We enjoyed watching them (and their phaser-like calls) at various points on the weekend. Below, Charmaine and Stephanie hang out on the concrete portion of the old fishery:
The next morning I was out of the tent by 7am, enjoying a slow coffee and breakfast and some time around camp before we headed out to the Fall Fair. When I arrived, around 10:45, there was a speech by the minister of agriculture in progress about women in agriculture; the theme of this year’s event:
There. were performances by a few local groups, including this talented bunch of young violinists:
There was also a little petting zoo area with sheep and horses both big and small. Last year there were chicks you could cuddle, but I didn’t see any this year.
Inside the hall there was a variety of flowers and veggies that were entered into the annual competition, as well as baked goods. By this time, the judging was complete and we could survey the winners.
Once I had felt like I’d seen everything, and had a burger which supported the event, I headed off to explore – going to a part of the island I hadn’t biked before. I took no photos along the way because I was too busy struggling up intense climbs, but once in the forest on a somewhat rideable hiking trail I snapped the image below:
I followed this trail for about a kilometre before it plopped me out near Magic Lake, which I then visited from all possible angles. I made my way from there to Twin Island cidery to connect with the rest of the group, eventually working our way back to camp. Hours later and lots of fun time, I snapped this photo of the day’s setting sun over the bay:
Using only the photos from my dedicated camera means some lapses in photographic evidence that could be filled in with my phone photos, but I’m trying to be intentional about this. Saturday evening was top notch socializing on the beach until the sun had well set; many laughs and bonding time.
We were all catching the same ferry on Sunday at 3:05pm, but I was packed up before 10am just because I like to get it over with. Note the quantity of apples on the tree by my tent pad!
I snuck off to get some peace and quiet (loved spending time with three kids, but it’s also pretty tiring) and observed this red-breasted nuthatch for a bit. They are constantly flitting about, making getting a photo quite difficult.
Speaking of birds, the belted Kingfisher is one of my favourites and a bird that commonly cruised the shoreline by camp. I was able to get a decent photo as well:
I could go through the trouble of cropping and editing these photos to be sharper and more vibrant, but I haven’t – these are all straight out of the camera. It’s a future goal, perhaps, to go through that trouble.
We did, however, go through the trouble of collecting everyone up for a group photo at this concrete block, same as last year:
We had a couple hours to burn before it was time to be at the ferry terminal, so we rode over to Hope Bay where there was a literal cheesecake fridge, as well as a couple shops and a pier to wander:
Back to birds for a moment, I saw short-billed gulls on the pier as we left Pender – new one for me, though gulls are not very exciting.
Back on the mainland, everyone else in the group either had their car parked in Tsawwassen or were transiting towards home. Me, the stubborn fella I am, rode the whole way. I rode across town to Boundary Bay, where the tide was in – something I don’t think I’ve seen before. Usually it’s just mud as far as the eye can see.
The barn swallows were super active the whole way along, regularly playing chicken with me or darting right in front of my wheel.
The stretch of gravel dyke was lovely, but it was dimishing returns after that: a northbound stretch of farmland, then a river-side industrial section, then a huge bridge (the Alex Fraser), and as it got dark I reached New Westminster, where 15 km of parkway under the skytrain brought me the rest of the way home. With the various stops it took me 3h40m.
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