Today we had a pleasant walk along a rock-strewn beach, on our way to the outlet of a small river rapidly flowing into the sea. The river was usually well-stocked with salmon this time of year, jumping about. When we arrived, we found someone fishing there: Your basic black bear, watching us after having finished his fresh-catch salmon. We had seen him walk away from the fast-flowing river with a fish in his mouth, into the brush. He has just emerged here, presumably to go for another. He did not seem pleased to see us, we elected to move on and give him lots more space.
Just prior to brer bear, here I am with the good vessel "Molly Brown", washed well up on the shore. It looked to be about 18' or so, a "glassmaster", with a V4 Johnson, never to run again. So much for a pristine beach.... Even more bizarre, just behind the scrub brush in the background is the fence surrounding the local airport! Every few seconds we'd hear a loud and deep "explosion" sound from the airport, which we soon realized was compressed air being released from various locations to create a sort of gunshot sound, just like you hear at "pirates of the Caribbean" at Disney. Yeah, they do this to scare the geese away from the runways, and the sound of these "gunshots" goes on day and night. So with thoughts of Disney's "pirates" and yo-ho-ho, the beach-walk continued.
Welcome to Engine Beach. This is a section of the beach perhaps 300 ft or so long, strewn with engines of all sorts, a few in this view in the foreground, many more in the background! I counted over 20 engines, mostly rusted beyond recognition, most in-line 4's and 6's, but a few V-8's, and even one flathead V8. Why would anyone toss engines onto a beach? Who can top this for a beach-combing discovery? Maybe some guy that found a crashed airplane on Beef Island and came home with an aero engine oil cooler, maybe...... Beach-combing is such great sport on beaches that are truly abandoned or at least lightly and seldom visited. What treasures.... who wants sea shells when you can have a GMC in-line 6, eh?
It was a dark and stormy coast..... just a few feet away from this, we saw 3 seals swimming about, likely enjoying some salmon....
Port Hardy's welcome sign - pretty good chain saw art, love the three bears on top.. Port Hardy is named for Captain Hardy, who was admiral Nelson's flag captain at the battle of Trafalgar, took over the HMS Victory when Nelson was killed, so they say.
A typical rocky hillside a few miles from town, on the road to Port Alice, an old mill town nearby.
Louise at Port Alice welcome sign - not into bears, this town prefers to hype eagles, which are everywhere here, and about as rare as crows - there are eagles all over, we even see them on the ground at low tide, picking over tidbits they find there. Not too majestic, but when ya' gotta eat,....
A few floatplanes at Port Hardy's seaplane terminal - what a place, an airport AND a seaplane terminal, I saw a PBY Catalina fly in to the airport while walking the beach...
One of many totem poles around the town, there are many, many more. Native tribes here are helpful in making these, this for sure is not a lost art... Not seen from the front view is the attachment of the wings on the backside, 2x4's and lag bolts..... Hey, tradition can go just so far, right?
A view from the "airport beach" at low tide, on a gloomy and overcast day...
Another shot of "engine beach", those are cast iron household radiators at my feet, an engine block and transmission just in front of that. This is just too weird.... Needless to say, this is not a sand beach, and this is not a warm beach.
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