Duncan & Nanaimo

June 5 & June 13 -14, 2022.

Today we are rolling the clock back to June to tell you more about our trip around Vancouver Island. In previous posts, I wrote about visiting British Columbia’s amazing capital city, Victoria, and the handful of provincial parks that we visited on the island. Today I’m going to take you to a couple of island towns, Duncan and Nanaimo, for a few city hikes and an urban kayaking trip!

Duncan

I think Duncan got on my radar when we were crossing on the ferry from Washington State to Vancouver Island. While on the boat I flipped through a travel magazine that mentioned that Duncan has one of the largest collections of outdoor totem poles in the world. I so love public art! And we love learning about the people who traveled the Americas long before Europeans came along. But honestly, although I was totally aware that Native Americans/First Nations people were carvers of totem poles, I found myself realizing that I had never seen one. Perhaps this is because they are mainly found in northwestern North America which I’ve never been to until this year.

Duncan is a small town with a population of just over 5000. The day we visited it was very quiet. Maybe it was a Sunday. There weren’t many people out and about. I found this handy map of the poles online. But we just ended up following the footsteps on the sidewalk that led us through town and past most of the 44 totems.

Footsteps painted on the sidewalk helped guide us on our tour of the poles.

Sea and Sky carved by Harold Alfred.

Dzunuk’wa (Wild Woman) carved by Hokwawadi (Oscar Matilpi).

Thunderbird with Dzunuk’wa carved by Moopin’kim (Ned Matilpi).

Cedar Man Walking out of the Log by Gwe-la-y-gwe-la-gya-les (Richard Hunt).

Left to right – Transformation in Life by Chief Swaletthul’t’hw (Harvey Alphose) and Nelson Canute, The Friendship Pole by Cicero August, Owl Pole by Khut-Whee-Mul-Uhk (Francis Horne Sr.), & Kwagu’ł Bear holding a Seal by Gwe-la-y-gwe-la-gya-les (Richard Hunt).

Owl Spirit by KETÍWTEL (Tom LaFortune).

Nanaimo

Nanaimo is a beautiful city (a bit larger than Duncan at almost 100,000 people) full of culture, art, and history. But that’s not why we originally ended up there. I was looking at a map as I often do and noticed that there was a small island seriously close to the coast of Nanaimo. Immediately I started searching online about whether it was possible to kayak to this island. I learned the island’s name, Saysutshun (Newcastle Island) Marine Provincial Park, and that, yes, it was possible to visit by kayak. I found a blog post that gave a good rundown of everything we needed to know to get there including suggesting different launch locations, each with pluses and minuses as far as parking and length of travel from parking to the water.

So on our first day in Nanaimo, loosely using the blog post as a guide, we scouted out locations to put in our kayak, Pirogue Bleue. We parked at Maffeo Sutton Park where they have a Nanaimo sign with giant letters not unlike what we have seen in many Mexican Cities. After getting our picture made with the sign we strolled along the waterfront looking for good launch locations with convenient parking. Along the harbor front walkway, we found art and wildlife. We looked across a low tide marsh and could see our destination, Saysutshun Park but didn’t see any way to launch the kayak without toting it a long way from the parking lot. We saw street parking but nowhere to launch. Finally, we found the Waterfront Suites & Marina about a mile from where we started. There was a spot nearby to put the kayak in and although the parking wasn’t free, it wasn’t too expensive and we could be parked there all day. Success! We had a plan!

We then turned around and headed back towards the city center to see what else Nanaimo had to offer. We found a walking tour posted on a small billboard and tried to follow it. We encountered more art, great views, and a lovely business distric.

The Nanaimo sign in Maffeo Sutton Park.

Art along the Harbourfront Walkway.

Dug out Squamish canoe.

A raven pestering a Bald Eagle.

Black Frank. In 1967 he helped launch the Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Race. Apparently, he was quite a character.

The Bastion, an 1853 wooden fort with historic artifacts displayed inside (it wasn’t open when we were there). There is also a daily cannon-firing ceremony. We missed this too.

Port Of Nanaimo. You can see Saysutshun (Newcastle Island) Marine Provincial Park and Protection Island in the distance.

Walking through the streets of Nanaimo.

Colorful shops.

Urban Art Gallery.

A whole block of buildings was covered in murals.

Urban Art Gallery.

Urban Art Gallery.

Tina says, Please Respect the Murals.

This mural was in a different part of town from the Urban Art Gallery. It commemorates the creation of an artificial reef by the purposeful sinking of the HMCS Saskatchewan, a 366-foot, 2800-ton Destroyer Escort.

Saysutshun (Newcastle Island) Marine Provincial Park

The next day we headed out for our kayak adventure to the marine park. If one doesn’t have their own boat, there is a ferry that runs every half hour from Maffeo Sutton Park to Saysutshun. On the island, one can enjoy camping, hiking, biking, fishing, swimming, tide pooling, bird watching, and interpretive programs. It’s a whole day’s adventure so we packed up Pirogue Bleue accordingly. Plus after our day of boating and wandering around we planned to stop at the Dinghy Dock Pub on the way back to the mainland.

If you ever go to Nanaimo, I guarantee you someone will ask you if you visited the Dinghy Dock Pub. Like Saysutshun, the only way to get there is by boat. And as the name suggests it is literally floating on a dinghy dock.

Ochre Sea Star on shore as we launched Pirogue Bleue.

Leaving the harbor, Saysutshun was directly ahead of us.

Working hard, a crew team in the channel.

We cruised up the channel on the west side of the island first.

We saw a few Common Racoons on shore.

A Bald Eagle flies overhead.

We saw a lot of these colorful Ochre Sea Stars.

Pigeon Guillemot.

Great Blue Heron. We rounded the south side of the island and saw more birds.

Ashore kids are tide-pooling.

This gull had pretty good luck with its tide pooling.

Baby Canada Geese!

Pirogue Bleue at the dock on Saysutshun Island.

A view from the dock at the island with the city of Nanaimo in the distance.

Welcoming Pole on the island.

View from the island.

Eccentric Sand Dollars in the shallows.

Seaweed in the shallows.

Hiking around the island.

Lake in the middle of the island.

View into the Strait of Georgia.

Pulp stones used in the pulp and paper industry were quarried on the island in the 1920s and early 1930s.

After our day at the park, we paddled to the Dinghy Dock Pub on a different island, Protection Island, just south of Saysutshun. Protection Island is mostly residential. The Pub is floating. A dock attaches the pub to the island.

If you don’t have your own boat a ferry leaves once an hour to the pub.

Dinner overlooking the water with Nanaimo in the distance.