Hornby Island makes a great 1 day get away

 

By Keith and Heather Nicol

We just returned from a great day trip to one of our favourite islands -Hornby Island .  On Wednesday , June 17 we caught the 900 am ferry from Buckley Bay which put us on Denman Island 10 minutes later. We then headed directly across the Island to catch the Hornby Island ferry which left at 9:40. Ten minutes later we were on Hornby Island heading toward one of our favourite hikes on Vancouver Island- the Helliwell Park trail.

                                                                 The Helliell Trail was popular on this day 

This is a must do trail since it is right along the ocean for the most part on a dramatic cliff face that gradually gets lower as you head east. It took us about 80 minutes to do the 4 km hike, with frequent stops for pictures, and by now we were thinking about a spot for lunch.

Heather coming up from the white sand beach of Tribune Bay

        

We had  packed sandwiches so decided to be by the water at Tribune Bay Beach which has one of the nicest beaches on the east side of Vancouver Island. Heather wanted to check out the new Tribune Bay campground so while she did that I headed to the excellent mountain bike trails on Mt Geoffrey. These trails are different than those of Cumberland and I like them since they wind through a more open forest so there are less roots and rocks.  Then it was back to do a short hike along the Middle Bench trail which has the most amazing views of Denman Island and the Beaufort Mountains of Vancouver  Island behind.  We caught the 400 pm ferry off of Hornby which put us back in Courtenay by 5:15 or so. Even though we had been gone only 6 or so hours it seemed much longer since we had seen so many different landscapes. But for us a 1 day get away was just the ticket. Check it out before the summer tourism season begins in earnest. 

        Mountain biking is great on Hornby Island with some trails giving amazing views