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Twelfth Annual Fall Tour “The Island Odyssey Tour” Salt Spring Island – September 13 – 16, 2007 By Gary Russell Photos by Victor Bourne and Sandy Norman
Wednesday, Sept. 12th most of the tour participants arrived at the Town and Country Inn in Delta. We were scheduled to pull out of there the morning of the 13th. The weather forecast was good for the tour dates and we were full of anticipation. This tour was a different style of tour from our previous tours in that we were going to one place and staying there the whole time rather than tour from place to place. Also, this tour was only organized to the minimum degree in that only the accommodation and most meals were prearranged. The participants were given a tour book which contained only general guidelines, a map, and a few suggestions of things to see. There was no way to actually get lost as the roads on the island are a series of loops interconnected by crossroads so you just keep driving and one way or another you will end up back where you started. Thursday, Sept. 13th – We awoke to a beautiful ground fog. Seems odd but around here in the late summer and fall, fog in the morning means a clear blue sky above and that’s what we wanted. Unfortunately, it also means dripping wet cars, but after the requisite towelling they were all bright and shiny again. All the local members rolled in around 8:00am or so, joining the out of towners staying at the hotel, and we all pulled out at 9:00 for the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen. The trip across the Strait of Georgia was uneventful, and, as a bonus, we got to listen to the ship’s foghorn all the way across to our first stop at Sturdies Bay on Galiano Island. We should mention that the Saltspring Island ferry stops at several islands on the way there.
The fog cleared as we approached the island due to daytime heating beginning to take effect but it was quite interesting to look out the front of the ferry to see clear blue sky and to look out the back at a fogbank. After Sturdies Bay, we continued to Village Bay on Mayne Island. Our next island stop was Otter Bay on Pender Island. Last, but not least, we arrived at Long Harbour on Salt Spring Island. The small map at left gives you an idea of the location of these places. The Gulf Islands, as they are known, are located in a different climatic area. While you would think that the weather would be about the same as Vancouver – it isn’t. The Island gets, on average, about one quarter the rainfall as the Lower Mainland area due to the fact that the clouds are pushed up by Vancouver Island to the west. These ‘dryer clouds’ pass over the Gulf Islands until they hit the Coast Range mountains where they dump the rest of their load on the people of Vancouver and surrounding area.. About a 15 minute drive brought us to the Harbour House Hotel, our tour headquarters. The Harbour House Hotel has an interesting past. It started with a settler purchasing a farm around 1900, which he called Harbour House. While he was serving in WWI his wife and brother-in-law converted the farmhouse into a guesthouse, adding several bedrooms and renaming it The Harbour House Hotel. It became very popular and was further expanded in the 1920’s and in the 1940’s. However, it was all destroyed by fire in the early 1970’s and rebuilt as it is today. We had the afternoon to ourselves to check out local sites, kick tires, or just loaf. There were several local news reporters taking pictures and interviewing members as this was the first time 32 Packards had ever been on Salt Spring and everyone on the island knew it! Actually there were 34 Packard registered but two couples could not make it until Friday afternoon. The dinner bell rang at 6:30. The hotel is well known in this area for excellent food. They still have the vegetable farm behind the hotel and, in season, grow all the vegetables they use. What they don’t grow they buy from local farms. Everything used is organically grown and all seafood is local. Only meats like beef, chicken, etc. are purchased from commercial suppliers. The quality is as good as it gets. Some door prizes where given out and tourmaster Gary gave some tips on touring the island with a warning to watch out for the deer. There are a lot of deer on the island and, as there is no hunting allowed, they have become quite used to people and cars and don’t even bother to get off the road. This is all very nice, but it can be quite dangerous at times. Friday, Sept 14 – After breakfast, most members pulled out and explored the Island. Some drove, or walked into Ganges, the main town, to check out the shopping. The laid on activities were lunch at the Fulford Inn at Fulford Harbour, a visit to a private museum afterwards and a salmon BBQ that evening. This was the day for driving around Salt Spring’s 70 square miles of farmland, sheep ranches, parkland, and forests. While the island is not large it is varied in landscape from small mountains at the 2500 foot level to flat, almost prairie like terrain, so it is very interesting to drive around on. Mt. Maxwell offers a truly spectacular view, however, we did not recommend it for touring purposes as the road is rough gravel with many potholes. Nevertheless, the challenge was taken up by Ernie and Dianne Crutcher and Bill and Bettye Gluth, with Bruce and Betty Harlow in the Crutchers’ back seat. Both were driving their 1928 443s. I suspect those cars were quite at home as the road is about at the 1928 level. The trip was made slowly without incident and all agreed the view was worth it. The Fulford Inn has been in operation since the early 1900’s but the present structure was built in the 1950’s after the previous one burnt down. It is designed as a Tudor-style Inn and is reminiscent of an English pub inside. A hearty soup and sandwich buffet was served and many tried out the local beer. Our cars were parked on a fenced, grassy area next to the Inn and the owner was so enthusiastic about us stopping there that he had a section of the fence taken out and replaced with a gate to make sure we had good access. After lunch, we drove a few minutes up the highway and stopped at the home of Bob Ackerman. Bob, who turned 95 last year, built the house in the late 1930’s by hand using logs from his property. He began collecting artifacts from the island and these, along with his life time of personal treasures are housed in a museum building that he also built. Most of our group were fascinated by the many early photographs. Bob gave an interesting talk and then answered questions. One of the things we learned was that he has some artifacts that the Provincial Museum in Victoria doesn’t have. They have sent researchers over to study his collection many times. Bob wrote a book about his life on Salt Spring and sold a number of copies to our members. Bob’s late wife collected dolls and her collection is in the house. At 1000 dolls, it is one of the largest private collections you will find anywhere. After this, the participants roamed the island at their leisure until about 4:30 when we all pulled in to the home of Bob and Sharon Brewer for one of the most memorable evenings of the tour. We had billed this as a salmon BBQ – and it was. What we didn’t tell the folks is it was an “upper end” BBQ. We had arranged for a group of musicians to provide background music, there was a no host bar set up, white tablecloths, etc. Sharon is a gourmet cook and she, with the help of three friends hosted us to a truly memorable salmon BBQ. The Brewer’s are used to entertaining and their home was designed and built for that purpose with such things as commercial grade appliances that can handle this kind of volume. By now, we were at full strength as the last two participants had arrived mid afternoon so she had to deal with all 70 of us and she did so to perfection. Their property is located on the waterfront and includes a large grassy area perfect for parking Packards. The house is at a higher level so you could stand there and look over the entire “fleet” and see every car. It truly was a memorable site. Sharon also leases out the small cottage (the original house) to tourists. You can check it out at www.clambeachcottage.com After thanking our hosts profusely, we had to depart for the hotel eventually. No one really wanted to leave. Saturday, Sept. 15 - Everyone was on their own all day; however, there were two activities that were recommended besides just driving around. The first was the Saturday Market in Ganges. This Saturday morning tradition began in the 1970’s. There are over 100 vendors of all types of vegetables, baking, jams and jellies, artwork of various kinds, woodwork, etc. The only rule is the vendor has to have made it or grown it themselves. No commercial products are allowed. The variety is astounding and attests to the creativity of the Salt Spring islanders. The next thing on the list was the Fall Fair, which is a two day event and which draws people from all the other Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island and even a few from the Mainland. It is an old style country fair with rides for the kids, baking and cooking contests, sheep dog trials, livestock judging, live bands playing, etc. It was easy to get to as they run shuttle busses all day from downtown Ganges. As this was the day we stayed around town as opposed to driving around the island, all the ladies took maximum advantage of the opportunity to shop. One of the favorites was the ladies wear department at Mouats store. The ladies wear department is actually located in its own two level building, next the main store, which is a three level hardware store. Mouats has been in operation for 100 years and carries virtually everything that anyone will ever need so it was also an interesting place for the guys as well. This evening was our windup banquet. The Harbour House once again did an excellent job. The last of the door prizes were given out with the main prize, a lighted acrylic Packard sign, won by Jim Henry. This is a beautiful sign handcrafted and donated by Blair Robertson of Industrial Plastics. We turned the lights off and then uncovered the sign. There was a noticeable reaction from the crowd and we know that at least 6 members have subsequently bought one of these signs for themselves. That brought the tour to an official end. Jim Linden then announced the tour for 2008 in Silverdale, WA. Sunday morning most were up early to catch an early ferry from Fulford Harbour off the island. Some of us more local folk opted to stay and catch the mid afternoon ferry from Long harbour as we could make reservations on that one. The weather had been perfect all weekend but Sunday morning it rained – and it didn’t matter because we had had such a great time! On behalf of the tour committee, Al and Kay Gejdos and Catherine Russell, thanks for coming and supporting this event. It makes it worth doing. Below are pictures from the tour. Click on a picture to view it full size.
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