day 40, Monday, September 23, Quatse River Temperatel Rain Forest Camp, Port Hardy, Vancouver Island North, British Columbia, Canada

the ferry from Prince Rupert arrived here on time at 10:30 pm and we found our way easily and quickly to this absolutely magnificent camp a stone's throw from this wonderful little town called Port Hardy. the only qualification for coming here is that you live up to the name of the town, and i do not mean "port." as easy as it was to find this oasis, the difficulty came as soon as we arrived because it was raining, and i mean raining. even the canopy of gigantic trees surrounding our site did not offer protection. since my goal in situations like this is to keep Leben dry as well as my stuff, i spent the first 15 minutes trying to figure out how i would set up my already-wet tent in the rain and then keep everything dry, except Erde, of course, who seems not be be concerned about getting wet or any other conditions a trip like this brings, and there are many. the biggest problem was how to get the mattresses and other related things into the tent because they were already in use by the dogs since they double as the underlay for the dogs' beds in the Defender. another Rubric's cube problem, but which I solved admirably thanks to my large vocabulary of curse words. i find that cursing helps solve many problems.

within one hour, a record tie, the tent was set up, dried out, and even Erde was dry. i even set up my new VE25 tent without a single glitch, the first time since the trip started. within one hour after arriving, the three of us were sound asleep, lulled into that deep sleep by the pitter patter of the rain on the tent.

i took my time getting things ready this morning because for only the second day on this journey I had nothing on my calendar except find a garage to replace my headlight and check the oil levels. we drove into town and found a garage, but they cannot take me until Wednesday, so we are stranded in this lovely place for three more days. no big deal, as i can perhaps make some progress beyond page 11 of the first of the dozen or so books i lugged along.

the weather here is rather interesting. i can look up through the canopy of trees one minute and see blue sky, but by the time i move my head downward, it is raining. no big deal now that i set up my own tarp canopy, one side of which i string off the Defender. and if i want the weather to change for the better, i wait five minutes and then look up.

tomorrow, i hope to set off for Cape Scott, the northwestern-most point of the island. i was hoping to camp there, but dogs are not allowed there now because of the wolves. then, on Thursday, or maybe Friday, we will set off south on the only highway here for Victoria, where we will catch another ferry to Port Angelis on the Olympic Peninsula. From there to plan is to circumnavigate the peninsula counterclockwise, head towards Portland, and then figure out the warmest route to get back home at some point.

the photo is of our campsite here, surrounded by these wonderful big old trees, reminiscent of the Sequoia forest we camped in September 5, 2001, on the California coast on our back from Prudhoe Bay. how sad that we are stranded here for three more days, i mean, only three more days. Erde is visible in the photo in the foreground. who can see Leben?

speaking of stranded somewhere, at midnight two days ago, as i was parked in line waiting for the ferry to here from Prince Rupert, the Defender did not start right away. concerned that it would not start when it was time to board the once-a-week ferry hours later, i reviewed my contingency plan. that plan included buying a new Jeep and shipping the Defender back home, where it would retired. fortunately, the Defender came through, and there will be no auction block for it, not now anyway.

i lost count of the miles so far for part 2 of this journey. probably close to 9,200, including the 1000-mile ferry trips. Fortunately, we only have about 3,500 more to go.