Our Drive Back to Port Hardy

December 21, 2020 (Monday) 

On December 21^st, Jason and I made the drive back up island to Port Hardy.  It ended up being the worst day out of the whole year to make that drive.  It was snowing hard through the Malahat pass, and throughout all of the south island up until around Parksville. 

Our little rental car turned out to be terrible in the snow, as it was too low to the ground and would easily bottom out and get pulled around by the ridge of snow that inevitably formed on snowy roads.  At one point we had to stop behind two semi-trucks that had stopped on the highway to put on chains, and we were worried that since we were on a hill we might not be able to get going again.  We did, however, and finally made it to Duncan, where the roads were probably the worst of anywhere. 

 

About an hour after we went over the Malahat, the highway got closed due to a jack-knifed semi-truck, and a bus that went off the road.   We were lucky to have made it through.

In Duncan we needed to get gas, but we also wanted to avoid unnecessary driving, so instead of turning left and going into the Superstore where we would normally have filled up, we decided instead to go to one of the two gas stations that were on the right hand side of the road.  As we got to the first one I made the call to continue onto the second one, one block further along because I could see that half of the pumps were blocked off at the first station, and I figured that it would therefore be busier and therefore there would have been more of chance for us to have to stop in the deep snow.  We pulled into the Shell gas station at the next corner and thought all was good, but when we got out to pump the gas, we found that they had no power.  The attendant told us that it had just gone out.  What terrible timing.  

Since we did not want to have to drive anywhere unnecessarily, I walked back to the first gas station to check that they had power.  I went in to use the washroom and the attendant was making sales at the till, the lights were on, and people were at the pumps.  I assumed that the power was on, and when I got back to the car we headed around the block to the other gas station.  When we tried to pump gas however, the attendant called out that they had no power.  I questioned her since all of the lights were on and their sign was still lit up with the price for gas, but she informed me that only the power to the pumps was out.  In the end we turned left, back out onto the main road, and made our way back to the Superstore gas station where we successfully filled up with gas.  What a fiasco!

Since the roads were in terrible condition we considered staying in Duncan, but after checking all available road webcams and condition reports and forecasts on my phone, we decided to continue on.  Within fifteen minutes the roads were improving.  Soon the biggest danger became flooding on the roads because the snow was preventing water drainage, and the heavy snow had now changed to heavy rain.  We made our way slowly along, sometimes going through puddles about a foot deep.  

By the time that we reached Nanaimo we were back up to close to normal speed and most of the snow on the sides of the road was gone, and then, just past Qualicum Beach, we reached a point where we would never have guessed that there was a snowstorm further south.  

It was a very dramatic difference.  When we reached Courtney we were in the sunshine, and the roads were dry and clear for the rest of our trip.  

We spent the night at the Glen Lyon Hotel in Port Hardy, where they upgraded us to their family room with a king size bed and bunk beds.  It was very comfortable, and the view in the morning was beautiful. 

We enjoyed our included breakfast in our room with our view out over the harbour.  It was a perfect sunny day, and a perfect day for our crew-change flight back to Ocean Falls.