Summer 2026 has been a bit of a strange one for our family. At the beginning of July, not even a full week into summer holidays, Pearl fractured her ankle and has spent the summer in a cast. This meant a lot of our usual summer plans – hiking, camping, days at the beach – had to look a little different. We really did make the most of the situation and Pearl has been an absolute champ at adapting and still being up for some adventures. But her summer was drastically altered in a way that there’s really no sugar-coating.
Even before that happened, we knew the summer would be a little different. In June, we took a look at a house in our neighbourhood, liked it, and made an offer. When it was accepted, one of the conditions was that we had to sell our current house first so we spent a couple of weeks frantically getting things in order and then listed it before the school year finished. Spoiler alert: Our house did not sell this summer and we took it off the market at the end of August. There are lots of reasons that this was the way it turned out and there is certainly a sense of disappointment. But we have also been down a lot of different avenues this summer in trying to keep that original deal alive and now, at the close of it all, staying longer in this house, we feel content. When we listed the house, we prayed that our choices would be made clear and that doors would close if they were not meant for us and I feel like that’s what happened to us this summer.
Mid-way through August, Pearl started being able to walk a little without her aircast and we made the final decision to take our house off the market at the end of the month. I worked the annual Writers Festival here in our town – an event I always look forward to – and then booked some time off to take advantage of those last few weeks of summer. We opted to spend our time on the northern end of Vancouver Island, a region none of us had explored much.
Getting to Vancouver Island from our town can be done in a couple of ways but both require taking 2 ferries. We headed over via a first ferry to Powell River and then a second ferry to Comox. We left early in the morning (after making sure our house was ready for any potential showings while we were gone) and made it to the island in the early afternoon. We stopped in Cumberland to visit some extended family and then camped that night at Kin Beach in Comox.
The campsite was simple and open and very family-friendly. The girls particularly enjoyed the playground which featured the type of structures that were last seen on 1990s playgrounds.
The next day, after packing up, we headed west toward Port Hardy. We drove through Campbell River and Port McNeill on our way, stopping for snacks and lunch and to stretch our legs and see a few sites in these towns we had never visited before.
These are old logging and fishing towns, working places that haven’t quite yet expanded into tourist destinations. We saw a lot of similarities to our own town and a fair few differences. We had good weather and enjoyed exploring the area. We stayed 2 nights in Port Hardy at a little log cabin on a campground near the estuary.
We left Port Hardy and headed out toward Cape Scott Provincial Park. Our destination was to camp on a beach called San Josef Bay. From Port Hardy, it was about a 2 hour drive on an active logging road. The road was pretty well-maintained from Port Hardy to Holberg, a logging camp/town where we stopped at an old school pub and paid too much for a 6-pack of Lucky Lager. After Holberg, the way got a little rougher but our car did just fine and we made it to the trail head.
The trail from the parking lot to San Josef Bay is wide and easy and took us about an hour. (Peter and I alone definitely could have done it faster but we took it at Pearl-pace, who wore her cast in order to keep her ankle stable on the path.
Again, total champ.
We made it to San Josef about mid-day and the sun was blazing hot so we stopped for cold drinks on the beach. The beach there stretches way out, with an estuary on one side, enclosed by rock formations on the other. Sandy beaches are a rarity where we come from but here on the western side of Vancouver Island, you are much more exposed to the sea. San Josef Bay, being a bay, is slightly more protected than a place like Tofino, but you are still dealing with strong riptides and undertows. Our girls are used to ocean-swimming but that was new to them and I made them stand in the shallows so they could feel the way the ocean pulled the ground away under their feet. It was so beautiful and so sunny that it didn’t take long for us to be in the water, clothes still on, jumping over waves.
We explored the beach, walking past rock stacks, peeking in tide pools, and poking through sea caves. At low tide, you can walk through the stacks and make it to second beach but we never were able to time that one quite right.
We had a beautiful first day and cozy night in our tent. The Bay is a popular place to visit and so while it definitely felt away from it all there were also always people not far away. I didn’t mind this as there are wild animals in the area, particularly bears and wolves. We kept our food in the provided boxes and never saw sign of anything bigger than an eagle.
The next day the weather began to turn, something we knew was going to happen. I feel like looking at our pictures from those 3 days, you can see the weather shifting as we start out in shorts and swimmers, move into pants, then sweaters, then rain gear. The girls still wanted to swim and had a fun time but were cold afterward. They hung out in a big hole that they dug in the sand in order to get out of the wind.
By evening it was definitely raining and we were feeling that cold and wind. This wasn’t our first camping trip in the rain though so we continued to make the best of it. In the evening, we made a fire on the beach and huddled together before retreating to our tent for story time.
It rained through the night and was still raining quite heavily in the morning as we packed up. This was probably the least pleasant part of the trip, as all of our gear was soaked and sandy. It was impossible to keep sand off of things and we quickly gave up trying. We hiked out in the rain and the simple trail we’d come out on had turned into a muddy one full of puddles. Overall though, I think we did really well. As a parent, I’ve found that we set the tone in moments like this and if we complain, it quickly becomes a free-for-all. So Peter and I worked to keep spirits high and I told the girls that if they wanted to complain, they could do so through song.
Once we made it back to the car, we were glad to get back on the road and head across the island. It was raining all the way so we didn’t make many stops, opting instead to drive straight on through to the hotel we had booked in Comox. It was lovely to know we had a dry room and a bed to spend the night. We ordered pizza, watched Jeopardy, and left our wet stuff in the car to be unpacked one we got home.
All in all, it felt like a good mixture of adventure and rest and was a lot of fun to explore some new areas of our province.
Karissa Reads Books 