by Keith and Heather Nicol
It has been many years since we visited Salt Spring Island so when the weather forecast for early part of October was promising we decided to head down for a couple of nights. We especially wanted to check out Ruckle Prov Park and we were not disappointed..it is an amazing park and must have one of the best tent camping sites in the Gulf Islands. We caught the 1125 am ferry at Crofton (it was about a 2 hour drive from Courtenay) on Thursday Oct 5 and were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the Visitor Centre in Ganges was open and had 2 knowledgeable staff working that day. We wanted to hike and they handed us several specific hiking maps and gave us some good suggestions. Then it was on to Ruckle Campground and we were relieved to see so few people there. We had heard this place is very hard to get water front sites at in the summer since it is so popular. We virtually had our pick of campsites and after setting up the tent we decided to explore some of the coastal trails in the area. The hike to Bear Point is a good warmup hike and leads past pocket beaches and headlands. The trail continues but in October the sun goes down at 7:00 and we lost the sun at our campsite by 5:30 so we opted to head back and cook dinner. That evening we walked to the far end of the campground and found that many of these sites were preferred since almost all of these were taken. And we could see why...they were very picturesque.
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Heather in front of our amazing grassy beach front campsite
Friday, Oct 6 dawned sunny and warm and after breakfast we headed to Burgoyne Bay to do a 1 km coastal hike suggested by the Visitor Centre Staff. It is an elevated walk with a trail that would suit all ages and stages and we saw some families on it when we were there. There are many other trails in this area but we wanted to check out some mountain hikes so headed first to Mt Erskine which one staff person told us is one of the most popular hikes on the island. And we could see why..although the trail climbs over 200 meters, the loop we did was about 3.65 km and it took about 70 minutes of steady walking. The views north to Vesuvius and Crofton (basically looking down on the ferry route) are great and there is a summit bench to have your lunch on. From there we also wanted to hike up 600 meter Mt Maxwell and so we headed off to Armand Way to start that trail. There is quite abit of parking in the cul do sac which makes it somewhat preferable than the Seymour Hts trailhead. Since you climb about 300 meters by car you have to hike about half of its 600 meter elevation. This trail is certainly more challenging than the Erskine hike but is still just about 2.5 km one way. However it climbs over 300 meters and the final 20 minutes are quite steep. There is also a rough road that you can drive to the top if you aren’t up to the hike. The views here are amazing with vistas of Mt Baker in distant Washington State, many islands and views back to Vancouver Island. Allow about 2 hours return for this hike if you walk fairly steadily. By then we were ready to sit in the sun back at the campground and what a difference when we arrived. At least 20 or so new tenters had arrived since it was the start of the long Thanksgiving weekend .
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Keith from Mt Erskine Summit
Saturday Oct 7 again dawned sunny and warm so we packed up and headed into Ganges to check out the Saturday Farmers Market. There are great artisans on Salt Spring and you can pick up some fine pottery, woodwork, clothing and of course some fresh produce. Since the market continues until the end of October you still have time to catch it this Fall. From there we caught the 1050 am sailing back to Crofton and were back in Courtenay by 2:00 pm. We will be back to Salt Spring on another visit since there are lots more hikes we plan to do and next time we might bring our sea kayaks. For more info see: https://www.saltspringtourism.com/
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