digby 1.0

February was an incredible month here.  We saw more sun than rain, had dry feet more than wet, and as a result, spent as much time outside as possible.  I'm not sure if this is normal North Coast winter weather and everyone just lies about it to try and keep people away, or if it's been out of the ordinary, but whatever it was...it was grand.

One of our weekend adventures was a day trip over to Digby Island.  I call this trip 'digby 1.0', as I am sure we'll visit many more times while living up here.  It's charming.  Digby is the island across the harbour from Prince Rupert.  It has a few things going on- including the airport and the small communities of Crippen Cove and Dodge Cove.

Scenes from the ferry

There are a few ways to make your way over to the island, but for this trip, we took the free airport ferry.  Free!  Nothing is free anymore.  We were stoked.  The ferry workers were also pretty keen on Mase, who loved the attention.

After 15 minutes we were on the other side and directly off the ferry is the beginning of the trail.  It starts off as a pretty walk though the woods and leads you towards Crippen Cove.  We bypassed Crippen on the way there and continued on towards Dodge Cove.

 The trail then leads you towards the hydro rightaway and you follow this to continue through some muskeg.  We hadn't even though of it, but we were so lucky to go during a cold snap and the ground was frozen.  Had we gone during a wetter or warmer time, I am sure this section is utterly mucky.

Dodge Cove was the end of the line for us this day.  It's a small community that has a very Gulf Island-esque vibe. There are no paved roads, and people appear to use golf carts as the preferred mode of transport.  Unfortunately, after a quick picnic, we needed to head back as we wanted to make sure to catch the airport ferry home.

Looking across towards Rupert 

Dodge Cove

After our first trip, we learned that there is a water taxi that does the run from Rupert right to Dodge Cove.  We will most definitely use it to return some time soon- there are several trails that leave from Dodge Cove that we hope to explore and apparently the CBC tower hill blooms with yellow daffodils in April.

On our hike back, we popped into Crippen Cove.  Even smaller than Dodge Cove, it's a little settlement of  ramshackle homes.  To be honest, it was a bit eerie.  Some of the buildings are in great disrepair and falling apart.  We didn't want to tresspass on anyone's property, so we sort of skirted around the outside.  After deciding that it didn't appear that anyone was there, we noticed a single bulb turn on in a house.  Ty and I looked at each other and busted a move out of there.  It all felt a bit too Blair Witch-y to me.

All in all, a great little day.

Apologies for the overload in photos, it was too pretty not to be super snap-happy.  And...to end it off: my two loves waiting on the beach for the ferry home.  I couldn't resist one more...