Naikoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii

In September of this year, we embarked on our first big camping trip in our recently-acquired 1999 VW Eurovan, driving from our home base on Gabriola Island to Prince Rupert, driving north through the Cariboo region and camping at Lac La Hache and Telkwa (Tyhee Lake) along the way.  Somewhat ominously, we had trouble getting the van started the morning after our stay at Tyhee Lake...

After spending a night in Prince Rupert, we checked in at 8:00am for the ferry crossing to Skidegate on Haida Gwaii.  After a bumpy and rainy seven-hour crossing of Hecate Straight, we disembarked and immediately headed north to Masset, wanting to secure a spot at the Agate Beach campground.  We need not have hurried, as the campground was nearly empty when we arrived, but as luck would have it, the rain was just beginning to let up, and the sky was starting to clear, revealing a beautiful rainbow over the iconic Tow Hill, so we grabbed our cameras and headed down to the beach.

Clearing Skies Over Agate Beach, Haida Gwaii

Rainbow Over Tow Hill, Haida Gwaii

Rainbow Over Agate Beach, Haida Gwaii

Agate Beach and Tow Hill, Haida Gwaii

Tow Hill (Taaw), Haida Gwaii

Tow Hill (Taaw), Haida Gwaii

Later in the afternoon the couple camping in the site next to us, Tim and Kesia, took to the waves in their inflatable SUP boards and their dog Louka, which presented a great subject to photograph in the golden light of the setting sun.

Paddling at Sunset, North Beach, Haida Gwaii

Paddling at Sunset, North Beach, Haida Gwaii

The section of North Beach adjacent to the Agate Beach campground is named for the agates that can be found among the polished cobble that forms the upper part of the beach.  One can literally spend hours beachcombing here, looking for unique polished stones and pieces of driftwood.

Cobble and Driftwood Along Agate Beach, Haida Gwaii

After a great evening of exploring this beautiful beach, we went to sleep listening to the sound of the waves crashing along the shore just beyond the thin strip of grass-covered dunes separating our campsite from the beach.  

Eurovan, Camping at Agate Beach, Haida Gwaii

Unfortunately, the following day turned out to be a lot less enjoyable, as the van refused to start again, as it had a few days earlier.  This time, we couldn't get it to start at all, and fortunately Tim and Kesia were just packing up their campsite and offered to give me a lift back to Masset.  While I was in town trying in vain to find a tow truck, Dallas managed to get the van to start, but couldn't let me know because the cellular phone service at the campground was as bad as at home on Gabriola, so when I showed up at the campsite a few hours later with a rental car, the van seemed to have cured itself... 

We drove back to Masset to return the rental car, thinking we would spend another night at the campsite and hope the van started again the next morning, but after talking to a couple of mechanics in town, they convinced us to head back to the mainland while the van was working, rather than risking being stranded on the island for a week or two if the problem turned out to be a bad starter.  We headed down to Skidegate and changed our ferry reservation to return to Prince Rupert that night on the overnight sailing, and then on to Port Hardy via the Inside Passage the following day.

Of course, the van faithfully started every time afterwards, and once we got back to Prince Rupert and access to the internet, we determined the most likely cause of the problem was a defective starter switch, a $30 part that seems to be a common source of trouble in many these 20 year old Volkswagens.  Hindsight being what it is, we could have stayed for a few more days in Haida Gwaii knowing it was a fairly simple fix, but by then we were committed to the return trip home.