Still time to catch Vancouver Island MusicFest

By Keith and Heather Nicol

The Grierson stage was a popular venue on Saturday

    There are still a few tickets remaining for the Vancouver Island MusicFest this year and with the ideal concert going weather at hand you should check it out if you are in the Comox Valley. With blue skies and daytime temperatures in the low 20 C you couldn’t get weather for anoutdoor concert. On Saturday, July 13 we spent a good part of the day at the Grierson Stage since it had some great musicians playing tribute to some important anniversaries.  It began at 10:00 am with “Happy Birthday Pete Seeger – 100 years” and it was one of our favourite sessions of the day. We loved Helen Austin’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”. Next up at 11:45 was Planet Music which featured as the name suggests music from around the world.  Both “Cha Wa” and “Adonis Puentes” had people up dancing in the aisles with their lively rhythms. 

There was dancing in the aisles

Learning to Tango at "The Club"

     We disappeared for a short time during the Planet Music session to check out a new venue and theme for this year at  "The Club”. This venue is adjacent to the main concert area in the curling centre and featured hands on sessions. For instance, we had a quick lesson in how to dance the tango with Keith Beldam and Yumiko (Check the programme for other hands on details).  Then it was back to the Grierson stage where we saw another tribute – this time to Woodstock which is 50 years old this year. When the MC asked if anyone in the audience was actually at Woodstock a few of people raised their hands. Next we caught the one of our favourite Newfoundland musicians – Matthew Byrne on the Woodland Stage and we had seen him in Newfoundland on a few occasions with an amazing group called “The Dardenelles”. Come to think of it they would be a perfect addition to the line up at a future MusicFest.  Then it was back to the Grierson stage to catch the end of the another tribute – this time entitled “Roots of Rock and Roll”.  The fun side to these tributes is that each of the several groups on stage gets to choose how they were influenced by the person or event being recognized. 

Matthew Byrne from Newfoundland at the Woodland Stage

In the evening headed to the main concert bowl where we heard "Cha Wa", "Muscles Shoals AllStars" , and Tom Cochrane.Who knew so many top soul singers where associated with Muscle Shoals and Tom Cochrane put on an energetic standing room only performance. Rain played havoc with the evening shows and it unfortunately shortened the evening for many people.

Tom Cochrane played before a standing room only crowd on Saturday night

And there is still more to seen and heard on Sunday!  The forecast is good (but bring some rain gear just in case) and there are still tickets left so come out.  For more information see: www.islandmusicfest.com. See you there.

    

Vancouver Island MusicFest opens in fine form

By Keith and Heather Nicol

        Friday, July 12 offered a perfect night for enjoying a wide range of music at the Vancouver Island MusicFest. My brother and his wife from Victoria joined us again this year and by the time they arrived and we had a quick bite to eat we were just in time to see Irish Mythen who puts on a great show. We saw her last year and she came back by popular demand. Irish is a powerful singer and it is hard to believe that her single voice filled the main concert bowl. 

Irish Mythen returned by popular demand

   She was followed by a welcoming dance and songs from the local First Nations Kumugwe Dancers and then another band which has been to MusicFest  before took to the stage. Los Texmaniacs and the Lone Star Amigos from Texas had a variety of performers on stage and really enjoyed their up beat show. It had tons  of variety and they had many  people up dancing to their tex-mex beat.  They were followed by blues legend Bobby Rush and then rocker Colin James finished the evening. 

The crowd at the main concert bowl enjoyed perfect weather on Friday night

Saturday, July 13 will offer much more music and we have been studying the programme trying to decide which performers to check out.  This year MusicFest has added a new venue – The Club which looks like it will give participants a chance to learn how to tango or salsa as well as to sing in harmony or write a song.  With 7 venues offering almost simultaneous music or workshops there is certainly no lack of choice.  On Saturday we are looking forward to Tom Cochrane sing in the main concert bowl and we definitely want to hear one of our favourite Newfoundland artists- Matthew Byrne. The weather looks good (sunny with cloudy periods) and there are still tickets left so come out and hear some great music. For more information see: www.islandmusicfest.com. See you there. 

Josh Baca of the Texmaniacs impressed us with his accordion playing

Exploring the Royston to Cumberland Railway Trail

By Keith and Heather Nicol

On Saturday July 6 our son Michael was visiting from Vancouver so we decided to check out an easy mountain bike trail that we had not been on before.  A fellow cyclist who lives in Royston mentioned the Royston to Cumberland Railway trail as one to check out since it also had several side trails that we could  also explore.  This trail is maintained by the Comox Valley Regional District and you can get information about the main trail from : https://www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/parks-recreation/comox-valley-parks-trails/royston-cumberland-railway-trail   

At the trail start off of Baden Road with a CVRD finger board

 We started at the southern end of the gravel trail off of Baden Road access point  At this point there is parking for 8-10 cars and the coordinates are 49 38.170 N and 124 56.793 W. There is an obvious finger board with trail info at the start which tells you that you are in the right place.  Heather decided to walk part of it on foot and Michael and Keith cycled the 4.7 km to the end.  Another access point is at the end of Trent Road. This trail used to be an old railbed for hauling coal and trees to market so it is wide and has a gentle uphill grade. We could see where side trails headed off and we plan to come back and explore these in the future.  We are not sure how much use these trails get but we saw 2 groups of walkers and person on horseback  in the time it took us to ride the 9.4 km round trip. The trail ends at highway 19. This main route is suited to anyone wanting an easy mountain bike route and it is wide enough to even allow side by side cycling. Check it out if you are in the area. 

The gravel trail is wide and suited to a regular mountain bike

 

Nature lovers should check out “A Year on the Wild Side”

By Keith and Heather Nicol

    Broiny Penn has written and illustrated a very readable book on how nature unfolds through the

Nature lovers will love this book

seasons in and around Vancouver Island. The book is broken down by month and each month has anywhere from 5 to 10 entries which detail some aspect of this region’s birds, animals and vegetation that is significant. But Broiny Penn doesn’t write in a clinical “bird book” type prose but rather as an offbeat story telling adventure. Along the way you learn about garter snakes, woodpeckers, sea lions, and arbutus trees. Many of her stories have humorous sensual overtones as the titles of some entries suggest- “Sex, Sweat and Salamanders”, “Pacific wrens and the food of love”  and “Barnacles and the battle of the sexes”.  

      Another strong point of the book is the Briony’s colourful full page illustrations which accompany each 3-4 page section. This is a book that you can pick up at any time and read a section or two. For instance, we liked reading a July entry about the moon snail and their elaborate egg casing.  We happened to read about them just before a recent kayak trip to Tree Island near Courtenay where we saw several fine examples of their egg casings on an exceptionally low tide.  We thought some of the most useful sections dealt with topics like various ferns, winter shorebirds, berries and how to tell one type from another.  There is even a section on the plate tectonics that formed Vancouver Island complete with a sketch of Wrangellia colliding with the North American plate roughly 100,000,000 years ago to form Vancouver Island and the adjacent land. If you want to know about the Vancouver Island’s varied and amazing animal and plant life then this book is for you. We fully recommend it either for yourself or as a gift. “A Year on the Wild Side” is published by Touchwood Editions. For more information see:  https://www.touchwoodeditions.com/.

We saw moon snail egg casings on a recent kayak trip to Tree Island near Comox

Learn about Orca and other whales that populate the Salish Sea

Coastal Walking Trails in the Comox Valley- Williams Beach

by Keith and Heather Nicol

    With our daughter Kristie (who loves beach walking) visiting from Vancouver, we were looking for a beach location that we hadn’t walked before.  So we scoured the map for some places that were close to Courtenay that we hadn’t visited. We used the Back Roads Map Book for Vancouver Island as our guide and settled on checking out Williams Beach which is about 16 km north from our house in Courtenay. The beach access is at the end of Williams Beach Road but for those handy with a GPS the parking lot coordinates are 49 50.136 N and 125 03.602 W and there is parking for about 6-8 cars. The parking lot is adjacent to Alders Beach Resort and the sandy beach that is in front of their location and which stretches south for over a 1km is well worth checking out. 

Kristie checks out some oyster shells

 This location is not as nearly as well known as nearby Miracle Beach so if you don’t like crowds this is your spot. We were there at a tide of between 2 and 2 .5 meters which was perfect for walking on the sandy stretch of beach since the sand is sandwiched between cobbles and gravels at higher tides and lower tides.  Certainly lower tides would be fine for walking on the sand but access to the water would be over cobbles/gravels so check the tides before you head out if you goal is trekking over a broad sandy beach.  For other many other coastal walks in the Comox Valley to try simply put Coastal Walks in the search bar at the left hand top of this blog post . Also if you want a great map source for beaches, trails, back roads etc.  check out the Back Roads publishing (https://www.backroadmapbooks.com/) . Happy exploring. 

There is a huge expanse of sand at Williams Beach (at the right tide)