Big Lonely Doug and his ugly sister

Victoria, British Columbia (Vancouver Island) 

• We back tracked a little today and returned down the southwest coast toward Port Renfrew; we rearranged our schedule a tad, so that we could stay overnight at a goat farm and milk goats next week 

• We drove two hours to see Big Lonely Doug - a Douglas fir tree in the Gordon River Valley, the second largest of its kind in Canada; it was saved amongst the many other trees in the forest that were being logged for timber and has since become a national symbol for conservation… the drive in on the logging road was slow and bumpy as we drove in four-wheel over potholes and steep gravel grades; we caught up to a group of four ahead of us also searching for the iconic tree… we all admired it, took pictures and headed back to our cars … fast forward 8 hours and we realized it actually wasn’t Big Lonely Doug, but his “ugly sister”

• Still in awe of what we thought we saw, we headed to Avatar Grove; it was technically closed for maintenance, but several other cars lined the shoulder of the road, so we got out and hiked the lower and upper trails; the upper trail took us the Canada’s gnarliest tree 

• Google maps was playing tricks on us (or Liz just mapped out the day too aggressively), but we were supposed to drive an additional two hours to Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and the Cheewat Giant (Canada’s tallest tree)… we regrettably skipped and headed back to Malahat for Matt’s HOA meeting, dinner and a campfire 

• As we were cleaning up after dinner, Matt was in the midst of washing dishes when the sink stopped draining… we dumped just the day before, but apparently the uneven ground prevented us from draining all of the tanks; we put our Rhino portable dump tank to use for the first (and hopefully last) time 

• Campground: Malahat Mountain Meadows RV Park